Sustainability: Concepts, questions, challenges

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Felix Parrish
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2 Sustainability: Concepts, questions, challenges

3 What do we mean by the term sustainability?

5 It s Déjà vu all over again

6 Development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. It contains within it two key concepts: the concept of "needs", in particular the essential needs of the world's poor, to which overriding priority should be given; and the idea of limitations imposed by the state of technology and social organization on the environment's ability to meet present and the future needs. (Brundtland Commission, 1987).

Report of the World Summit on Sustainable Development Johannesburg, South Africa, 26 August-4 September 2002 These efforts will also promote the integration of the three components of sustainable

7 Report of the World Summit on Sustainable Development Johannesburg, South Africa, 26 August-4 September 2002 These efforts will also promote the integration of the three components of sustainable development--economic development, social development and environmental Protection--as interdependent and mutually reinforcing pillars. Poverty eradication, changing unsustainable patterns of production and consumption and protecting and managing the natural resource base of economic and social development are overarching objectives of, and essential requirements for, sustainable development.

8 Clark & Dickson, Sustainability Science The challenge of sustainable development is the reconciliation of society s development goals with the planet s environmental limits over the long term [with a] focus on the dynamic interactions between nature and society, with equal attention to how social change shapes the environment and how environmental change shapes society (p. 8059)

9 Robinson: Squaring the Circle Sustainability requires the simultaneous reconciliation of three imperatives: The ecological imperative is to stay within the biophysical carrying capacity of the planet, the economic imperative is to provide an adequate material standard of living to all, and the social imperative is to provide systems of governance that propagate the values that people want to live by? (p. 381)

10 Lutz Newton, et al, in Conservation Biology Lutz Newton & Freyfogle: Conservationists need to [craft] an appealing vision of a life in which people prosper on the land while respecting the land s processes, mysteries and beauties land health can serve as the conservationists overall goal. (pp. 24, 30) W. Rees, cited in Ehrenfeld: it might be argued that for ecological sustainability, we must come to feel in our bones that the violation of nature is a violation of self (p. 34) Ehrenfeld: a vibrant, fertile, self-perpetuating community of life that includes people, other life forms, soils, rocks, and waters (p. 34; NB: what about air?) Padoch & Sears: What could be more morally correct than working to make certain that the means of production (of, for example, energy, timber, and shoes), technologies of waste management, and uses of natural resources do not result in depletion of the natural resources, degradation of the ecosystems, and contamination of the environment upon which human life our biological, social, and economic well-being depends (p. 40).

11 There seems to be a problem what is the solution?

12 Consciousness raising? If we all change our individual behaviors, won t that do the trick?

13 Technology? Can we invent and innovate our way out of this problem

100 10 K 1 Billion Transistors Pentium i486pentium i386

14 Prediction of future technologies & their applications is difficult Microelectronics 1,000, ,000 10,000 1, K 1 Billion Transistors Pentium i486pentium i Pentium 4 Pentium III Pentium II

15 40 years ago, people predicted that air travel would be by supersonic transport or even rocket Some also predicted that electricity from nuclear power would be too cheap to meter

16 Economics? Is there too little or too much? Proper pricing in markets can save us

17 Change our Social systems? We live in a society with very complex arrangements, and rapid change

18 Key Sustainability Principles (Carew & Mitchell, 2001) Ethical principles Fairness: equity, justice, access, includion Responsibility: assessment, evaluation, fairness Awareness: understanding, critical thinking Interdependence principles Systems thinking: interrelationship of parts Uncertainty & complexity: variation & change Impacts: effects & distribution of actions Limits & elasticity: finiteness, diversity

19 Can sustainability be sustained?

20 Systems approaches are too complex and technological The aggregate of individual actions seems the easiest way to effect needed changes

21 But consumer action in markets does nothing to address structural conditions & impediments

22 Can markets be tools to manage consumption & pollution without extensive political intervention?

23 Some questions we need to consider Can forms of ecological modernization compensate for large increases in consumption and pollution?

24 Can individual and aggregate preferences be modified without massive increases in the prices of goods?

25 Can the desires of the billions aspiring to a middle class life, and the billions of poor, be met without drastic reductions in consumption in the North? Or will the bifurcation of rich and poor result in sustainable sanctuaries for the former and desolation for the latter?

26 For example, a new age of automobility is upon us: what does that imply? What would it take to temper it?

27 What is to be done? Technology Institutions Activism

28 Who decides?

29 How are decisions to be made?

30 Who pays?

Sustainability. Hope or Hype?

Sustainability. Hope or Hype? Sustainability Hope or Hype? What do we mean by the term sustainability? Note, however, that sustainable has come to be used in many contradictory ways sustainable growth sustainable security sustainable