With such a low ceiling and thin layer of breathable air, it becomes difficult to understand how there are still people who do not believe that human activities such as the burning of fossil fuels and other industrial activities have a harmful effect on our habitat.
The History of the Concept
With the industrial revolution, the mechanization of agriculture, the expansion of trade and globalization, the Western world, the developing countries and the poor countries, in this order, have experienced an unprecedented development at all levels: increased production, population increase, increased consumption, increased needs for energy, and increased means of transportation, especially planes and automobiles, to the point that each family in the richer countries owns more than one car. Sadly, pollution and the environmental deterioration have been the inevitable consequences of this unbalanced development.
Only our planet did not increase, and since it did not increase, the results of this too fast and haphazard growth soon appeared, especially because of the “use and throw away” philosophy that has been in force for several decades. The concept of recycling is recent, and has not yet entered the minds of many people, which is quite strange as we have said in the previous article about the cycles of water, nitrogen, carbon, oxygen etc. which showed that life on this planet has always depended on recycling finite amounts of elements.
Recycling has always been the philosophy of life on our planet, although its inhabitants have lived for a long time, and many will still do, according to the “use and throw away” thinking. Nowadays, it is cheaper, and less hassle, to buy new than to repair. But to which is it cheaper? To the economy or to the planet? What kind of toll do we place on our planet with this type of short-sighted ill-considered choice?
The idea of sustainable development emerged at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro, in 1992. Initially, only the environmental impact on development was considered, that is, the capacity of our planet to sustain a given level of development without depleting its resources or jeopardizing the lives of the future generations. The other two pillars – economic and social – appeared later.
It is easy to know whether what we are doing is sustainable or not; we just need ask ourselves if we can continue doing this over and over again, forever? The first thing to inquire is the environment – does it compromise the environment for the next generation? Secondly, we need to ask if it is conducive to economic growth. And thirdly, if this economic benefit extends to all or only to selected few, and whether it promotes peace, justice and social stability.
What we have seen so far is that the wealth that some produce is proportional to the poverty they cause, in short, the more wealth, the more poverty. Furthermore, in relation to the environment, we have lived with the mentality of the mule that says “after I die if there is no more grass that grows on all the Earth, I don’t care for I no longer need it”.
Development seen solely as economic growth destroys the environment and causes deep social inequalities. For development to be sustainable, it has to be tridimensional, that is, the aspects of social justice and environmental protection should be just as important as economic growth.
The Real Situation
“Long before we exhaust the physical limits of our planet there will be grave social upheavals provoked by the great divide existing between the income of rich countries and poor countries.” III Report of the Club of Rome (1976)
For a bench to stand, it must have at least three legs; it cannot stand on one or two; this is the same with sustainable development. Capitalism has long inflated economic development without thinking of the other two and this has created a world where 1% of humanity has more wealth than the remaining 99%.
More concretely, one percent of the world population holds 54% of the world wealth and the rest of humanity only 46%. The difference is abysmal and even worse is that the gap between the rich and the poor continues to grow… The capitalism that has created the middle class is destroying it, even in the rich and developing countries.
Immigration – The “grave social upheavals provoked by the great divide between the income between rich countries and poor countries” advocated by the Club of Rome are already happening. To defend themselves, the rich have entrenched themselves behind thick walls, some in process of being constructed between US and Mexico, others in the form of natural barriers such as the Mediterranean Sea, preventing the Africans from entering Europe.
The poor are barred from entering the European fortress or into North America, or Japan or Australia. However, the highly qualified professionals, surgeons, football players, musicians, architects, and lawyers always have the doors open to them. To the poor countries we search for raw material at low cost, cheap labour, human trafficking for adoption (not all bad), but also for prostitution, organ trafficking etc. This leads us to the next issue – globalization.
Globalization – Through globalization, the Earth functions as a unit. The means of communication have removed the constraints of space and time. Today, we no longer get to know what happened in the recent past, we get to know while it is still happening.
