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 Toward
a stewardship of the Global Commons:
engaging “my neighbor” in the issue of sustainability
By
members of the Critical Issues Committee, Geological Society of America
E-an Zen and
Allison R. (Pete) Palmer
For the ad hoc Committee on Critical issues, Geological Society of America
GUIDELINES FOR SUSTAINABILITY LITERACY:
THE INTRICACIES OF LIVING IN AN INTERACTIVE WORLD
 Preamble
Humanity has
a problem: learning to live within its means.
Continuing human population growth and increasing demand on Earth
resources will severely test the Earth's ability to concurrently maintain
a viable human habitat and a healthy ecosystem.
The crunch could come as soon as the middle of the twenty-first
century; if the Earth fails as a viable habitat, human suffering, societal
disruption, and ecosystem deterioration will increase.
We humans, however, are more than just prolific procreators and
consumers; we are also endowed with intelligence, imagination, the capacity
to look forward, and the power to choose.
We could change things.
Sustainability
embodies the concept that humans can consciously choose to live in balance
with the ecosystem, within the limits posed by natural resources, for
generations to come. To achieve successful transition to sustainability,
however, we humans, here and elsewhere, must change the way we live
our lives. To initiate that
change, we need a constructive dialogue to achieve better understanding
among all participants about how we humans affect the viability of our
habitat. We need to communicate with one another in
a shared language.
These “Guidelines for Sustainability Literacy” are intended to
be a step toward better public understanding of the connected web of
sustainability issues. We disturb that web every time we make choices.
The scales and dimensions of our collective daily activities
and decisions directly and indirectly affect the prospect for a future
in which the Earth remains as a place for civil and just living in balance
with the rest of the ecosystem. We owe to future generations both timely warnings
and active measures that can anticipate and mitigate the problems we
bequeath to them through our styles of living.
Today’s children, and their children, will be the beneficiaries
of our caring.
The Guidelines can become effective if
the ideas they represent are introduced into the education programs,
formal and informal, for all of the stakeholders of the first half of
the 21st century – primarily young people of high school
and college age. This is true
because understanding of the issues at the grass-roots level will be
necessary to support the tough political decisions needed to mitigate
the consequences of our profligate ways of living, and return the human
enterprise of the mid-21st century to a humane balance with
the global ecosystem. It can be done, and we in the United States
have much responsibility; we can lead the way.
Guidelines for Sustainability Literacy
I. What
is sustainability?
A. A human challenge: humanity is a force to balance
or upset the dynamics
of the global habitat.
B. What is to be sustained and what is to be changed?
C. A sustainability regime needs stability and
continuity
D. Who are the stakeholders?
II. Why
should we care now?
A. Concerns about projections into the future
1.
Overcrowding
2.
Resource depletion
3.
Environmental degradation
4.
Loss of biodiversity
B. Potential for violent and disruptive social
and political competition for access
to limited resources and amenities
C. Increasingly reduced future options
D. Need for assumption of stewardship responsibility
toward the global commons
1. Atmosphere
2. Biosphere
3.
Hydrosphere
4.
Lithosphere
III.
Basic background for discussion of sustainability
A. Earth history and the human context
B. Spaceship Earth: a materially closed system
C. The implications of growth
1.
Exponential growth and doubling time
2.
Various meanings of “growth” or “development”
3.
Distinction between “bigger” and “better”
4.
Equity and quality of life and environment
D. Global feedback systems
1. Everything is interconnected
2. The unintended consequences of tunnel vision
E. Application and validity of models
1. Probabilistic forecasts
2. Contingency planning
F. Scales: spatial and temporal
G. Rates: natural recharge, etc.
H. The nature of ecosystems
1.
Humans are an intergal part of the ecosystem
2.
Not all ecospace can be subsumed by humans
3. The global commons (atmosphere, oceans, etc) are system buffers
and
are non-renewable ecological niches.
I. The nature of resources
1. Renewable resources are effectively replenished
at rates that depend on
rates of use
2. Non-renewable resources will eventually be
used up and need careful
husbandry.
3. Public vs. private ownership of common resources
raises issues of
equity
4. Resources and ecosystems are neither free nor
inexhaustible
5. Resource utilization, from raw materials through to final disposal of
products and wastes, should be conservative
and environmentally benign: the
paradigm of industrial ecology
J. Recognition of human capacity to make large,
long-lasting impacts on the
global ecosystem
1. Population size and growth
2. Environmental and resource demands
3. Technology
4. National and social strifes and competitions
5. Power of visioning, and implementing our imagination
(the “human spirit”).
6. Ability to affect the frequency, scale, impact,
and location of natural
hazards.
IV. Requirements
of any civil and equitable human society
A. Clean air and clean water
B. Food that meets nutritional needs
C. Shelter and clothing
D Health
E. Opportunities and imperatives for education
F. Gainful employment
G. Security and peace
H. Aesthetics, recreation, and spiritual aspirations
I. Personal mobility
J. Transportation as social infrastructure
K. Opportunity to make free choices for individual
and communal well being.
