Sustainable Development- Environmentalism Subverted to Capitalism

The term "sustainable development", was coined by those who certainly had good intentions. Coming to prominence in at the Rio Earth Summit, the term had deep proportions if fully implented. Looking at development that fit its place within the natural world, would certainly mean a radical redifining of how our society approaches development. The idea was also a very simply logical one, development was best if it could exist indefinetely, there was an understanding that spoke to the capitalist language itself, apart from the rights and wrongs that environmentalists place on actions, development needed to be profitable long term. To do that it required that it exist long term, which meant it needed to be sustainble. It was an acknowledgement of the power of the natural world beyond the metaphysics of environmentalists. But in the next few decade, the term would lose almost all of its intended meaning. Capitalism would take ahold of this term and subvert it to capitalist logic. This meant that any new development, didn't actually have to be sustainable. It just needed to have some sort of "green" component to it, that would then cause the whole development to be labelled sustainable, and marketed to the consumer. In the present, minor insufficent development is touted as leading edge. Focus has been taken off the broader picture. But that's the capitalist way.

First Nations Last

How is it that our history of colonization has left the people and communities who originally inhabited our lands have been pushed to the fringe of our societies? Was it their relationship with the earth didn't allow for or encourage exploitation that did it in- they got in the way of the drive for more, the treadmill of production? Somehow their way of living was deemed 'uncivilized' and yet it is our current 'civilized' society that exploits the land, takes and doesn't return, harms people's livilihoods, food supplies and water sources and lets the externalities of our actions fall onto other people to deal with. People who don't matter as much such as the poor, racialized and marginalized groups. It just seems ridiculous that common stereotype has mainstream Canadian society asking why 'they' (the first nations people) continue to complain so much- as if the money that gets dwindled down through council etc. really makes up for all the harm done culturally and environmentally....

World upside down, global south and north

In the last few decades environmental sustainability has been become a universal value- atleast in language even when not in action- and how this has taken shape in various parts of the globe. When development and economic growth and prosperity are the utmost goals globally it is not surprising that the global south's position on sustainable measures is also concerned with the limitations this would impose on their ability to develop based on exports of their resources- particularly when that is exactly part of how the global north has gotten to where it is. And yet the North is arguing that everyone must follow the same guidelines and principles and condemns the methods in which many of the nations in the global south live their basic life (ie use of forests to for fuel for cooking etc.). So where do we go in a world where no body will take responsability for anything and everyone just points fingers and where the trend is to talk solution but never action. Does it have to change and if so who and how....?

Climate Change- the failure of development

Since Al Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth", brougth the reality of climate change to the masses, the issue has risen to be one of the biggest issues of our time. There certainly has been a great deal of discourse and debate which has been beneficial. But arguably, the realities of climate change are not fully acknowledged and the willingness needed to combat it is not there. If one looks at the Kyoto Treaty, and the huge struggle it has been for nations to sign on and/or fulfill their comitments, we are very far away from adequately addressing climate change. This is particularily true given that Kyoto is just a step in the right direction. With the state Kyoto is in, a successor treaty which will be gravely needed, seems very unlikely. This all very important, and I feel it comes to an unwillingness of countries to move away from the current form of economic development towards one that acknowledges the realities in its actions and character. Rather all we are seeing are feable attempts of reducing or controlling the development we do have. THis is being done, denying that a fundamental characteristic of our development is its need for growth, which inevitably means more emmissions.

Man Made Disasters

Language always surrounds Natural Disasters and rarely focuses on some of the perpetuated man made disasters than perpetuate or make worse the effects of a natural disaster. When disaster occurs who gets the help and who gets the help faster are very realistic concerns. The example widely used in the North American context is Hurricane Katarina in New Orleans. In the first place the Levy system (that was built as a replacement for natural environmental measures to deal with floods) was not built well enough. But the areas it broke through to and caused the most flooding were generally the poorest areas of the city, where the poor and racilzied individuals lived. They were flooded the most and yet as the city began to fix itself after it was drying the places that received the most money and attention were the flashy, rich, touristy areas of the city while many people were left without housing alternatives. Time and time again in disasters, whether in our own backyard or globally, it is the most marginalized and poor populations who have the least amount of resources to cope and who end up hit the hardest.

Stomping out the Little Ones

I think the thing that continues to confuse me is the unquestioning wide spread support for the massive shift from local sustainable family farms to a market and profit driven agriculture system. And the media and modern discourse encourages people to not even notice it's happened. No more are sustainable practices where relationships from the farmers, to familys to earth to community matter. No more do values, health or ethics matter. All of this has been replaced by a capitalistic drive for more; more meat, more money, more efficiency and also more deceiving- no knowing where your meat came from, or what's in your meat, or the impact of it's production and consumption. Instead the truth is hidden or 'altered' so that we eat our meat thinking ' ohh those happy cows, like on the commercials, living the high life on those nice farms.' as we cut off another bite of our farm factory meat- not thinking about the true cost of it's being on our plates. We can hope that governments continue to and grow firmer in there enforcement of laws and legislation created to protect the environment and people from such atrocities. But we can't only leave change in the hands of governments and activist groups- we too need to change our consumption patterns and eat more ethically. Whether we are choosing to abstain from supporting the large scale farm corporations and thus not eat meat or choose into eating more ethically sound products that are better for the environment, our health, local economies and our which are also encouraging social change and raising awareness. We need to never lose hope that we each have power to create change- even if small!

Our needs 'hogging' precious resources

I think the element of the swine business that baffles me most are the externalities involved. The fact that thousands of tons of waste are seeping into water tables, surface water, private wells etc. is unacceptable- unless your in the corporate world where you can find and create loopholes where it is acceptable. The people of the eastern counties of North Carolina suffer a great deal of the costs associated with the large scale CAFO hog industry in their back yards and do not get to share in the benefits. The vertically integrated corporations have schemed their way out of following environmental regulations and therefore do not have to worry about the costs of their actions- a cost external to their production and profit. Unsustainable waste management practices affect the surrounding environment, their ecosystems and the people that inhabit such areas as well, the impacts of such damaging practices reach far and wide and will only become more apparent as time goes on and it's too late to reverse. Hopefully the work that advocates for more sustainable swine farming practices have been pursuing will continue to affect change within the industry.