Sustainable Development Challenges and Political Views Flashcards
Give The Brundtland Report definition of sustainable development.
“SD is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the needs of future generations to meet their own.”
Give the UNICEF/UNEP/WWF definition of sustainable development.
“Sustainable Development means improving the quality of human life whilst living within the carrying capacity of the ecosystems.”
Whats is the Triple Bottom Line with respect to sustainable development.
“Sustainable development involves the simultaneous pursuit of economic prosperity, environmental quality and social equity. Companies aiming for sustainability need to perform not against a single, financial bottom line but against the triple bottom line.”
When people talk about sustainable development, what is it that needs to be sustained?
Nature - Earth, Biodiversity, Ecosystems
Life Support - Ecosystem services, Resources, Environment
Community - Cultures, Groups, Places
When people talk about sustainable development, what is it that needs to be developed?
Economy - Wealth, Productivity, Consumption
People - Life Expectancy, Education, Social Equity/Opportunity
Society - Security and wellbeing of nations/institutions, Social Capital
What is corporate sustainability?
A business approach that creates long-term shareholder value by embracing opportunities and managing risks deriving from economic, environmental and social developments.
Give the three categories of environmental challenges defined by Jared Diamond.
Destruction and Loss
Limits on what the Earth can provide
Generation and moving of harmful things
Give the sub-categories within ‘Destruction and Loss’ as defined by Jared Diamond.
Destruction and Loss:
Habitats
Wild foods
Biodiversity
Soil (erosion, salination, acidification)
Give the sub-categories within ‘Limitations’ as defined by Jared Diamond.
Limitations:
Energy
Fresh water
Photosynthetic ceiling
Raw materials
Give the sub-categories within ‘Harmful Things’ as defined by Jared Diamond.
Harmful Things:
Generation of toxins
Alien species (rabbits/lamprey)
Ozone depleting chemicals
Greenhouse gases
List the social challenges humans face.
Poverty Disease/famine Extremes of inequality Cultural homogenisation Loss of traditional ways of life Exploitation Conflict Health
What is Dryzek’s Model?
Reformist Radical
Prosaic Problem Solving Survivalism
Imaginative Sustainability Green Radicalism
Reformist/Radical - attitude to current political system
Prosaic/Imaginative - attitude to environmental problems (problem or opportunity)
What is a ‘Promethean’ response?
There’s no real problem…
Climate change doesn’t exist…
Market forces will sort all problems…
What is Administrative Rationalism discourse?
Prosaic + Reformist
- Experts decide what level of impact is appropriate from a public interest perspective
- Administrators put measures in place to enact this
- Benign state assesses the relative interests of environment and economy to make a unilateral decision
- Rhetoric of concern and reassurance
What is Democratic Pragmatism discourse?
Prosaic + Reformist
- Civic society must have involvement in any decision making
- Lack of faith in expert judgements
- Ideally produces consensus on good solution but can be co-opted by those with power
What is Economic Rationalism discourse?
Prosaic + Reformist
- Environmental problems result from market failure
- Most effective approach is to define property rights over externalities and to create markets that allow these rights to be traded
- View humanity as rational self-interested economic actors
- Viewed suspiciously due to the lack of discourse surrounding people and nature
What is Survivalist discourse?
Prosaic + Radical
- Inevitable limits to growth due to the carrying capacity of the biosphere
- Must move to a steady-state economy - resource use, population and economic development must all be limited
- International coordinated action is necessary, authoritarian approaches are deemed acceptable
- Images of environmental doom
- Can antagonise/alienate many thus working against the desired goal
What is Sustainable Development discourse?
Reformist + Imaginative
- Growth is needed but the required development cannot be met on the current growth path
- Growth should be promoted but guided so that it is benign and socially just
- Poverty forces environmental degradation onto people
- Economic growth, environmental protection and long-term sustainability can be mutually reinforcing
- Cooperation at local and global levels
What is Ecological Modernisation discourse?
Reformist + Imaginative
- Restructuring of capitalist economy
- Conscious and coordinated intervention is needed, market forces cant achieve this alone
- Creates business opportunity
- State plays a large role but requires buy-in
- Language of reassurance and opportunity.
What is Green Consciousness discourse?
Radical + Imaginative
- Nature has an intrinsic value in its own right
- Our natural state is to be in harmony with nature
- Could be likened to a spiritual transformation
- Hierarchy is a modernist imposition
What is Green Politics discourse?
Radical + Imaginative
- Modernist industrial system is the cause of problems, it needs radical change
- Radical political change will be required - politics and living should be decentralised
- All humanity is equal, competition has a place but should be checked by egalitarian political structures
- Rational argument and rhetoric is key
