Notes: Introducing Sustainable Development

Earth spinning BATE Professor Wayne Hayes, Ph.D., Summer 2000
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June 1, 2000

Allenby: Introduction

The Global Context

The Schumpeterian "gale of creative destruction" pales now: The is the era of the greatest change in the history of our species. Do you agree? So what? Schumpeter meant to be iconoclastic. We cannot comprehend a world of constant whirl. Some implications:

Complexification and globalization, requiring a systems perspective. The idea of mere externalities will not be adequate, a segue into ecological economics.
The earth is in fact engineered, requiring a perspective of "earth systems engineering." We, over 6 billion of us, are humbled.
Scientific reductionism and linear, short-term thinking must be supplanted by a synthesis of Eastern organic holism and Western science.
Integrated and robust policy systems must expand our comprehension of intervention into the complex global system.
Our institutions will change in response, but cannot comprehend that change.
Sustainability implies social choice among alternative paths, including a Malthusian future or, on the other extreme, deep ecology. Ssustainability implies human evolution.
This evolution in the notion of efficiency will favor some sectors and disfavor others. Quote page 5.
Apocalyptic forecasts should give way to a clear sense of "anthropogenic environmental perturbations," including an awareness of those that are irreversible, such as extinction.

Why Industrial Ecology?

Environmental considerations are not overhead, or ancillary, but strategic, or integral. The bias toward localized, narrow pollution abatement has produced relief from symptoms, but remains inadequate. See table 1.1 and consider the automobile.

The Intellectual Framework

The unclear vision of sustainable development comes from the Brundtland Commission report, 1987 as "development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs." Thus, implications for distributive equity are evoked:

Among generations
From wealthy nations relative to poor nations (not necessaryile direct transfer payments)
Clear message for South to restrict population growth

Sustainable development includes industrial ecology, a technical field, but also institutions (political and social) and cultural, ethical, and religious values. Appropriate laws, policies, and economic incentives must be invented along with industrial ecology. For this broader perspective, we turn to Greening the North.

Greening the North

This seminal work by an ecologist, an investment banker, and a theologian asks how the affluent societies can extend hospitality to future generations of without destroying natural capital. The study recognizes that economy, ecology, and equity cannot long be separated. The use of 80% of the planet's natural capital by 20% of its people cannot endure. The gradual reduction in the physical load of humanity, particularly those who consume the most, must be designed.

The North and the South must cooperate in forging a path to a sustainable future. Sachs discusses this on pages 2 and 3. Common ground can be found to achieve mutual goals. See also the discussion of greenhouse gas emissions on page 3.

Ch. 2 Guidelines

Economies still maintain a collision course with natural capital. Following Daly, GTN (Greening the North) sets up the scarce factor as the absorptive capacity of nature, not the depletion of natural capital per se. Rain forest destruction, for example, releases greenhous gas but also destroys CO2 sinks. This shift in thinking about scarcity expands on pages 10 and 11.

Environmental Space

GTN advocates a shift away from thinking about pollution control to something more basic: cutting down the inputs of natural capital. For example, the Rockies are encumbered by millions of tons of mine waste, which pollutes water and is spread by wind as a public health menace.The expansion of the theme of environmental space on pages 12 and 13 are vital.

The guideline of justice on an international and intergenerational basis does not call for sacrifice or giving up. It calls for taking less, not giving more. The use of 80% by 20% calls for more efficiency (doing it right) and sufficiency (doing the right thing).

The call for a preventive system of indicators requires more specificity, displayed in the graph on page 20. Four indicators take center stage:

Materials: the use of less and particular attention to rates of renewal.
Energy: using less and shifting to renewable sources.
Water: particularly the recharge of groundwater and the preservation of quality.
Land use: Since land is fixed, it must be used with care, particularly to avoid fragmentation and