V. Essential
components of a sustainable future
A. A human population in balance with a viable
and sustainable global ecosystem
B. Material underpinnings for a civil society,
including:
1.
Potable and fresh water
2.
Adequate food
3.
Materials for housing, transportation, etc.
C. Adequate, dependable, and renewable energy
supply
D. Distinguishing needs from desires
E. Consumption in balance with supply
F. Education in the context of a sustainable global
habitat
G. Mechanisms to ensure institutional continuity
and to monitor compliance
VI. Earth
resources that are essential to a sustainable world
A. Atmosphere
B. Soil
C. Water, especially fresh and potable water
D.
Renewable energy sources
1. Practicality
2. Problem of fossil hydrocarbons as long-term
energy and petrochemical
resources
E. Other mineral and rock resources
F. Ecosystems and their components - livestock,
fishstock, timber, grass. etc.
VII.
Relevance of knowledge about the Earth’s natural history
A.. Rates of geologic processes
B. Spatial scales of geological processes
C. Validity of forward projection of the geological
record
D. Limits to Nature’s ability to cleanse and to
replenish
E. Contrast between passive use and active modification
of Earth
F. Appreciation of long-term natural trends and
ranges of natural variability
G.
Ability to distinguish natural vs. human-induced changes
H.
Limits to feasible remediation.
VIII.
Human factors that affect sustainability
A. Population size
B. Demographics
C. Magnitude of temporal, spatial and material
activities
D. Per capita consumption and waste generation
E. Problems posed by urban growth and urbanization:
the geography of
concentrated consumption
F. Growth of knowledge and understanding
G. The power to choose
1.
Need to value and conserve future options
2.
Need for set-asides for the future
3.
Understanding the values and limits of traditional conservation
measures
IX. Issues
of culture, justice and politics that affect sustainability
A. Ethics, social justice, and religious perceptions
1.
Discrepancies between our proclaimed values and our practices
2.
Equity in land and resource use
3.
The exportation of the environmental burden
4.
Education; goals, contents, value systems
5.
Externally induced perception of a “good life” in light of shifting
social
goals;
different causes and stimuli for demands on consumer goods
6. Leadership of many faith communities
regarding stewardship of the land
and
its life systems
7.
recognition of different sustainability challenges in different
societies
and
cultures
B. Politics
1.
Different styles and concepts of legitimacy of governance
2.
Effective and accountable governance
3.
National and ethnic perceptions of value, equity, freedom of
action, and
threats
to success
4.
Desirable systems that are not predicated on terror or on survival
at
poverty
level
X. Economic
issues that affect sustainability
A. What are the ultimate bottlenecks that control
the Earth’s carrying capacity for
humans?
(by extension, steady per-capita supply that allows sustainability).
B.
Recognition of the endangered “ecological middle consumer”
C. Economics of exhaustible resources
D. What is meant by “consumption”?
E. Understanding limits to and ethics of consumption
F. What does GDP measure?
1. Need to adequately value our Commons
2. Short-term market value vs. real cost
G. Implications of measuring the health of an
economy by its rate of growth
H. Reckoning advantages and burdens of externalized
benefits and costs.
I. Technology
1.
Opportunities
2. Limitations to its benefits
XI. Factors
over which we have some limited control
A. Earth’s physical environment
1.
Air quality
2.
Surface- and ground-water quality and availability
3.
Arable and pasture land
4.
Soil productivity and loss
5.
Climate change.
B. Biosphere health
1.
Habitat protection, esp. environmentally sensitive ecosystems
2.
Proliferation of exotic species (“weeds”)
3.
Overfishing, overtimbering, overgrazing, etc.
4.
Preservation of biodiversity and robust gene pools
C. Human health
1.
Disease mitigation
2.
Disease distribution and transmission
3.
Adequate nutrition on low ecological-footprint diets
D. Systems of governance
1.
Choice of civil yet sustainable systems
2. Accountable decision-making processes
E. The human ability to choose, for which we need:
1.
Better understanding of the role of humans in the Earth system
and
as potent geologic agents
2.
Better recognition of the limits of scientific and technological
solutions
to material and energy supply, including recycling
and
substitution.
3.
Keener appreciation of our responsibility to other life forms
with
whom
we share the ecosystem.
4.
Keener definition, accounting, and monitoring of the effects
of
economic
policies on sustainability; e.g. by some index of
sustainable
economic welfare
XII.
Means to measure, monitor, and anticipate our impacts
A. Appropriate and effective methods and tools
1.
Carrying capacity
2. The concept of “ecological footprints”
3.
Materials flow; accounting for recycling and wastes
B. Better scientific, predictive understanding.
C. Cross-cultural and trans-national communication
and collaboration to ensure
justice,
equity, and mutual consent.
Revised 10/30/99
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