Sustainable development

Sustainable development is a term first introduced to the international community by Our Common Future , the 1987 report of the World Commission on Environment and Development, which was chartered by the United Nations to examine the planet's critical social and environmental problems and to formulate realistic proposals to solve them in ways that ensure sustained human progress without depleting the resources of future generations . This Commission—which was originally chaired by Gro Harlem Brundtland , Prime Minister of Norway, and was consequently often called the Brundtland Commission—defined sustainable development as "meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs." The goal of sustainable development, according to the Commission, is to create a new era of economic growth as a way of eliminating poverty and extending to all people the opportunity to fulfill their aspirations for a better life.

Economic growth, in this view, is the only way to bring about a long-range transformation to more advanced and productive societies and to improve the lot of all people. As former President John F. Kennedy said: "A rising tide lifts all boats." But economic growth is not sufficient in itself to meet all essential needs. The Commission, which was actually named the Commission on Sustainable Development, or CSD, pointed out that we must make sure that the poor and powerless will get their fair share of the resources required to sustain that growth. The CSD stated that "an equitable distribution of benefits requires political systems that secure effective citizen participation in decision making and by greater democracy in international decision making."

The concept of "sustainable" growth of any sort is regarded as an oxymoron by some people because the availability of nonrenewable resources and the capacity of the biosphere to absorb the effects of human activities are clearly limited and must impose limits to growth at some point. Nevertheless, supporters of sustainable development maintain that both technology and social organization can be managed and improved to meet essential needs within those limits.

To clarify this concept, a discussion of what is development and what is meant by "sustainable" is necessary. Development is a process by which something grows, matures, improves, or becomes enhanced or more fruitful. Organisms develop as they progress from a juvenile form to an adult. The plot in a novel develops as it becomes more complex, clearer, or more interesting. Human systems develop as they become more technologically, economically, or socially advanced and productive. In human history, social development usually means an improved standard of living or a more gratifying way of life.

Something is sustainable if it is permanent, enduring, or can be maintained for the long-term. Sustainable development, then, means improvements in human well-being that can be extended or prolonged over many generations rather than just a few years. The hope of sustainable development is that if its benefits are truly enduring, they may be extended to all humans rather than just the members of a privileged group.

Some development projects have been viewed by some as environmental, economic, and social disasters. Large-scale hydropower projects--for instance in the James Bay region of Quebec or the Brazilian Amazon--were supposed to be beneficial but displaced indigenous people, destroyed wildlife , and poisoned local ecosystems with acids from decaying vegetation and heavy metals from flooded soils released through leaching . Similarly, introduction of "miracle" crop varieties in Asia and huge grazing projects in Africa financed by international lending agencies crowded out wildlife, diminished the diversity of traditional crops, and destroyed markets for small-scale farmers.

Other development projects, however, worked more closely with both nature and local social systems. Projects such as the Tagua Palm Nut project sponsored by Conservation International in South America encouraged native people to gather natural products from the forest on a sustainable basis and to turn them into valuable products (in this case "vegetable ivory" buttons) that could be sold for good prices on the world market. Another exemplary local development project was the "microloan" financing pioneered by the grameen or village banks of Bangladesh. These loans, generally less than $100, allowed poor people who usually would not have access to capital to buy farm tools, a spinning wheel, a three-wheeled pedicab, or some other means of supporting themselves. The banks were not concerned merely with finances, however; they also offer business management techniques, social organization, and education to ensure successful projects and loan repayment.

Still, critics of sustainable development argue that the term is self-contradictory because almost every form of development requires resource consumption. The limits and boundaries imposed by natural systems, they argue, must at some point make further growth unsustainable. Using everincreasing amounts of goods and services to make human life more comfortable, pleasant, or agreeable must inevitably interfere with the survival of other species and eventually of humans themselves in a world of fixed resources.

While it is probably true that traditional patterns of growth that require ever-increasing consumption of resources are unsustainable, development could be possible if it means: (a) finding more efficient and less environmentally stressful ways to provide goods and services; and (b) living with reduced levels of goods and services for those of us who are relatively rich so that more can be made available to the impoverished majority.

Some economists argue that the physical limits to growth are somewhat vague, not because the laws of physics are inaccurate, but because substituting one resource for another in producing goods and services allows a tremendous flexibility in the face of declining abundance of some resources. For example, the extremely rapid adoption of petroleum products as sources of energy and raw materials in the early twentieth century is a good case study of how quickly new discoveries and technical progress can change the resource picture.

From this perspective, the decline of known petroleum reserves and the effects of gases from the combustion of petroleum products on possible global warming—while serious problems—are also signals to humans to look for substitutes for these products, to explore for unknown reserves, and to develop more efficient and possibly altogether new ways of performing the tasks for which oil is now used. Teleconferencing, for instance, which allows people at widely distant places to consult without traveling to a common meeting site, is a good example of this principle. It is far more energy-efficient to transmit video and audio information than to move human bodies.

The issues of distributive justice or fairness between "developed" and "developing" societies—concerned with who should bear the burden of sustaining future development and how resources will be shared in development—raise many difficult questions. Similarly, the technical problems of finding new, efficient, non-destructive ways of providing goods and services require entirely new ways of doing things. The range of theoretical understanding, personal and group activity, and policy and politics encompassed by this project is so vast that it might be considered the first time humans have tried to grasp all their activities and the workings of nature in its entirety as one integrated, global system.

The first planet-wide meeting to address these global issues was the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment which took place in 1972. It was followed by the United Nations Earth Summit held in June, 1992, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The scope of sustainability issues taken up at the Earth Summit is in itself remarkable. Agenda 21, a 900-page report drafted in preparation for the conference, included proposals for allocation of international aid to alleviate poverty and improve environmental health . Other recommendations included providing sanitation and clean water to everyone, reducing indoor air pollution , meeting basic healthcare needs for all, reducing soil erosion and degradation, introducing sustainable farming techniques, providing more resources for family planning and education (especially for young women), removing economic distortions and imbalances that damage the environment, protecting habitat and biodiversity , and developing non-carbon energy alternatives.

In June 1997, a follow-up Earth Summit was held to adopt a comprehensive program to further implement Agenda 21. Those attending developed a multi-year program of work that addressed themes and economic sectors each year. Examples include global attention to freshwater management, oceans and seas, agriculture and forests, the atmosphere and energy. The CSD is made up of elected members from Member States of the United Nations, and its 2001 chair was Professor Bedrich Moldan of the Czech Republic.

See also Amazon basin; Greenhouse effect

[Eugene R. Wahl and E. Shrdlu ]

RESOURCES

BOOKS

Leonard, H. J., et al. Environment and the Poor: Development Strategies for a Common Agenda. New Brunswick: Transaction Books for the Overseas Development Council, 1989.

MacNeill, J., et al. Beyond Interdependence: The Meshing of the World's Economy and the Earth's Ecology. New York: Oxford University Press, 1991.

Ramphal, S. Our Country, The Planet. Covelo, CA: Island Press, 1992.

World Bank. World Development Report: Development and the Environment. New York: Oxford University Press, 1992.

World Commission on Environment and Development. Our Common Future. New York: Oxford University Press, 1987.

OTHER

"About Commission on Sustainable Development." United Nations Sustainable Development [cited July 9, 2002]. <http:www.un.org/esa/sustdev/csdgen.htm>.

ORGANIZATIONS

United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development, United Nations Plaza, Room DC2-2220, New York, NY, USA 10017, 212-963-3170, Fax: 212-963-4260, Email: [email protected], <www.un.org/esa/sustdev/>