Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Social greens
•
The main causes of the global environmental crisis are large-scale industrialization
and economic growth. The main impact of globalization has resulted in the
acceleration of exploitation, inequality and ecological injustice, leading to the
erosion of local-community autonomy and the increase of drug-related global
crime, human trafficking and the re-emergence of slavery.
•
The way forward is to reject industrialism (or capitalism) and reverse or at least
take democratic control of economic globalization, restore local community
autonomy, empower those whose voices have been marginalized, and promote
ecological justice and local indigenous knowledge systems.
The 'capitalization' of sustainable development
The discipline of Economics has had a profound influence on the conceptualization
of sustainable development, sustainability and development, and much of this is due
to the application and extension of the notion of 'capital' beyond the spheres of
economics, business and finance. In the eighteenth century the Scottish economist
Adam Smith recognized that the accumulation of fixed and reproducible capital,
understood largely as productive machinery, combined with the increasing division
or specialization of labour, were keys to economic growth and development. Since
Smith's time, economists and other theorists have extended the capital metaphor to
include Human Capital (education and skills), Social Capital (social relationships
and networks) and Natural Capital (natural resources and ecosystem services), which
in turn may be divided in Renewable Resource Capital and Non-renewable Resource
Capital. A further concept, Critical Natural Capital, has also been developed. This
refers to those aspects of the global ecosystem upon which our lives and cultures
ultimately depend. Human activity consumes this natural capital relying on the
ecosystem services to support our standard and quality of life. Apart from consuming
this natural capital - for example, oil, timber, fish, etc. - our productive activities
have frequently impaired the functioning of these environmental services. We have
polluted rivers, destroyed natural habitats, rendered land toxic or air unbreathable,
released greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, and consumed mineral and energy
resources that cannot be renewed or regenerated. Economic growth has generally
and inevitably meant more of the same, leading degrowth theorist Serge Latouche
(2009) to argue that sustainable development is a pleonasm at the definitional level
and an oxymoron in terms of content.
To compensate for the loss, or contamination, of this Critical Natural Capital
substitutes may be sought in the form of new renewable energy technologies, in
human ingenuity and future technological advances (man-made capital). A Micawber-
like optimism occasionally characterizes such an approach - something will always
turn up in the end. Arguments focus on the extent to which one capital stock may
be substituted for another in order to maintain a constant stock of global wealth,
ensuring future generations do not have a depleted inheritance. In the words of
Pearce
et al
. (1989), sustainable development refers to 'non-declining natural wealth'
and the maintenance of a constant stock of (natural) capital. Problems then arise
over:
