Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
are made to increase opportunities for Muslims to genuinely participate
within French society.
In a small village the reputation of an individual is probably fairly accu-
rate, though the reputation of
groups
(such as untouchables in India) may
reflect the distribution of power and influence within that society, rather
than impartial judgement.
In the global village, however, reputation and public opinion are increas-
ingly manipulated, whether by propaganda or public relations. This rela-
tively new phenomenon threatens the utility of reputation as an indicator of
merit of this ancient social mechanism. The deliberate and large-scale
manipulation of information, including of reputation, also threatens sus-
tainability (Beder 1998). For example, the Australian academic Sharon
Beder has documented many cases where representatives of the oil industry
have massaged public opinion in ways that have attempted to cast doubt on
the reality and severity of climate change. Tactics used to distort public
opinion concerning environmental hazards range from the simultaneous
publication of newspaper articles critical of the environmental movement to
frivolous lawsuits intended to intimidate citizens' groups trying to protect
environmental amenity (Beder 1998). Such campaigns should not be sur-
prising, they belong to a long tradition where the pursuit of short term profit
has over-ridden scientific opinion, from asbestos to lead and tobacco.
Justice, rebellions, and the war on terror
One person's 'inequity' is often another's 'justice'. Convicts were once trans-
ported to Australia in a time when the Antipodes must have seemed to the
poor almost as remote as Mars does today, for crimes as trivial as the theft of
a sheep. This justice may have seemed unfair, or inequitable to the individu-
als and families affected but was acceptable to many including, crucially,
those with the greatest political power. This plasticity of justice is relevant to
both the war on terror and to sustainability.
Evidence for the generally suppressed longing by the poor for greater
equality can be traced in European history through the durable legend of
Robin Hood, loved by the poor for his redistributive efforts, and before that,
to the Arthurian legend of a round table, where no knight had precedence.
Magna Carta, in which King John was forced to accede some rights to his
nobles, also illustrates an early step in reducing British inequality. In the long
march towards greater equality in Britain, force was often applied (by either
