The Great Disconnect

© Bill Barron 2009

ISBN 978-988-17507-3-0

Typeset in Lucida Bright by Thanh Nguyen

Cover design by Jonas Chau

Published by:

Clear Water Bay

The Institute for the Environment

Hong Kong University of Science and Technology

Kowloon, Hong Kong

ienv.ust.hk

and

Civic Exchange

Room 701, Hoseinee House

69 Wyndham Street, Central, Hong Kong

www.civic-exchange.org

Printed and bound in Hong Kong by Regal Printing

First printing 2009

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,

stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any

means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise,

without the prior written permission of the publisher.

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1

THE GREAT DISCONNECT

28

Chapters IV through VIII consider possible responses to

the sustainability challenges.

To wrap up Chapter I, Figure 1 provides a summary

illustration of the major pressures on the planet and the

resulting challenges to the sustainability of the current

development path.

FIGURE 1: PRESSURES AND CHALLENGES

PRESSURES

DEMANDS ON RESOURCE BASE

CLIMATE CHANGESTRAINING

PLANETARY RESOURCE

LIMITS

[ Wild Card ]PANDEMIC(e.g. bird flu)

CHALLENGESTO SUSTAINABILITY OF CURRENT

DEVELOPMENT PATH

Mineral Biological Near-Termsignal

vs.noise?

Long-Term

embeddedchanges

Sudden, highly disruptive, but

temporary

POPULATION AVERAGECONSUMPTION

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161

CHAPTER VIII�—FITTING THE PIECES TOGETHER

�• a willingness to take on and keep to a longer term

perspective (i.e. with respect to the rights of future

generations);

�• acknowledging more fully humankind�’s dependence

on the natural world along with a greater appreciation

of the importance of non-human life forms; and

�• the ability to make more out of less.

FIGURE 2: A FRAMEWORK FOR CONSIDERING RESPONSES

This figure brings together this book�’s major points regarding the ways we might respond to the sustainability challenges to our current way of life.

CHALLENGES TOSUSTAINABILITY

RESPONSES

GOVERNMENT-LED

MARKET-LED

VALUES-DRIVEN

Strong Role for National Governments & International Cooperation

�• Internalize external costs, beginning witha carbon tax or permitting system

�• Protecting rights of future generations (e.g. via limits to discounting)

Harnessing Market Forces

�• Technical fixes

�• Market price adjustments

�• Green business practices & consumerism

Cultural Shift

�• Rebalancing material / non-material in assessing quality of life

�• Thrift, efficiency & the social contract

�• The media and civil society play key roles

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but...

urgency for radically changing the way we use resources and emit wastes and

so many of us lead ... and so many more aspire to.

It is as if the two sides live on diff erent planets.

—

The world economy is increasingly geared to throughput,

unlimited.

• Governments see a slowing of the throughput as a crisis. Our

—

This book lays out in clear language the challenges to the sustainability of the current economic system. It then considers possible market, government, and values-driven responses.

The INSTITUTE FOR THE ENVIRONMENT OF HONG KONG UNIVERSITY OF

focusing on sustainable development (with special emphasis on Hong

CIVIC EXCHANGE is a Hong Kong–based independent public policy think tank addressing issues in energy, environment, climate change, urban