Is fair and sustainable development possible?
Is fair and sustainable development possible?
By Ana Rebeca Gonzalez
The concept of development, in the context of economic growth, seems to conflict with concerns over resource sustainability and social equity. Humans modify their environment to fit their lifestyle rather than developing a lifestyle that will fit their environment. This appears to be part of human nature. Instead of migrating or hibernating, we have evolved to build our habitat in order to protect ourselves from the elements and achieve ultimate comfort.
Technology has been essential for customizing the environment to fit human needs. Natural resources and human labour have been exploited in order to fuel technological advances, progress and economic growth, which has ultimately resulted in the current ecological crisis and social inequality. The general population is often misinformed about the effects of environmental destruction on poverty, health, and the economy. It will be argued that fair and sustainable development will only be possible when people worldwide become aware of the importance of properly maintaining the environment to assure human survival.
Mahatma Ghandi described humanity’s attitude towards natural resources in his famous quote ‘There is enough water for human need, but not for human greed’. In addition to greed, humans tend to have the naive perception that earth has unlimited resources. Consider the Sumerian civilization which lasted about three thousand years until over-irrigation and consequent salinization of the land, and crop failure brought it to an end. It is unlikely that a person would purposely seek its own destruction, since survival is every organism’s goal, according to Darwin’s theory of evolution. One doubts then that the Sumerians had any knowledge of the long-term consequences of their actions on the environment, and only took into consideration the short term gains. The same could be thought about modern society. Consequently, one of the most important steps towards sustainability is for people to gain consciousness of all the problems that can arise from the depletion of natural resources.
One may argue that people are still going to remain sceptical about the gravity of environmental issues even after obtaining the information. Thus governments and political groups should implement policies that promote and also reinforce environmental conservation to assure sustainability and influence eco-friendly behaviour. For example in 1987 the NGO ‘Conservation International’ paid part of the Bolivian debt in exchange for the establishment of a Biosphere reserve. In a Canadian context, consider the five-cent-a-bag policy recently enforced in Toronto. Also, Al Gore’s movie An inconvenient truth is a good example of how environmental issues can reach a wide audience through mainstream media.
The Brundtland report defines sustainable development as ‘development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own’ . It is evolutionary disadvantageous for humans to continue destroying the environment since natural resources are essential to the survival and long term well-being of the species. Development is nonetheless necessary as one cannot foresee a modern society without electricity, buildings, or factories however polluting they might be. It is therefore unrealistic to utterly reject technology and go back to how we lived five hundred years ago. Still, looking at the way humans in the past dealt with ongoing problems has been found valuable for sustainable development since they used low-tech, and eco-friendly solutions.
Moreover, modern society has to turn away from technocratic values in order to achieve a sustainable and fair development. Wendell Berry points out that ‘The worst disease of the world now is probably the idea of technological heroism…people willingly cause large scale effects that they do not foresee and that they cannot control’ . In other words, technology cannot solve all the world’s problems and might even create more than what it solves. Considering low-tech solutions before high tech solutions can reduce environmental destruction and social inequality.
Robert Chambers claims a word’s meaning has a great impact on our way of thinking and acting about it. Distinguishing the ‘developed world’ from the ‘developing world’ implies that developing countries will become ‘developed’ once they fit the socio-economical structure of developed countries. However, the environmental crisis we face today is a by-product of development initiatives undertaken by now developed countries during the industrial era. Perhaps, the developing world should look at new models of development that do not compromise the environment or quality of life in these countries. For example, ecotourism, the use of renewable sources such as sunlight and wind (often widely available in developing countries), or ‘debt-for-nature swaps’ would generate profit while taking nature and people into consideration.
To conclude, sustainability and social equity will become a reality once ‘sustainable and fair development’ is no longer considered as an alternative to a more profitable development but as the only approach to development. A good first step towards sustainable and fair development would be for people to internalize that one must not ‘kill the goose that laid the golden eggs’.
Ana Rebeca Gonzalez is member of Salvadoreños en el Mundo
By Ana Rebeca Gonzalez
The concept of development, in the context of economic growth, seems to conflict with concerns over resource sustainability and social equity. Humans modify their environment to fit their lifestyle rather than developing a lifestyle that will fit their environment. This appears to be part of human nature. Instead of migrating or hibernating, we have evolved to build our habitat in order to protect ourselves from the elements and achieve ultimate comfort.
Technology has been essential for customizing the environment to fit human needs. Natural resources and human labour have been exploited in order to fuel technological advances, progress and economic growth, which has ultimately resulted in the current ecological crisis and social inequality. The general population is often misinformed about the effects of environmental destruction on poverty, health, and the economy. It will be argued that fair and sustainable development will only be possible when people worldwide become aware of the importance of properly maintaining the environment to assure human survival.
