Can We Move In The Direction Of Sustainability?
Editorial - Marilyn Hempel
This is a special double edition of the Pop!ulation Press. We have departed from our usual format to bring you reviews of four pathbreaking books. In the past, we have avoided book reviews, feeling that other publications perform that service well. But some ideas are so important and arrive at such critical junctures of history that they deserve the highest level of consideration.
The four publications reviewed in the following pages are:
- Limits to Growth: The 30 year Update, by Meadows, Randers and Meadows
- Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed, by Jared Diamond
- Living Planet Report 2004, edited by Loh and Wackernagel
- The State of the World's Children 2005, UNICEF
The first two books lay out a clear choice for human civilization: sustainability or collapse. The last two present the world as it is today, and challenge us to create a better one. Together, the authors of these works provide vital new insights into the current state of human society and how it came to be the way it is.
There are, of course, other equally important publications in recent months that deal with dwindling supplies of natural resources, cataclysmic global warming, tragic loss of biodiversity (we are in the midst of the 6th mass extinction), and the widening gap between rich and poor. Each is important in its own right. But the four books chosen for this issue focus specifically on human population growth and consumption as underlying causes of human misery and environmental destruction. These books recognize that we must bring this era of overpopulation and overconsumption to a halt before the suffering that results prevents us from creating a new era of sustainability.
The fundamental truth is that planet Earth does not grow. There are limits to its resources that can be extracted, and to its ability to absorb waste. There are limits to the numbers of people it can support and to how much they can consume.
The challenges described in these books are alarming. I have to admit that in editing this issue I felt like Cassandra wailing from the walls of Troy. And I am mindful that, like Cassandra, prophets are destined to be neither heeded nor appreciated.
These books are not meant to be prophecies of doom, but rather clarion calls to action. The authors show us that over time seemingly small changes can have enormous effects-negative or positive. For example, 2% growth, annually doesn't sound like much; but a growth rate of 2% will double a population in 36 years. Just lowering that growth rate a little, to 1%, will change the doubling time to 72 years. Lowering to 0.1% will produce a doubling time of 720 years.
The sooner we move beyond corporate industrialization, with its emphasis on consumerism, the more choices we will have. Unsustainable growth and unsustainable use of resources results in more regulations and fewer choices. All we have to do is get caught in a traffic jam to know that growth can reduce our choices and our quality of life.
Unlike people before us who lacked access to books like the ones reviewed here, we can learn from the lessons of both human history and ecological history. Will we do that? Will we anticipate collapse before it happens and work to prevent it? Do we have the insight and the courage to make what may be painful decisions to change our culture and values? There should be no doubt that change is possible. Remember: Humans did not leave the Stone Age because they ran out of stones. Our ancestors had enough vision and courage to embrace a better way of living.
The State of the World's Children warns us: "As children go, so go nations." Human society cannot go on forever with half its people barely surviving on less than $2 a day, the other half careening towards the supposed joys of unlimited consumption. Neither the Earth's resources nor our collective morality can survive such a divide. As Dennis Meadows wrote, "The necessity of taking the industrial world to its next stage of evolution is not a disaster -it is an amazing opportunity. How to seize the opportunity, how to bring into being a world that is not only sustainable, functional, and equitable but also deeply desirable is a question of leadership and ethics and vision and courage."
What better role model of leadership, ethics, vision and courage than Wangari Maathai, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize? We end this issue of the Pop!ulation Press with her story, knowing that small steps often lead to huge changes. Let us all take those steps toward a more sustainable future.
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