GEOG 352 – Natural & Social Capital (Day 5). Housekeeping Items Did anyone not get assigned a book...

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GEOG 352 – Natural & Social Capital (Day 5)
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Transcript of GEOG 352 – Natural & Social Capital (Day 5). Housekeeping Items Did anyone not get assigned a book...

Page 1: GEOG 352 – Natural & Social Capital (Day 5). Housekeeping Items Did anyone not get assigned a book report presentation day? Today, we'll pick topics.

GEOG 352 – Natural & Social Capital (Day 5)

Page 2: GEOG 352 – Natural & Social Capital (Day 5). Housekeeping Items Did anyone not get assigned a book report presentation day? Today, we'll pick topics.

Housekeeping Items

Did anyone not get assigned a book report presentation day?

Today, we'll pick topics for the debate from a hat or box (i.e. randomly) and meet briefly to hone the debate questions. The four topics we chose are sprawl vs. smart growth, whether coffee workers are well-rewarded (and the benefits/ drawback of fair trade), the best way to reduce air pollution/ CO2, and private ownership of seeds (for and against).

Page 3: GEOG 352 – Natural & Social Capital (Day 5). Housekeeping Items Did anyone not get assigned a book report presentation day? Today, we'll pick topics.

Jonathan Porritt – Chapter 1 Chapter 1 addresses the conflicting imperatives of

sustainability. In contrast with the 3-legged stool analogy, he

argues that learning to live within the ecological limits of the planet (the biological imperative) is absolute and non-negotiable, and that improving people's material standard of living year after year is a relative imperative and is politically and economically determined.

He argues that claims about uncertainty and debate in the scientific community about the severity of our ecological problems are simply misleading.

Page 4: GEOG 352 – Natural & Social Capital (Day 5). Housekeeping Items Did anyone not get assigned a book report presentation day? Today, we'll pick topics.

Jonathan Porritt – Chapter 1 He gives a brief overview of the (grim) state of the

planet, notes a few bright spots in the developed countries where parameters have improved, and cites the Montreal Protocol as an example of what can happen in terms of international collaboration. However, he notes that the ozone depletion problem is far from licked.

He describes the damage to the Earth's ecosystem services, as described by the UN's Millennium Ecosystem Assessment report (2005), which usefully divides these services into supporting, provisioning, regulating, and cultural.

Page 5: GEOG 352 – Natural & Social Capital (Day 5). Housekeeping Items Did anyone not get assigned a book report presentation day? Today, we'll pick topics.

Ecosystem Services

Page 6: GEOG 352 – Natural & Social Capital (Day 5). Housekeeping Items Did anyone not get assigned a book report presentation day? Today, we'll pick topics.

Jonathan Porritt – Chapter 1 He also cites the Millennium Assessment's framework

for human well-being – security, basic material for good life, health, good social relations – and indicates in Figure 1.3 the relationship between these (what Mark Anielski would call “genuine wealth”) and ecosystem services.

While social justice and economic profitability may well be essential parts of the 'path' for getting to sustainability, biological or ecological sustainability is the precondition for all other human objectives (“noble aspiration or venal self-interest”), political programs, and what have you. These are, by definition, secondary goals.

Page 7: GEOG 352 – Natural & Social Capital (Day 5). Housekeeping Items Did anyone not get assigned a book report presentation day? Today, we'll pick topics.
Page 8: GEOG 352 – Natural & Social Capital (Day 5). Housekeeping Items Did anyone not get assigned a book report presentation day? Today, we'll pick topics.

The Imperative of Economic Prosperity While he acknowledges the validity of

anthropological observations of societies that have not improved their material circumstances over generations, and the value of the concepts of voluntary simplicity and right livelihood, he says that “the vast majority of [the world's] people alive today both want to be better off themselves and want their children... to be better off than that.”

It may not have been an imperative in some traditional societies, but the 'genie' is now out of the bottle.

Page 9: GEOG 352 – Natural & Social Capital (Day 5). Housekeeping Items Did anyone not get assigned a book report presentation day? Today, we'll pick topics.

