 |
The Future of Sustainability: Have Your Say! Week Four - “Shaping the Future”
---- Question: How can the conservation and sustainable development community use new media and social networks to engage with young people to develop a sense of planetary civilization? The sustainability and environment movement needs to be scaled-up to a global movement of altered human consciousness and value system, as suggested by some of my colleagues. The point is to go beyond the sustainability and environmental debate, as Khosla correctly put it. I already made this point Week 2. The point needs to be reiterated because of its great significance to humanity’s future and that of our planet. Meanwhile, the social networks should be aligned to empower a social movement for the creation of the new planetary civilization which calls for the desired change in human values and living. Again, business as usual is not an option any more. Where and how do we proceed? Nothing very dramatic is called for because education is time consuming and requires great patience on part of the leadership of the movement. While education of the youth may be important the education of the ruling elite or the powerful in other words, state, business and even NGOs is both vital and necessary. Our “baby boomers” generation has the responsibility to change direction. It would be wrong of us to pass on the challenge to the next generation. The mess was made in the last half century or so and we must accept responsibility for that development. The “baby boomers’” generation is accountable for their actions. In sum, the need to change direction of our Western civilization (read global) is now not in the foreseeable future. Again, even when the will is there to establish a new global ethos, spirituality and direction the change will be only gradual because of the vested interests involved and the requirement to fight them to the end. The campaign is peaceful and therefore necessarily very gradual. Plus, the new global consciousness has to be evolved through a consensus across the cultural, ethnic, political and religious divides. The time for a new global spiritual re-awakening is now upon us. Leaders like Khosla and Brown are on the right track and need to be supported. We are proceeding correctly by holding such sessions where support for change is coming from across the continents. In the end, a global congress shall have to be called for a new global constitution or charter and then a plan of action which will bring in all the stakeholders. The global charter has to be very brief and spell out the basics of the new global civilization. More importantly than the charter itself is the manner in which we go about doing this. Essentially, the whole exercise is that of educating the unconvinced and unmoved among the elites through public pressure and civic engagements. This is to happen in the near future through the platform of the IUCN. Much more planning is required for this exercise. Meanwhile, we continue to do whatever we can at the local level. Again, the slogan “Think globally, act locally” needs to be adhered strictly to move from rhetoric to action. Again, the key is civic mobilization and planned action at the local level based on indigenous knowledge traditions in combination with modern scientific knowledge through local management. This has been correctly emphasized by Rubens. I would add here the capacity factor also. While undoubtedly the most important requirement is of voice and ownership by the local communities which must be adhered to by all sustainability and conservation efforts. It is true that a lot of international agencies in the development and environmental fields simply fail because of the ownership factor. It is therefore significant to take the locals on board the sustainability band wagon right from the beginning. Otherwise, the changes of success are reduced considerably. This is a lesson learnt from past errors. But the problem is that of very low capacity of some countries in the developing world to take such action on their own without outside assistance of some sort. The paucity of resources hampers collective action on a sustainable basis. The international organizations like IUCN are required to build local capacity for effective action and change of direction. There is no harm in seeking and receiving help from outsiders. In many cases it is vitally needed. The only true requirement is that this new civilization movement must appear not to be characterized as Western. For any reasonable chances of success, it is necessary that the movement’s essence should be cross-cultural and truly global by showing respect to other non-Western traditions. Remember many traditions, other than the West, show deep understanding, appreciation and support for such change of direction. Again, the need of a global spiritual movement across the continents and cultural and religious divides needs to be reiterated. I have made this point earlier. People like Brown and Khosla, among others, are the torchbearers of this movement. Let us follow them to the next step. How can we link local and national efforts with regional and global processes in ways that create the conditions for implementing alternative development visions? Seemingly the new Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) and the Internet are available for such linkages. This is already happening at the IUCN. More efforts need to be made to increase capacity at the vital regional level where local and regional leadership can be brought together conveniently on a platform for the next round of the debate. The IUCN must seek a wider audience since preaching to the choir, as pointed out earlier by my colleague, is hardly workable any more. We have to reach out in all directions- civil society, businesses, NGOs and the state apparatuses. The mantle of the leadership rests on us at the IUCN and our colleagues in like-minded sister organizations. We have to do things differently by emphasizing not the headquarters but the regional levels. The work at the regional level shall be the most important. Several regional level organizational capacities shall necessarily be augmented. Meaning that IUCN effort here shall be the most crucial link between the international and the local. In other words, we are assuming that the leadership at the regional level- say South Asia based in say Colombo, Sri Lanka is more attuned to what works here and why. What is needed here might not be required elsewhere, and so on. Plus, the local networks can be better mobilized and galvanized for timely action. Therefore, let us join hands at this level to make a real difference in the sustainability movement. Most importantly, is the realization by the present leadership at the IUCN, and other allied organizations, for timely action. I need to reiterate here again the requirement of a new spiritual re-awakening like never witnessed before in human history. Slowly, gradually and surely the required new civilization ethos can be built. When capable, committed people start believing in a cause and our ready to go beyond their own ideology, cultural and religious pride, and thinking a consciousness will be gradually built. We must have faith in our ability to rise above our divides and prejudices for a truly common cause. It can be done. |