Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
deny clarity. The future of aviation in the UK is already based on a policy of 'sus-
tainable aviation'; but the recent formal consultation in the UK (DETR, 2000) has
produced a spectrum of interpretation as to what this actually means.
The UK government, in its strategy for sustainable development (DETR,
1999), has four main aims:
•
social progress that recognizes the needs of everyone;
•
effective protection of the environment;
•
prudent use of natural resources;
•
maintenance of high and stable levels of economic growth and employment.
This political interpretation is related to the metaphor of a balanced 'three-legged
stool' of economic growth, social progress and environmental protection. This inter-
pretation is favoured and cited by many aviation industry respondents to the UK
consultation. For example, on the question of limiting growth by establishing envi-
ronmental limits, several airlines argue that this would put environmental issues
above economic factors and social considerations, which is at odds with government
sustainability policy.
1
However, several other versions of sustainability are present in the consultation
responses and elsewhere in the aviation debate. Before examining some examples, it
is worth reminding ourselves of the brief history of sustainability.
This term and its synonyms began to appear widely in policy documents after
the Brundtland Report (WCED, 1987), which addressed forecasts of depletion of
global natural resources, coupled to human population growth statistics. The report
concluded that planetary supply could not meet the demand of predicted human
populations; that development at predicted rates was
simply unsustainable
; and that a
new approach was necessary through
sustainable development
.
Brundtland's sustainable development was 'development that meets the needs of
the present world without compromising the ability of future generations to meet
their own needs' (WCED, 1987). To some extent, this was a challenge to the old hege-
mony of 'sustainable growth', which demanded a 'rise in per capita real gross national
product for a long time' (Schumacher, 1969); but did it really contain and embody
the first principles long espoused by environmental and social justice campaigners?
For many of us, that vital resources limit species population growth and homeo-
stasis was O-level biology, and evident neglect of the planet in favour of national
gross domestic product (GDP) league tables was A-level geography. As an environ-
mental undergraduate in 1980, it was evident that a new language was necessary to
hitch economics to ecology:
The laws of supply and demand are fundamentals not just of economics,
but also of planetary ecology. Some human cultures have been able to forge
an equilibrial relationship with their local ecologies for vast periods of time.
They have been able to derive their necessary sustenance, without disrupt-
ing the ability of the earth to replenish itself. Translating this ability from
local to global is the modern human challenge. To achieve it, there needs to
be a wholesale re-engagement of people to planet, and a global ecology that