Mahatma Ghandi described humanity’s attitude towards natural resources in his famous quote ‘There is enough water for human need, but not for human greed’. In addition to greed, humans tend to have the naive perception that earth has unlimited resources. Consider the Sumerian civilization which lasted about three thousand years until over-irrigation and consequent salinization of the land, and crop failure brought it to an end. It is unlikely that a person would purposely seek its own destruction, since survival is every organism’s goal, according to Darwin’s theory of evolution. One doubts then that the Sumerians had any knowledge of the long-term consequences of their actions on the environment, and only took into consideration the short term gains. The same could be thought about modern society. Consequently, one of the most important steps towards sustainability is for people to gain consciousness of all the problems that can arise from the depletion of natural resources.
One may argue that people are still going to remain sceptical about the gravity of environmental issues even after obtaining the information. Thus governments and political groups should implement policies that promote and also reinforce environmental conservation to assure sustainability and influence eco-friendly behaviour. For example in 1987 the NGO ‘Conservation International’ paid part of the Bolivian debt in exchange for the establishment of a Biosphere reserve. In a Canadian context, consider the five-cent-a-bag policy recently enforced in Toronto. Also, Al Gore’s movie An inconvenient truth is a good example of how environmental issues can reach a wide audience through mainstream media.
The Brundtland report defines sustainable development as ‘development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own’ . It is evolutionary disadvantageous for humans to continue destroying the environment since natural resources are essential to the survival and long term well-being of the species. Development is nonetheless necessary as one cannot foresee a modern society without electricity, buildings, or factories however polluting they might be. It is therefore unrealistic to utterly reject technology and go back to how we lived five hundred years ago. Still, looking at the way humans in the past dealt with ongoing problems has been found valuable for sustainable development since they used low-tech, and eco-friendly solutions.
Moreover, modern society has to turn away from technocratic values in order to achieve a sustainable and fair development. Wendell Berry points out that ‘The worst disease of the world now is probably the idea of technological heroism…people willingly cause large scale effects that they do not foresee and that they cannot control’ . In other words, technology cannot solve all the world’s problems and might even create more than what it solves. Considering low-tech solutions before high tech solutions can reduce environmental destruction and social inequality.
Robert Chambers claims a word’s meaning has a great impact on our way of thinking and acting about it. Distinguishing the ‘developed world’ from the ‘developing world’ implies that developing countries will become ‘developed’ once they fit the socio-economical structure of developed countries. However, the environmental crisis we face today is a by-product of development initiatives undertaken by now developed countries during the industrial era. Perhaps, the developing world should look at new models of development that do not compromise the environment or quality of life in these countries. For example, ecotourism, the use of renewable sources such as sunlight and wind (often widely available in developing countries), or ‘debt-for-nature swaps’ would generate profit while taking nature and people into consideration.
To conclude, sustainability and social equity will become a reality once ‘sustainable and fair development’ is no longer considered as an alternative to a more profitable development but as the only approach to development. A good first step towards sustainable and fair development would be for people to internalize that one must not ‘kill the goose that laid the golden eggs’.
Ana Rebeca Gonzalez is member of Salvadoreños en el Mundo
Yo creo que ya nos terminamos de comer todo los huevos!!
ReplyDeleteA good article that call us to review our aproach to a real and reponsible development.
ReplyDeleteMiss Gonzalez make a real point at the bootm of if, when aserted by writing: "To conclude, sustainability and social equity will become a reality once ‘sustainable and fair development’ is no longer considered as an alternative to a more profitable development"
To sell this idea in not easy to overcome in THE REAL WORLD OF GREEDY !
Jose Matatias Delgado Y Del Hambre.
Miss Gonzalez birngs to the front line of our discussion about environmental issues how we humans can be careless about foreseeing the impacts of our actions the future of natural resources. Vandana Shiva (one of my most steamed conservationists and writers) cautions us about "Biopiracy: The Plunder of Nature and Knowledge" and the risks we pose to the millions of rural pople when we allow the multinational take over our biodiversity.
ReplyDeleteIn the end the conservation of the environment is linked to poltics, economic imperialism, sexism and scientific elitism. Part of the solution is inclusion and empowerment of the poor. El Salvador MUST taks serious actions to reduce the destruction of our environment to reduce the efects of natural disasters and hunger.
Thnak you Miss Gonzalez for your insightful article.
Escriba mas!
Crr