My Vision of a Sustainable Economy - Essay Example

& No. Environmental Science (A Sustainable Economy) 24 May My Vision of a Sustainable Economy It has been almost two centuries since Thomas Robert Malthus formulated his theories about population growth and the capacity of the environment to support that growth. In many ways, he had been proven right because we now see effects of unbridled human population growth in which the environment had been damaged due to unsustainable growth rates in the human population. Environmental degradation validated some, if not most, of his theories as the carrying capacity of the environment had reached its limits. There is no way populations can grow exponentially when natural resources to support that growth are not infinite. My personal vision of a sustainable economy is one in which people are happy and are living life to the fullest. This means their quality of life is enviable not necessarily in terms of material possessions but in terms of a happiness index in which Man lives in harmony with Nature instead of exploiting it to the point of depletion. It is an ideal place where most social problems are very minimal or solved to everyones satisfaction; where systemic solutions are adopted to solve a problem without creating new ones in its place. This integrative approach is what the authors of human capitalism talk about in their wonderful book in which a holistic solution is used that recognizes often unseen causal links that manages communities and societies with the same appreciation for integrative designs of buildings or frugal engineering that minimizes waste that can turn challenges into incredible opportunities (Hawken, Lovins & Lovins 286). It is also a society where everyone is at peace with himself, with his neighbors and with Nature. There is no scarcity or a disquiet feeling of deprivation or inadequacy because all resources have been husbanded properly. The way I see it, there are two barriers to attaining the ideal sustainable economy with the first as personal greed and second is political ambitions. With regards to the first barrier, I had seen how people in a position to exploit natural resources are not contented with what had been given to them already by way of large-scale concessions such as in mining or logging. It is a personal barrier in the third person (meaning, not me) because there seems to be almost no limits to human greed and avarice when it comes to accumulating wealth even to the harm they cause to the environment. The feeling is always one of denial, where the rich people who had access to vast natural resources try to explain away natural disasters that often follow like massive flooding or landslides in areas where they were previously unheard of. The other barrier that is difficult to hurdle is political ambition, that is, the ambition of politicians and other people holding the reins of power. In many cases, politicians are subject to the lobbying efforts of Big Business and cannot seem to take an independent decision when it comes to protecting the environment to make it sustainable in the long run. Politicians are beholden to business interests and are generally reluctant to take views contrary to what Big Business desires. Politicians who cling to power often subvert their principles by making most unpopular decisions which they know very well will not redound to the greater good. This time on the first-person level, I will be more conscious when I use resources and not allow waste to be a mark of how I use precious resources. This involves making the tiniest carbon footprint wherever and whenever possible without unduly sacrificing personal comfort and knowing full well it takes just a little discipline to achieve this noble end. The political barrier can be eliminated if people will elect politicians who are also environmentalists and if this is not enough, take charge of their own local environments to promote sustainability. The people themselves can take actions to strengthen their social fabric, what some authors termed as social capital or in the case of the aforementioned books authors, human capitalism. Justifying My Vision It is really not difficult to attain my idealized version of sustainable economy because it had been proven in the experience of the Brazilian city of Curitiba. It means it takes lots of hard work, plenty of innovative ideas and creative imagination to attain the things previously thought impossible or improbable. There is clearly a way of balancing human needs with the requirements of protecting the environment to make it sustainable not just for this generation but for many more generations to come. The way things are going at present, it is quite clearly evident that the present conventional (capitalist) economic system is bringing the entire world to the precipice but there is still time to move back. There are several danger signs already but it takes strong political will and a paradigm shift to avert disaster while there is still time. The present situation parallels the incredulity that surrounds the concept of peak oil. In this example, people do not believe it has already happened although everyone knows that oil is a finite non-renewable energy resource. When oil finally runs out and people are left in a state of shock because they have not prepared for the day when oil wells finally run dry, there will be total chaos. However, there is a little window of opportunity for the world to shift to alternative renewable clean energy technologies like wind power and solar power but it takes a lot pragmatic political will to implement the shift (Deffeyes 176). There is plenty of energy for the future but the problem is making a shift successfully in the next ten years. The example of the worlds continuing addiction to fossil fuels is given here to illustrate how things could be better if only political will is exercised by our leaders. In the case of crude oil, all the signs now all point that peak oil had been reached some years ago but the oil industry people either refuse to believe in it so as not to create panic or continuing to live in a state of denial where crude oil production will start to fall and never to rise again as predicted by the US geologist M. King Hubbert (ibid. 150). The experience of Curitiba showed that growth and development need not be mutually exclusive. A successful shift to alternative energy requires a new kind of economy which is a sustainable economy not based on irreplaceable fossil fuels (Gardner, Prugh & Starke 4). This was the old conventional economy that was markedly destructive to the environment as well. The authors cited an economic blueprint that is clearly outdated because the circumstances in which it was originally formulated was much different, with the worlds population barely just a little over a billion at that time and natural resources seemed inexhaustible (ibid). Again, oil is an excellent example of then and now. At the time of the first invention of the internal combustion engine, crude oil was cheap and in plentiful supply such that electric cars never made any traction in the market back then. It did not make any financial sense to invest in an electric car which was expensive compared to the gasoline engine although most people knew oil would run out someday, the only question is when and still is being debated. In other words, there is a realistic limit to what the environments natural resources can safely carry with regards to population demands for more and more resources. Capitalism has been under the illusion that increasing efficiency can be extrapolated to solve material shortages. It is high time to re-visit Malthusian theories so we can better understand the limits of destructive conventional capitalism and shift more rapidly towards creative sustainability with a greater sense of urgency. Although the sustainability movement began as an offshoot of the environmental movement during the 1960s and the 1970s, it has acquired a new paradigm by itself because the world is fast running out resources, no matter what the optimists will say. Sustainable practices soon entered the worlds vocabulary and people become more aware of the consequences of environmental degradation. Perhaps it is best to restate here the definition of sustainable development as something that meets the needs of the present without in any way compromising the needs of future generations (Edwards 17). Works Cited Deffeyes, Kenneth S. Hubberts Peak: The Impending World Oil Shortage. Princeton, NJ, USA: Princeton University Press, 2008. Print. Edwards, Andres R. The Sustainability Revolution: Portrait of a Paradigm Shift. BC, Canada: New Society Publishers, 2005. Print. Gardner, Gary, Thomas Prugh and Linda Starke. State of the World 2008: Innovations for a Sustainable Economy (Ideas and Opportunities for a Sustainable Economy). London, UK: Earthscan Publications Ltd., 2008. Print. Hawken, Paul, Amory B. Lovins and L. Hunter Lovins. Natural Capitalism: The Next Industrial Revolution. London, UK: Earthscan Publications Ltd., 1999. Print. Read More