But beyond the informational aspect, globalization is fundamentally economics and its leaders are less and less the states and more and more the multinational companies. In the continuing quest for cheap manual labour, which often involves child labour, the multinational brands and logos call for a lifestyle and form a global culture that little by little replaces the local culture.
Globalization per se would not be bad in fostering close communication among all peoples. Following the physical principle of the communicating vessels, when we connect an almost empty bucket of water to a full one, water flows from the bucket that has more to the one that has less, until equilibrium is reached between the two. In principle, through globalization we should reach equality between peoples.
The problem is that globalization is an invention of the rich to exploit the poor. The communication is made through valves which are devices that allow the movement to happen in only one direction. In this case, the movement occurs from the poor countries to the rich and not from the rich to the poor.
Atmospheric Contamination – The industrial civilization derived its energy mainly from non-renewable raw materials (fossil fuels, especially coal and oil). It used these raw materials without control, as if they were inexhaustible. Air pollution is increasing at an astonishing rate: it has doubled in a single decade. The Earth’s ability to sustain this contamination and avoid its harmful consequences is limited.
Industries and automobiles remove large amounts of oxygen from the air, and in return emit large quantities of carbon dioxide. As the result, we are breathing more and more rarified air that can cause diseases, namely cancer; it also raises the average temperature of the planet by increasing the greenhouse effect, thus trapping too much heat, not letting it escape into space. Our planet is heading towards a planet like Venus by the ever increasing amount of carbon dioxide.
From the point of view of biology, the human species is doomed to extinction if it persists in destroying its environment. Every organism that destroys the environment in which it lives, will end up destroying itself. Science affirms that in order to survive, it is not enough to cut the CO2 emissions by 20% or 60% by 2050, it is necessary to cut it by 90% by 2030.
The Problem of Water – In many countries, the lack of water is the main reason why people cannot get out of poverty. Around 3.4 million people, mostly children, die every year from diseases associated with the shortage of safe drinking water, inadequate sanitation and lack of hygiene. The waterborne diseases are the leading cause of death worldwide – 80% of all diseases in the world. It is predicted that by 2035 half of the world’s population is expected to live in conditions of “insecurity” in relation to the supply of drinkable water.
- “If the wars of this century were fought over oil, the wars of the next century will be fought over water.” Ismail Serageldin, World Bank vice president in 1995
- “The next war in the Middle East will break out due to scarcity of water supply.” Muammar Gaddafi
- “The conditions are set for a century of conflicts over water.” The Economist
In addition to plastics, fish are no longer a healthy choice of food that they once were because of the levels of mercury present in the sea water continue to rise. The older the fish, the more mercury is absorbed into its system.
A Planet With Only Duties – No one defends the rights of the planet. The Earth has no rights, it only has the duty to feed us. If we don’t take good care of it, it cannot take care of us and sustain our life.
Deforestation – Livestock farming or monoculture, of soya beans for example, is causing desertification. The land used was rich only within the forest ecosystem; without trees, it is quickly depleted, and it becomes necessary to resort to chemical fertilizers so that some agriculture can be practiced.
Deforestation is proceeding at a rapid pace, without taking into account that growth or recovery is slow. We need the trees, not so much to produce oxygen, because the great majority of oxygen comes from the marine forests, but to absorb CO2.
Forest fires of criminal origin that occur systematically in Portugal, California, Australia, have killed hundreds of people year after year, in addition to emitting CO2 into the atmosphere and desertifying previously luscious leafy zones.
The ozone layer, or the blue gas that protects us from solar radiation, has decreased so much due to the use and misuse of aerosols that it is no longer good for health to sunbathe. The truth is that we need very much to be exposed to sunlight in order to synthesize vitamin D which is so important to our overall health.
Garbage – Our cities produce tons and tons of garbage every day. On one hand, there is an increasing public awareness to recycle household waste in large cities, and on the other, it is forbidden to recycle leftover food by feeding it to animals. As the result, a lot of food ends up in the trash, which is in itself contradictory to the new mentality of recycling.
