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Book Review on Club of Rome report “Bankrupting Nature: Denying Our Planetary Boundaries” by Anders Wijkman and Johan Rockström
Published 5 November 2012 by Routledge, 224 pages
http://www.clubofrome.org/?p=5366
Challenging “the dilemma of growth”: the key to prosperity without bankrupting nature
This book presents a convincing warning to human society and deserves to be widely read by global citizens who are worrying about pervasive poverty, degrading nature and the current inertia of the global society in the face of these pressing crises, and who are looking forward towards the future of mankind.
Each topic covered by this book may not be novel. For example, the planetary boundary approach, proposed by one of the authors Dr. Johan Rockström, tries to define “safe operating space” for human beings by quantifying the limits of the carrying capacity of the Earth in terms of several very important biophysical processes that provide a basis for human activities (this book lists 10 processes) such as climate stabilisation process and nitrogen cycle. This approach is getting wide recognition and was discussed at the international negotiation process of the Rio+20. Similarly widely known already are anthropogenic climate change and functional incompetence of the international policy process on climate change negotiations. Neither is it an entirely new idea to take an integrated approach in tackling the problems of food, fossil fuel, water, climate change as well as rapidly increasing population in developing countries taking into account of complex linkages among these issues.
This book is, however, successful in sending a convincing warning message by covering a wide range of topics and combining powerful arguments, supported by data and real experience, using two different disciplines: one is by a scientist (Johan Rockström) who stands at the forefront of the challenge to quantify biophysical limits of nature that underpin human activities, and the other is by a politician (Anders Wijkman) who has dealt with international environmental issues, including climate change and chemical pollution, as a Member of Swedish Parliament and the European Parliament. For example, this book tells us, based on the recent findings from planetary boundary research, that we already exceed planetary boundaries not only in terms of climate change, which often represents global environmental problems, but also in terms of nitrogen and phosphorus cycles as well as biodiversity. On another front, this book analyses the prolonged covert fight over the restriction on tobacco between science and politics (in this case lobbying from the tobacco industry) as a similar case to the current situation on climate change issues. These arguments demonstrate the real danger of abuse of scientific uncertainty for holding back necessary actions. Supported by these fact-based analyses, this book is of great significance in sending a strong alert about the current bankrupting of nature.
This book proposes a variety of solutions to these problems which serves as a useful reference. In particular the authors’ criticism against the current financial system is important. They point out the complete failure of the current financial system to account for long-term climate and environment risks that would violate planetary boundaries. They also raise the issue of the excessively large credit volume that is several times more than the production of the real economy. Against these problems, a strong call is made for redesigning the financial system “so that it better serves society as a whole”. Their proposal of a circular economy, which is based on the sales of services rather than those of goods and on the maximum use of recycling and reuse, deserves wide attention. These ideas provide us with a useful reference, but their serious thoughts on the dilemma of growth are even more insightful.
“The Dilemma of Growth” was first discussed in the influential report “Prosperity without Growth” by Tim Jackson in 2009. The dilemma is: economic growth that developed countries have achieved may be unsustainable given environmental constraints such as planetary boundaries, while de-growth may destabilise the social and economic system. This dilemma becomes particularly serious if one recognises, as the authors point out, that “China and other developing countries have every right to development and modernization.” To understand this clearer, we could rephrase it as “China and other developing countries have every right to pursue a lifestyle and economic performance in line with that achieved in developed countries.” The main obstacle to global sustainable development within planetary boundaries is the fact that developed countries have yet to realise a life style and economic performance that can be pursued globally without exceeding planetary boundaries. Given the fact that developing countries have the right to pursue GDP growth until they catch up, it may be apparent that GDP growth of developed countries is not a solution but a real problem.
A politically appealing solution to this dilemma in developed countries is technological innovations to decouple GDP growth from resource consumption and/or environmental impacts through drastic improvement of efficiency. However, it is unlikely that efficiency improvement alone can achieve sustainable production and consumption given the roles of GDP growth in the current economic and social system. The current systems including the financial system, pension scheme and employment system are designed to be dependent on GDP growth. Even developed countries, where consumption level is too high to be sustainable, need to pursue GDP growth by forcing people to consume more through excessive marketing. “Robust enough” growth of GDP is necessary to avert system collapse such as recession. This system design makes faster GDP growth a must and a virtue for the society, and consequently gives a very strong incentive to accelerate GDP growth. In this circumstance, it seems natural to utilise the fruits from efficiency improvement for faster GDP growth rather than to reduce resource consumption and/or in environmental impacts. The rebound effect is the inevitable consequence, not in fact a paradox, of a society dependent on GDP growth.
It seems more feasible to transform the system design so it is free from GDP growth. In the words of Professor Tim Jackson, “there is an urgent need to develop a resilient and sustainable macro-economy that is no longer predicated on relentless consumption growth. For the advanced economies of the Western world, prosperity without growth is no longer a utopian dream. It is a financial and ecological necessity.”
Having now formulated the question of sustainable development to ask how to attain high quality of life given planetary boundaries, as well as making sure that our social and economic systems are redesigned so as to be independent from GDP growth, we could then see that a decoupling approach underpinned by technology innovation could offer a real solution. It means that we take advantage of technology innovation to extend the possibility frontiers given environmental constraints, not to mitigate environmental constraints. This approach will not only bring the right solution but also give a strong incentive for innovation. We are more creative when we believe that any innovation could improve the quality of life, rather than when we are fearful that insufficient innovation may result in collapse of the global society. Developed countries, endowed with capacity and financial stock, can recommend their own green economy models to less developed countries only after achieving a high quality of life within planetary boundaries.
Those are my personal thoughts in response to the problems raised by the authors. They are nothing more than reference opinions, as are the solutions presented by the authors. The most important message of this book is manifested in the following words of Chief Oren Lyons, a Native American Faithkeeper of the Iroquois, whom the authors quote twice at the beginning and the end of the book:
“We are looking ahead, as is one of the first mandates given us as chiefs, to make sure and to make every decision that we make relate to the welfare and wellbeing of the seventh generation to come.”
The idea that sustainable development is nothing more than a utopian dream is a concept that could be overturned, if as many people as possible read this book and share its wisdom and sense of responsibility as global citizens. We could make even more progress if we fully grasp what we scientifically know and what we do not based on the broad information in this book, and if we start seeking our own version of solutions anchored by our own value judgement with clear recognition of the real challenge to change our common practice and to transform social system. There is plenty of leeway to ensure sustainable capacity growth so that we can solve these problems.
Remarks:
Japanese version: http://pub.iges.or.jp/modules/envirolib/view.php?docid=4223
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