From: Energy and Climate Information Exch <ecixdy@igc.apc.org>
Newsgroups: sci.environment
Date: 07 Nov 92 14:46 PST
Subject: Re: Theodore Roszak article on "Ecopsyc
Nf-ID: #R:1992Nov3.094524.2300@gnosys.svle:-91985993:cdp:1466601886:000:5873
Nf-From: cdp.UUCP!ecixdy    Nov  7 14:46:00 1992


The current environmental ethic of scaring people half to death
that they will become crispy critters due to global warming is
not going to inspire people to run out and sign up for saving the
planet.  Further, some in the environmental movement who are
running around talking about "moral imperatives" ought to give it
a rest.  As one who has watched closely for some time the issues
and linkages between global warming and sustainable development,
I'd like to suggest some ways of improving the perspective.  What
the current environmental movement in its most common form lacks
is a transformative vision.
 
Sustainable development is not just an issue of technology or
energy utilization per capita.  A lot of stuff which came out of
the UNCED conference in Rio last June suggested that if the
governing powers of the earth simply managed resources better
that sustainable development would simply appear out of thin area
and nothing else would have to change.  This is the so-called
ideology of management which makes false claims of being free of
the influences of conflicting power interests, unburdened by the
inefficiencies of bureaucracy, and unhindered by the apathy of
consumerism.
 
Frankly, I disagree with that view of so-called impartiality.  My
take on this is that sustainable development will have to grapple
with very deep issues of social justice, and that the path to
sustainable development will involve very significant shifts
(transformations) in relationships between individuals and whole
peoples.  This is not "management," and the role of government
will be affected by these shifts.  Politicans cannot make these
shifts or manage them or control them for their purposes of
power.  They could of course encourage them.  These shifts deal
with changes for whole peoples, and they transcend the rules of
politics.
 
The "post-modern" analysis of society includes a vision of
atrophied public life, cultural dissolution, dehumanizing
technologies and the related means of organizing them; and
alienation of the populace from all manner of social bonds.  In
the US, as well as in developing nations, we see the creation of
intractable poverty and permanent, homeless classes of people, a
culture of violence, environmental degradation, and escapism of
all kinds including drugs, identification with media driven
values of conspicuous consumption, etc.
 
A transformative vision must contain a challenge to three sets of
problems.  These are (1) disintegration of community values, (2)
alienation from the social bonds of cultures and related
institutions of regulating civilization, e.g family, which depend
upon the values that make up these bonds, and (3) inability to
solve problems and conflicts based on equity in terms of
participation in the problem solving process as well as equity in
terms of results.  Life is not a spectator sport on TV.
 
Therefore, a transformative vision must contain three elements.
These are (1) it must inspire and sustain communal life, and it
must create an engaged community; (2) it must identify the means
by which the practices of government through legislation and
action are responsive to the values of social equity and
ecological balance; and, (3) it must enhance society's ability to
solve problems and resolve conflicts.  In summary, it must create
the means by which social justice and environmental ethics are
partners.  This can be as simple as insuring that hazardous waste
is not dumped in minority neighborhoods or as encompassing as
altering international trade relations so that pesticides banned
for use in the US are not available for export overseas.
 
A transformative vision supports community dialoglocally, or
globally, or within a national political schema.  It creates
civic consciousness.  It teaches people that through their
participation in the public realm that they become capable of
transcending the limitations of self-interest.  It fosters a
commitment to caring by creating the kinds of bonds between
individuals that can only be forged through engagement in
responsible, equitable problem solving.
 
Sustainable development is not just about energy, or environment,
or resources.  It is also about the pivotal issues of
inequalities based on race, class, or gender.  It recognizes that
attached to these issues are struggles over power, status, and
human psychological needs such as identity, recognition, and
security (belonging).
 
A moral imperative, which is the basis for much of the current
environmental ethic, is a monolith, and a transformative vision
has multiple dimensions in terms of peoples' states of mind.  The
two major variables in the sustainable growth matrix are
satisfying basic human needs for food, shelter, health, etc., and
satisfying human needs for self-expression and meaning.
Economists argue that environment and development are part of a
zero sum game.  Gain for one results in loss for the other.  This
is just another monolith built on the foundation of the rational
businessmans' technocracy.
 
A transformative vision lifts us out of the zero sum games of
political economies and places our quest for sustainable
development within the realm of learning to be more mature as a
species, to be more compassionate as a people, and to be wise in
the use of our tools to shape the earth.  The emphasis is on
quality of life, not quantity of output.
 
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