Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Although there were some activist protests as well as internal disagreements among
negotiators at Rio in 2012, there were little, if any, popular protests or street-based
discontent with the outcomes in the world's major cities as the predominant concern
for most people in the world was squarely with the economic. Financial austerity
in Europe, the increase in global unemployment and in social inequality concentrated
many people's minds on looking for genuine alternatives to the present order of
things and ways of being. The Occupy movement and a renewed interest in alternative
forms of political and economic organization did take to the streets in many of the
world's global cities. As Indian activist and novelist Arundhati Roy said at the end
of her 2003
Confronting Empire
(Roy, 2003) speech at the World Social Forum in
Porte Alegre, for a moment it seemed for some at least that just perhaps, 'Another
world is not only possible, she is on her way. On a quiet day, I can hear her breathing.'
But it wasn't breathing at Rio in 2012.
Sustainable development and the question of spatial scale
Sustainable development is about protecting and conserving the planet's natural
environment and promoting social equity and a degree of economic equality within
and between nations. This can be conceptualized as a process of convergence so the
question of spatial scale is a necessary element in any serious thinking and action,
designed to make our world a better place. It is possible to conceive of scale in
ecological and socio-political terms (Grainger, 2004):
Table 1.1
Ecological and socio-political scales (adapted from Grainger, 2004)
Ecological scale
Socio-political scale
Biosphere
World
Biome-type
Supranational regions
Biome
State
Landscape
Region
Ecosystem
Locality 1: city, town
Community
Locality 2: village, community, neighbourhood
Population
Household
Organism
Institutions and organizations operate at many different levels. The United Nations
and the World Bank are large international bodies operating on the global scale and
through their various projects shape the lives of people in specific communities and
households. These bodies may develop and implement policies, treaties and actions
that affect all ecological scales. The European Union operates at a supranational
level and the Environmental Protection Agency in the USA operates at a national
level but its effects may be experienced far wider. And there are countless numbers
of community groups, businesses, and formally or informally structured activist
organizations that operate at the very smallest scales. National or neighbourhood
campaigns to reduce, recycle or reuse will ultimately rely on individual households
and citizens wanting to conduct themselves in a more sustainable manner. Comple-
menting, and perhaps complicating, this further are the various 'capitals' dispersed
across the planet on a variety of spatial scales. When we consider the possible
conditions - strong, weak or very weak - it may become very difficult to see some
