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The Future of Sustainability: Have Your Say! Week One - “Global Challenges to Sustainability in the Twenty-First Century”
---- In his commentary, Jeffrey McNeely, Chief Scientist, The World Conservation Union, offers a clear message on the critical challenges we face, providing what he calls a litany of woes. He rightfully questions the wisdom of biofuels, and notes that climate change will drive many issues from biodiversity and water to landscapes and agriculture, the latter poised to incur ''radical transformation.'' His point about debates confusing the public on GMO, nuclear power, and climate change is important. He asks a number of thoughtful questions, including whether ''these'' are the greatest challenges facing us and how we might shift public opinion toward a ''sense of hope'' and how we can nudge science and technology toward the sustainable path.
I notice that neither McNeely nor Adams dealt with principles and values. Most of us participating in the forum are probably specialists, which we need, of course, but in order to create solutions we desperately need to see the big picture (as opposed to the details) and perhaps, even if momentarily, seek a more generalist view. What follows is my own abbreviated vision of how we can collaborate to use both good science and appropriate technology to empower people in communities around the world to jumpstart the sustainability movement. (Full disclosure: I am the author of Collaborative Spunk: The Feisty Guide for Reviving People and Our Planet. SOS Press, 2002, which addresses the topics we are discussing here.). Sustainability, alas, must begin at the local level. We cannot dictate it from on high or wait for it to happen naturally. It is too urgent! We have to become ''leaderful'' and accelerate the process. Now! And, we want to do it well.
For starters, it is useful to recognize that the sustainability movement and the environmental movement are not synonymous. Sustainable societies -- the goal of the sustainability movement -- are favored with good prospects for continuing in existence for longer than the foreseeable future and are not threatened by ecological catastrophe, economic tyranny, or social chaos, any one of which can plunge them into quick collapse, prolonged anguish, or social transformation. There can be many kinds of sustainable societies just as there are many diverse cultures. Yet, healthy life-support systems are prerequisite no matter the differences.
Next, getting back to McNeely's ''sense of hope,'' let me add that hope is not a plan of action! Hope is what slaveholders gave their slaves. Hope generally does not empower people. Optimism, on the other hand, can empower people and is best generated when we have a set of principles for planning and decision-making. and a framework for putting our plans into action. Moreover, recognizing that the world is changing and that we need to assess our value systems to see if they still fit our changing world is also critical to generating a sense that we have what it takes to overcome the mega-challenges of this 21st century. We must build confidence, energy, enthusiasm, optimism, and new basic skills in our communities so that people have the passion and competence to work together to create new societies that benefit everyone and Nature.
In the 26 years I have been searching for solutions to issues we are discussing here, The Natural Step (TNS) framework contains the best set of principles I have seen for understanding how our bio-physical world works so that we can intelligently plan and make decisions -- for truly healing our planetary home and discovering new ways to live and thrive. Based on scientific principles (primarily, the Second Law of Thermodynamics, and the Laws of Conservation and Energy) and systems thinking, the TNS principles for sustainability define the system as the whole of Nature and Society. These unchanging principles were developed after 21 drafts and much thought and care by some 50 leading scientists.
The Natural Step principles can be stated in everyday language as follows:
(The earth is a closed system concerning matter, but an open system relative to energy. Thus, matter and energy cannot be destroyed: Nothing disappears. Yet, because of entropy, matter and energy are always changing -- they tend to disperse spontaneously, hence, everything spreads. The only thing that can disappear is the quality or value of matter... because material quality is in the concentration and structure of matter: there is value in order. Despite resources turning into waste over the eons, the system has not run down. Why? Disorder increases in all closed systems. The flow of high-quality energy from the sun counteracts the tendency of materials to decay because the green cells of plants put that energy into service.through photosynthesis. Green cells are unique in our biosphere because they generate more order than they deplete -- unlike human and animal cells which deplete more order than they generate: Net increases in material quality on earth are generated almost entirely by sun-driven photosynthetic processes -- or more simply, plants create structure and order by using energy from sunlight. This last point is the heart of sustainability.)
From these principles were derived 4 non-negotiable system conditions: In the sustainable society, Nature is not subject to systematically increasing:
Thus, our objectives are to eliminate our contribution to systematic increases in concentrations of substances from the Earth's crust and those produced by society that are alien to Nature and to eliminate our contribution to the physical degradation of Nature and to contribute as far as we can to the meeting of human needs in our society and worldwide in spite of the substitutions and dematerializations that will follow from meeting the first three objectives.
Operationally, these 4 system conditions mean: replacing certain minerals that are scarce in Nature with abundant and benign substitutes, and using all mined materials efficiently; replacing certain persistent and unnatural compounds with ones that are normally abundant or break down more easily in Nature, and using all substances produced by society efficiently; drawing resources from only well managed eco-systems, using those resources efficiently, substituting unnecessarily area-consuming activities with others and exercising general caution in all kinds of manipulation of Nature; and using all our resources efficiently, fairly, and responsibly so that the needs of all our stakeholders, staff, neighbors, people around the world, and people who are not yet born stand the best chance of being met. (Dr. Karl-Henrik Robe'rt, personal communication, 10 June 2000).
Thus, on a community (or an individual, non-profit, small business, large business, etc.) level, if your goal is to take the sustainable path in your decision-making and planning, then you will want to educate your community about this framework. You may also want to use the stair case model of backcasting as you develop your plans of action. If you want more information on backcasting, please reply to me off list. The process is too complicated to explain here.
There are a number of good books available on The Natural Step framework for use in communities, NGO's, and business. Several contain case studies. Web sites for more information (Sweden, US - Oregon, Canada, United Kingdom, New Zeeland, Brazil, France, and Italy: www.detnaturligasteget.se/com/Start/ , www.ortns.org/framework.htm , www.naturalstep.ca/ , www.naturalstep.org.uk , www.naturalstep.org.nz/ , www.willisharmanhouse.com.br , www.tns-france.org , www.naturalstep.it . There is also a web site for Japan (in Japanese) and one for Australia. There is an office in South Africa -- no web site yet.
Without principles to guide us and with out-dated values and attitudes, we shall surely fail. If we choose the appropriate strategies, however, using the TNS system conditions in our everyday choices, we will have a much better chance of co-creating a sustainable future that honors not only our communities but also our life-support systems and natural cycles as well. Let's get to work! |