否思可持續性

De-thinking Sustainability

Erebus Wong

為第一屆南南論壇寫的一篇conceptual notes，pdf版：

http://southsouthforum.org/pdf/Erebus%20Wong_Dethinking%20sustainability.pdf

For the First South South Forum, 12 December 2011

Question:
How can we avoid the notion of sustainability becoming a developmentalist Trojan horse?

Sustainable development has become a mantra since the publication of the Brundtland Report by the United Nations World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED) in 1987. The twin concept Sustainable Development or the Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is defined as the "development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs."

Since then, we always find the standard recipe in many authoritative reports concerning vital issues: 1. identity the problem; 2. acknowledge the seriousness and urgency of the problem; 3. emphasize applying market principle to “solving” the problem. The latest example is The Stern Review on the Economics of Climate Change.

But wait a second. Whose needs? Is the present model of development taking care of the needs of most of the living beings in the world, or just catering the imperative needs for endless productivist/consumerist/monetary expansion? Now everybody talk about sustainability. Even rapacious financiers desire their voodoo magic to be sustainable. We must ask: To what extent sustainability is still a useful idea?

Someone may say despite its many limits we shouldn’t throw away the baby with dirty water. But I behold it for a long time and have yet to see a baby…only more dirty water.

Question: Can we decouple sustainability from development?
If no, I’d rather search for a new idea truly instrumental to transformation.

New Historicity: ecological overshoot
Since 1987 we have entered into a totally new historicity that few economists and politicians are willing to acknowledge: we consume more natural resources than the earth can regenerate. We are in a mode of ecological overshoot, living beyond the carrying capacity of the earth. That makes many of our old-good economic wisdoms obsolete. Now the earth is too small and too crowded to allow us to be competitive, our invaluable natural resources are too limited to afford “creative” destruction. The earth’s ecological system may not stand a chance to reach the turning-point of the environmental Kuznets curve before its irreversible breakdown. The old paradigm of productivist competition is not only obsolete but detrimental to humanity. It should be replaced by a new paradigm: sharing. An inclusive sharing and wise nurturing of the global commons is the new mode of civilization we should move toward, if we wish our civilization to be civilized at all. The paradigm shift should be deep and quick.

Decoupling Well-being from Economic Growth
Recently, the UNEP appeals to decoupling economic growth from resources consumption.
But we must ask why economic growth in the first place? It seems that economic growth is an unquestionable aim and the problem becomes how to achieve it by better means. But should not the aim of our civilization be the well-being of humankind and the ecological system? It is obvious that economic growth does not necessarily translate into people’s wellbeing.

Then the decoupling we should aspire for is to decouple well-being from material accumulation and consumption. What is really relevant is not devising how to maintain growth by consuming less resources in production. The problem cannot be solved within a productivist/consumerist framework which is the culprit of the mayhem we get trapped in. A truly innovative transformation should be re-orienting our mode of civilization. The real solution is reflecting on how to improve our sense of well-being by depending less on
material consumption. In a word, it is more about a qualitative than a quantitative transform. Human civilization should move toward a new phase.

From shamanism to Taoism to Zen Buddhism, spiritual cultures abounds showing that human being is endowed with the capacity of unconditional well-being not dependent on material consumption or others. If we really want to learn from the aboriginal people’s wisdoms, we should look for more than their modes of material and knowledge production which are still Eurocentric notions. It should be the wisdom of unconditional well-being.

Money or credit creation is the best kept secret of capitalist exploitation and enslavement. We should take back the power of credit creation and overhaul it as public commons for creative sharing of the global commons. 

New Paradigms vs Deadly Old Paradigm

Inclusive Equitable Sharing instead of competition
Nurturing instead of production
Well-being instead of consumerist craving
Regeneration instead of reproduction
Ecological Guardianship instead of ownership
Money/credit creation as public commons or the end of money as we know it

Stop the monkey show of the Climate Summit. Stop the bullshit on carbon trade. Forest and water cycle is the key to revert climatic cataclysm. CO2 is picked because it fits with the economic reasoning and can serve as new candidate for financial expansion. Strive for reforestation with rich biodiversity at all costs. Protect the oceans like protecting our blood. Make it mandatory for the population living in advanced regions to cut material and energy consumption level at least by 50%. Redesign and reshape our cities which have become hotplates scorching the Earth.

Then we can sit down to talk about sustainability.