The Imperative of Economic Prosperity In the rich countries, despite pockets of poverty,

the economy is driven by what John Maynard Keynes called relative as opposed to absolute wants.

In the poor countries, despite a rising middle class in some places, progress on the basics has been according, the UNDP's Human Development Report (2005), “depressingly slow” – some improvements, but also some slippage (460 million people with a lower score on the Human Development Index, a measure of well-being largely based on health and education indicators).

Page 10: GEOG 352 – Natural & Social Capital (Day 5). Housekeeping Items Did anyone not get assigned a book report presentation day? Today, we'll pick topics.

The Imperative of Economic Prosperity He points out that, for every dollar spent on

international aid, ten is spent on military expenditures. He notes that the annual increase in military spending alone would be sufficient to meet the UN's goal of rich countries spending 0.7% of their GDP on aid.

He also notes the apparent disparity between people's subconscious realization that prosperity ǂ happiness, and the fact they vote as if they believe that (this gets back to Raimo's macroeconomic imperatives).

Page 11: GEOG 352 – Natural & Social Capital (Day 5). Housekeeping Items Did anyone not get assigned a book report presentation day? Today, we'll pick topics.

The Imperative of Economic Prosperity He pooh-poohs the likelihood of a dramatic

collapse occurring of the capitalist system (did he speak too soon?).

Instead, he suggests that “prevailing geopolitical reality would seem to indicate a a very different prospect – in which the process of globalization accelerates still further, the phenomenon of mass denial continues as the majority of people press for improvements in their material standard of living, and 'reform from within' remains the most realistic option of all the political options available.”

Page 12: GEOG 352 – Natural & Social Capital (Day 5). Housekeeping Items Did anyone not get assigned a book report presentation day? Today, we'll pick topics.

The Imperative of Economic Prosperity Given the apparent triumph of the capitalist

values of individualism, 'freedom' (however defined), consumerism, economic initiative and exchange, the issue – for Porritt and many others – becomes one of political leadership, a quality which has been singularly lacking around global environmental issues on the part of the U.S., and, to a lesser degree, on the part of Canada.

Are there some significant examples of sustainability leadership in the world, whether in rich or poor nations?

Page 13: GEOG 352 – Natural & Social Capital (Day 5). Housekeeping Items Did anyone not get assigned a book report presentation day? Today, we'll pick topics.

A Sketch of the Sustainable Future

He paints a sketch of a more sustainable world, and many features – and people's aspirations – remain the same. However, it would be more decentralized, would feature less consumerism and international trade, and far more efficient in the use of natural resources and energy and in delivering the goods and services that people need and desire on a daily basis.

There may well be personal carbon quotas that can be traded, and rich people will pay far more for their consumption (through taxes, etc.).

Do you agree with this vision/ projection?

Page 14: GEOG 352 – Natural & Social Capital (Day 5). Housekeeping Items Did anyone not get assigned a book report presentation day? Today, we'll pick topics.

Questions for Discussion

At the end of the chapter, he offers a summary of his key points. Each can be seen as something to agree or disagree with, so I would like to go through them:

the science of sustainability/ eco-crisis is irrefutable; conventional environmentalism has failed to win over the

hearts and minds of the public/ political leadership; doom and gloom messages by themselves won't work –

necessary changes have to be seen as desirable; we must work with the grain of the market and not against

it; that said, the current version of capitalism is not

sustainable and must be reformed;

Page 15: GEOG 352 – Natural & Social Capital (Day 5). Housekeeping Items Did anyone not get assigned a book report presentation day? Today, we'll pick topics.

Questions for Discussion “At its heart, therefore, sustainable development comes right

down to one all-important challenge: is it possible to conceptualize and then operationalize an alternative model of capitalism – one that allows for the sustainable management of the different capital assets upon which we rely so that the yield from these different assets sustains us now, as well as into the future?”

sustainable development must be reframed, in part, in terms of new wealth opportunities;

sustainable development must successfully combine preserving the natural capital/ ecosystem services of the planet with a more balanced and rewarding (and sufficient) way of life;

traditional environmentalism must throw its lot in with this agenda or decline; what alternative is there?