All governments and corporations need to encourage the spirit of invention. We need to minimise waste (of food and energy) and maximise human potential.
The second Earth Summit at Rio de Janeiro, attended by over 100 heads of state and government, has ended with an outcome that leaves no one happy. The conference’s secretary-general, Sha Zukang, admitted this, saying, “My job was to make everyone equally unhappy.”
The reasons for this spring partly from the sheer size of the problem. The outcome document, titled “The Future We Want”, starts with all parties renewing a commitment to sustainable development and the promotion of an economically, socially and environmentally sustainable future for our planet.
The problem is no one on earth seems to know exactly how this is to be achieved. Priorities differ for poor and rich countries. For poor countries, eradicating poverty takes primacy, as it should. Economic growth becomes paramount. The rich Western world, which is currently beset by economic woes, is also unwilling to make financial sacrifices.
It is easy to declare pious intentions. To actually work out solutions is far harder. For example, one factor that contributes significantly to environmental damage is the use of fossil fuels. Their use cannot be stopped at present because electricity generation and transport depend on them. However, one idea was that subsidies on their use should be dropped so that price regulates demand to an extent. That would mean large increases in the prices of diesel, petrol, cooking gas and electricity in countries such as India. This would affect the poor the most as prices of other things, including food, would rise.
No government can bite this bullet, especially if it hopes to win elections. But democracy is not something we would wish to give up, so elections are necessary, and the politics that comes with it is part of the package.
Recognising these conundrums — and there are many — it seems the only workable way out is probably via a technological breakthrough.
Till date, humanity has stayed one step ahead of doomsday thanks to human ingenuity. Thus Malthusian projections of doom haven’t come to pass owing to technological improvements that allow the earth to carry its population of seven billion.
All governments, corporations and civil society need to encourage the spirit of invention. We need to minimise waste (of food and energy) and maximise human potential while controlling population growth. Our survival, and earth’s, hinges on this.
Comments
Saving earth requires the
kailash singh
25 Jun 2012 - 19:01
Saving earth requires the impossible i.e.less and less consumption.If BMW,Air Conditioned Malls and likes remain the core symbols of progress and prosperity,exploitation of natural resources much beyond sustainable level are as certain as any thing on earth.This is not to say that we go back to primitive existence. But infinite supply of oil/gas/coal and other natural resources or even core resource like water is impossibility.Renewable energy has to become viable alternative but that too shall not become limitless source for ever increasing consumption of ever increasing human population because of limitation of catchment area.
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