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COMER Columns
Articles published in "Economic Reform"
the Journal of the 'Committee on Monetary and Economic Reform'COMER Column #7 Vol. 13, No. 3, March 2001.
A Systems View of Sustainability (2)
In last month's column we reviewed some highlights of the increasing problems of sustainability: the mounting demands of an increasing population, dwindling resources, increasing pollution, and technologies which offer some helps but in many ways also contribute to the larger problems.
Attention to factors of population, consumption and technology is necessary for any realistic social policy intended to provide for a sustainable economy and society. The formula I = PAT, i.e. Impact = Population x Affluence (consumption levels) x Technology, epitomises the key relationships. Each of these factors poses complex problems, but any approach which does not take them all these categories into account cannot be adequate. For example, an increasing population requires supplies of food and energy which depend in turn upon technology.
In the light of such requirements it may be useful to consider the adequacy of current governmental and corporate approaches to these problems. We will limit our comments here to sectors of finance (activities of the World Bank), energy (e.g. BP Amoco, Shell, Ford) and food and agribusiness (Archer Daniels Midland or ADM). Unfortunately, these examples point to the possibility that, by assuming a leadership role which prejudges methods and results, corporate interests may aggravate the problems. Such vested interests appear to place hope in piecemeal approaches, thereby setting themselves up to be caught unawares,. They are led by events which they do not understand yet claim to be inevitable. Their leadership claims are serious for us all, potentially fatal if accepted at face value.
The World Bank is involved in educational ventures which seek to look beyond current approaches to achieve a culture of environmental compliance, surely a worthy goal. On the other hand, initial approaches (1) suggest particular emphasis by the Bank on narrowly conceived compliance and enforcement programs. It is relevant to recall the initial steps in founding the United Nations, where the influence of power politics over aspirations for peace, by continuing to insist on the values and dominance of those in power, have gravely constrained subsequent possibilities.
Leaders in the energy business now recognise that supplies of oil and gas are not unlimited. Companies such as BP Amoco, Shell and Ford are shifting some of their planning, public relations and advertising, into support for "sustainability" as they choose to interpret this (2). Similarly agribusiness and food corporations such as ADM are emphasising "sustainability" as part of their public image, with claims that such corporations are fully capable of supplying food to the world, ameliorating oil shortages by converting grains to fuel and promoting health and longevity by means of genetic engineering and other technofixes. The explicit claim by ADM that any other problems we have are "just politics" (3) implies that, to solve such problems, governments should get out of the way of multinational "free enterprise".
In seeking to capture the high ground of leadership with respect to public perception, these and other corporations are also feeding the public and political leadership with many false hopes. With this insistence on being the major players in the coming struggles for a sustainable world economy, corporate interests are also trying to impose values which are part of the
problem. And at the level of action they continue with practices which subvert more realistic endeavours, with loss of time and focus we can ill afford.
The key question in relation to all such approaches by established institutions in leadership positions relates to guiding values. If values such as competition and ever-increasing growth dominate practice, no serious changes are possible. We need to make the shift to new constraints to make possible new prospects - a new riverbed, to use Bossel's phrase (4). And it is plain that, unless the alternatives are confronted clearly, the required tasks will not be undertaken.
These problems are increasingly being recognised in general terms. For example, a web initiative supportive of the application of systems science to world problems - the Principia Cybernetica Project (PCP) (5), includes as a contemporary problem:
"The ever more rapid evolution of ideas, theories, cultures and ideologies leads to a general fragmentation of knowledge, which is sometimes described as the post-modern condition. A more dangerous result of this evolution is the fragmentation and erosion of value systems, making it more difficult for people to distinguish between good and evil, or to choose clear goals for themselves."
It requires continuous effort to overcome the effects of inevitable tendencies to fragmentation and disorder. In systems terms, this is the opposition between energies directed by goals and information and those of dissipation and entropy. Corporate values which promote half truths in the service of partial values, which seek to nullify efforts at more adequate analysis and problem solving, are parts of the cancer that require treatment. Values which continue to exploit the deteriorating landscape in search of growth and profits misdirect our societal efforts into side issues and jeopardise what we have and need for the future.
The impediments to sensible action are subtle and manifold. Where problems lie within the structures and indices which inform and guide governments and institutions, attempts at solutions must address such structures, and the information and organisation which maintain them. Are relevant measures of performance available? Is feedback accurate, timely and directed to whose who may need to know, if the public interest is to be served?
Many people point to the options for redirecting efforts into matters of personal behaviour, family concerns and charity. Vital as these are, attempts at isolation may be mischievous if they lead us to avoid the larger responsibilities of citizenship. Major obstacles lie in the worlds of political action, where they can only be addressed by plans and strategies based upon ideas adequate at levels of policy and systemic concern, and of implementation.
As Bossel (4) outlines so clearly, we must divert out efforts into new riverbeds of sustainable partnerships that are real. We need a conceptual framework to help us to develop practical technologies, such as intelligent information and web systems, which may be required to undergird needed public education, just as we need informed public support for policies to promote sustainable development. Under present conditions, however, all such developments depend upon selective funding and perceived advantages for those who stand to benefit.
The problems of society are likely to be aggravated by special interests who, although they may claim and believe they represent the interests of the whole, deceive themselves with such claims. It is a source of potential tragedy that the causes of our problems are so much deeper and more complex than we are usually willing to admit. But the fault "lies not in our stars, but in ourselves that we are underlings". And the innocent will continue to suffer so long as adults think like children, being content, until it is too late, to follow false prophets.
A citizenry willing to recognise the systemic nature of the challenges we face together is perhaps now appearing, hoping and searching for political leaders adequate to such challenges.
References
(1) Development Forum of the World Bank- http://www.worldbank.org/devforum/
(2) "Global Manipulators Move Beyond Petroleum", by Susan Bryce. J. of Alternative News
(3) as advertised regularly on PBS - the Lehrer Newshour.
(4) Bossel, Hartmut. Earth at a Crossroads: Paths to a Sustainable Future.
Cambridge University Press (1998).
(5) Principia Cybernetica Project (PCP) - http://www.uazone.com/naph/pcp/pcp.html