Oil tanker accidents at sea ruin the ecosystems for many years. It takes a long time to clean them up. Crimes, like the deliberate blaze of oil wells during the Iraq war that lasted years, have ejected into the atmosphere billions of tons of CO2.
Not many years have passed since the beginning of space exploration and already the orbit of our planet is littered with orbital debris or space junk comprised of various old satellites that stopped functioning. Everyone is thinking of putting more and more satellites into orbit, but no one thinks of retrieving those that no longer work.
The Attitude of Denial – We are sweeping the problems under the carpet. We postpone finding answers to the problems we have at this moment which will only get worse in the future. The attitude in general is that of denial, of not wanting to see, of not taking responsibility for the present behaviours that will deny the future of the next generations. God forgives always, human beings only sometimes, but Mother Nature does not forgive nor forget. Someone once said that with respect to the poisoning of our planet it is like poisoning the placenta that feeds the child.
Greenpeace has stated that if all the inhabitants of the planet were to live like the citizens of the rich countries, consuming and wasting the resources of our planet, the Earth would sustain life for a meager 3 months and then would die, contaminated and depleted of resources. For the latter not to happen, it would take the resources of 10 planets like ours.
Sustainable development is based on the principle that a sustainable and viable economic development is possible without destroying the environment or compromising justice, the world peace, and the habitability of the planet for the future generations. Sustainable development is one that harmonizes economic growth with the reality of the biosphere or the protection of the environment and the individual and social needs of all the peoples living on the planet, that is, with the social inclusion of all.
Protection of the Environment
Regarding air quality, which is the most burning ecological problem, carbon dioxide that the economy emits into the atmosphere should not exceed the amount that plants can absorb by photosynthesis. It is similar to the scenario that a person should not drink more alcohol than his liver can break down. Currently, we are not able to maintain this balance.
Environmental degradation causes problems of physical health, but on the other hand, this same degradation arises from the moral and social values of people who annihilate the preservation of the environment. Forty-six percent of the world population lives in cities. This is why it is necessary to improve the air quality in urban centers by building more green spaces in the middle of cities that can improve the air and trap dust particles. The covering of roofs of homes with solar hot water and photovoltaic panels connected to the electrical grid would save a lot of energy when it is most needed: during the day.
The environmental impact analysis refers to the care to be taken when building a business. The impact it will have on the ecosystem, on plant and animal life, needs to be calculated and considered without compromise. There are more and more species of plants and animals that are disappearing from the face of the Earth, and what is scary is a future where plant and animal life will be reduced only to those produced by agriculture and domestic animals – the planet will have no wild animals because there will be no more forests as these will be occupied by man.
At the time of this of writing, it is becoming big news the dramatic decrease of insect population due to the abuse of chemicals in agriculture. The insects are the ones responsible for the pollination of agricultural plants; without them there is no agriculture.
Economic Growth
A company needs to be profitable for it to survive and continue to exist. The problem is to make profit at any cost. There are many so-called “healthy” economies that operate at the expense of the health of the human beings who sustain them. What will be more important: the health of the economy or the health of those who sustain the economy? Paraphrasing the Gospel, the economy was made for man and not man for the economy. A healthy economy based on the exploitation of those who maintain it through low wages, no holidays, with shifts of more than 8 hours, will sooner or later collapse, since companies cannot operate in this way for long.
In order for an economy to be healthy, it has to have a balance between births and deaths; it has to have enough young workers to replace those who achieve reform and subsidize their reforms – or that what is called solidarity between generations.
In the last 200 years, the world economy grew six times more than in the past, and in the rich countries ten times more. This economic growth occurred at the expense of coal, in the first phase of the industrial revolution, and of oil in the second. To save the Earth we should move immediately toward renewable energies. But if we move in this direction, the economy will cease to grow as it has done in the recent past. On the other hand, the rich countries’ mode of life is not sustainable because if all peoples were to live according to this model, the Earth would die shortly.
