Not so easy

When I started writing about sustainable development in 1987 there was optimism about our ability to stop environmental decline. The world had just reached a historic agreement to get rid of chemicals that were destroying the ozone layer. Controls were being put on pollution that caused acid rain. Toxic chemicals were being controlled, even banned. The World Commission on Environment and Development, commonly known as the Brundtland Commission published its historic report, Our Common Future, calling for development that did not keep destroying the environment. Governments and many businesses leapt on sustainability with little or no idea of what it meant or how they were going to achieve it.

A generation later I sat in a parking lot beside a busy highway and watched huge diesel trucks roll by. It was clear how far we are from sustainability. We have made some very important first steps. Renewable energy is gradually supplanting fossil fuels. Electric cars are now more common on our streets. Recycling is normal. In reality these are baby steps on the road to sustainability. Inertia is a huge barrier. We are in a self-centred era when many people value their individual right to consume and pollute above the need to preserve the common good of a clean and productive environment for everyone’s benefit.

Nowhere is this more obvious than in the too-slow transition away from fossil fuels. Car makers trying to in two directions at once. They are building more battery electric vehicles but these are often expensive and many people are concerned about their range and the lack of charging stations. A number of care makers, particularly the North American companies, are producing more big, heavy fuel-hungry pickup trucks. One is advertised as having 540 horsepower.

We need social sustainability if we are going to be able to achieve environmental sustainability. But when governments raise fuel prices to encourage conservation or try to limit the use of hazardous pesticides there are often protests. People locked into driving or spraying chemicals because of past practices are going to need help making a transition. It will be expensive for governments.

Immigration is another hot button issue with strong ties to climate change. It is ironic that rich countries that caused most of the problem through decades of greenhouse gas pollution are on the receiving end of mass migration driven by the effects of climate change, such as drought and ensuing lack of employment and food. The unfortunate result is the rise of more right-wing, anti-immigrant political parties in countries grappling with waves of people coming from the south.

At a time when governments need to take action at a global level we face growing chaos and barriers to unity. The COVID crisis weakened economies. There is increasing economic competition from formerly poor nations. There is a major war in Ukraine and a number of other conflicts. And there is the growth of companies that are now richer powerful than many nations.

In an essay in a Global Transition Initiative forum John Bunzl, founder of the International Simultaneous Policy Organisation, writes that we are in “a struggle between all humanity and a destructive system which has a life of its own.” He writes: “this system is a vicious cycle: no government can move first or act alone to solve global problems because doing so would make its national economy uncompetitive, risking unemployment, capital flight, and economic decline. Whether we are talking about climate, nuclear weapons, AI, tax avoidance, wealth inequality, or other global problems, this destructive system remains in control. It is not that governments don’t want to solve global problems, but that they can’t.”

The Brundtland Report called for lifestyles that are, “within the planet’s ecological means.” After the report came out I asked commission member Maurice Strong if humans can make that kind of shift quickly enough. His reply: “It is going to be a race between our sense of survival and our more indulgent drives.” 

It is time for governments to come clean on the scope and huge cost and social dislocation of a transition away from a fossil fuel economy and from the pillaging of natural resources. People need to know what a hard road we face and we need leadership to move us faster down a path to sustainability.