The Future of Sustainability: Have Your Say!

Week Two - “Human Wellbeing and Sustainability”
Comment / Comentario / Commentaire

Richard Cellarius, USA

Moderating team: Richard Cellarious emphasizes that environmental sustainability cannot be lost in the struggle to bring sustainable livelihoods to the world’s peoples . He agrees with Dr. Khosla’s diagnosis of “affluenza” and adds that the developed world needs to “de-develop”. He cites Caring for the Earth: A Strategy for Sustainable Living (IUCN), as a handbook for this Future of Sustainability Initiative. Finally, he calls on IUCN to start conversations immediately with its state members on what it takes to reverse the trends toward corporate sustainability back toward the true environmental sustainability messages.

Richard Cellarious es enfático al decir que la sostenibilidad ambiental no puede perderse en la lucha por atraer medios sostenibles de vida a la población pobre del mundo. Concuerda con el enunciado que hace el Dr. Khosla sobre la “afluencia” y añade que el mundo desarrollado necesita “des-desarrollarse”. Cita la publicación re-editada de UICN “Cuidemos la Tierra” como un material útil para esta discusión. Finalmente, solicita a la UICN el inicio de diálogos con sus miembros estatales sobre los pasos necesarios para revertir la tendencia de sostenibilidad corporativa hacia la sostenibilidad ambiental.

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I agree with Dr, Khosla there are a multiplicity of issues in discussing the concept of sustainability, as I indicated in my very late response to the first week's discussion. While I was pleased at his early reference to the World Conservation Strategy’s introduction of the concept of sustainable development, I would have hoped that it would lead him to consistently use the term “environmental” in connection with the concept. I agree that work toward environmental sustainability needs to “bring about a world that is sufficiently equitable, socially just, materially rewarding and ecologically productive to maintain a decent quality of life for all, now and in the future.” But environmental sustainability cannot be lost in the struggle to bring sustainable livelihoods to the world’s peoples.

Dr. Khosla asked “But how can the conservation and sustainable development community manage the environment more effectively to address poverty and social equity?” This is the wrong question: what must be managed is how human societies manage their behavior and treatment of the natural environment. In most cases societies living in poverty know how to “manage” their resources, but other more affluent societies continually take unsustainable advantage of their poverty and their environment. That’s what needs to be brought into the sustainable management paradigm.

Dr. Khosla also correctly identifies “affluenza” as a major part of the problem and cautiously suggests that “We need to rethink what constitutes human wellbeing and the good life in the developed as much as the developing world.” Perhaps inconsistently with the first week’s discussion of needing a positive approach, I would go further and suggest that the developed world needs to de-develop, i. e., to learn how to live better with less, starting particularly with fossil fuel energy consumption. It follows that replacing fossil fuels with an equivalent flow of “renewable energy sources” is not sufficient: we need to do less with even less energy.

I’m not sure I can reply appropriately to Dr. Khosla’s four questions at the end of his statement, other than to comment on the role of IUCN: I support IUCN increasing its attention to integrating issues of social justice, security and human wellbeing with its conservation activities. This is a major focus of the Commission on Environmental, Economic, and Social Policy, which still needs proper levels of support and integration into the IUCN community. CEESP can and should be a leader in this new initiative, building on the expertise of its members. As I suggested in my initial comments on the Future of Sustainability report, the second edition of the World Conservation Strategy, Caring for the Earth: A Strategy for Sustainable Living, produced by CEESP’s predecessor commission, needs to be revived as a handbook for the this Future of Sustainability Initiative.

I also suggest that IUCN is in a unique position in the conservation community to promote the new old concept of environmental sustainability: the most important constituency for change can be found in IUCN members, specifically its member states and state agencies. IUCN should not wait until the 2008 World Conservation Congress to implement this initiative: it must begin conversations immediately with and among its state members on what it takes to reverse the trends in the Johannesburg “World Summit on Sustainable Development” (2002) toward corporate sustainability back toward the true environmental sustainability messages of Rio’s UN Conference on Environment and Development (1992) and Stockholm’s UN Conference on the Human Environment (1972).