To care for the Earth and at the same time let the poor live with more dignity, there can be no economic growth in the rich countries. We would have to lower our standard of living, but since we are not doing this, we find mechanisms to ensure that the rich are always rich and the poor always poor. For this reason the sustainable development is a utopia, a chimera.
Social Inclusion
Sustainability should be sought locally by each company. It should look around itself and bring together all those whose lives are touched by the company: suppliers of raw material, producers, transporters and consumers of the products. All must be included, because they form a greater community. If one loses, all lose in the short or long term.
A company that cares about its workers, that shares its profits among them, and supports social causes, is a company esteemed by workers who are motivated, productive and work better – whoever runs for love does not tire. The explorer explores the Earth, if a company exploits both the environment and the workers, thinking solely of profit, it will end up losing both.
Politics play an important role in rewarding companies that are sustainable at all three levels and penalizing those that are not, because they pollute more, because they do not take care of their employees, etc. In this way, being sustainable becomes now fashionable, because there are financial incentives in place. This is one way that politics tries to influence the economy, so that the latter is not the only one driving the world. All business activity must be economically profitable, socially just, and environmentally sound.
At the company level, this seems to be relatively easy and doable. During the first industrial revolution, there were some businessmen who, in a personal capacity, applied these models and were called philanthropists. To extend these practices to the global level does not seem to be as easy. However, according to the slogan “Think globally and act locally”, sustainability must be sought by each and every company but not imposed in an ideological manner.
Seventeen Sustainable Development Objectives for 2030
These were the millennium goals. As they were not realized within that time frame, they became the goals for 2015; and as the deadline passed once again without achieving them, they are now the objectives for 2030. We will see if they will finally be reached that year, but it does not seem that we are heading in that direction, when several countries have already abandoned the agreements signed such as the one in Paris and others, without fulfilling them.
- End poverty in all its forms, in all places;
- End hunger, achieve food security, improve nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture;
- Ensure a healthy life and promote the well-being for all, at all ages;
- Guarantee inclusive and equitable quality education, and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all;
- Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls;
- Guarantee availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all;
- Guarantee access to cheap, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all;
- Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full-time and productive employment and decent work for all;
- Build resilient infrastructures, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization, and foster innovation;
- Reduce inequality between and within countries;
- Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable;
- Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns;
- Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts, recognizing that the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is the principal international and intergovernmental forum to negotiate the global response to climate change;
- Conserve and promote the sustainable use of oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development;
- Protect, restore and promote the sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and loss of biodiversity;
- Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, proportionate access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels;
- Strengthen the implementation mechanisms and revitalize the global partnership for sustainable development.
“Water and air, the two essential fluids on which life depends, have become global trash cans.” Jacques Cousteau
The market produces everything we want, according to the law of supply and demand. This law places an enormous power in our hands: through our demand, we have the capacity to influence the supply of the market. As consumers we are not aware of this power, but the producers of goods acknowledge us, for this reason they say that the client is always right.
The economic system of our society has accustomed us to use and enjoy consumer goods without educating us of their acquisition – it does not tell us how these good are made, by whom, under what working conditions, with what resources, how far they travelled to reach us.
As consumers, by our choices, we send messages to the market – if we prefer a product with certain characteristics, the market will try to produce it; if we choose to buy products from companies that adopt conducts that respect their employees and the environment, the market will ipso facto orient itself in that direction.
Similarly, if we reject a product because it was produce against our values, travelled many kilometers to reach us, used cheap labour or, even worse, child labour, contaminated the environment, if we set it aside and stop buying it, the market will in turn cease to produce it; it is enough that the sales fall by a mere 5% for the market to reorient itself.
In addition to being aware in our daily lives and adopting good ecological habits in our personal lives – such as saving water in the shower, walking short distances instead of taking the car, recycling household waste, turning off excessive and unnecessary lights – the use of power that we have as consumers has immediate and lasting effects that contribute to sustainable development based on the protection of the environment and on economic growth where everyone wins.
Fr. Jorge Amaro, IMC
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