Sustainable Development

I started a new module during week 1, Sustainable Development. And to be honest it is a part of the course I really do not know what to expect from it. My initial thoughts on ‘Sustainable Development’ were entirely about the buildings, construction and living within our means. But I learned that Sustainable Development is about much more. Indeed a definition for the phrase is difficult to nail down! Indeed for the class to gather the appropriate knowledge on the subject we will be having people from the fields of Economics, Science and Political Science or Society lecture to us during the 11 week programme. This isn’t a module that requires in-depth learning of facts but more to change our thinking, to stimulate a more responsible attitude.

Our first lecture was introductory in nature but it gave us the impression that we need to live our lives they way we should choose but with respect for the environment. The following lecture focused on our ecological self, how we as humans interact with the environment around us. There was a focus on action or doing, clearly there are problems we could be acting on but we need to empower ourselves to be able to deal with them. Technology which plays a big part in our lives will have to change, nowadays technology is designed around us, in being our tools but technology that’s beneficial to us must not infringe on or damage the environment around it, or at the least lesson the damage caused.

If I was it focus on an idea from the first week it is the Political change that is needed to make us to develop sustainably for the future. I wasn’t fully aware before of the continuing problem that politics causes. The basic idea for SD is “meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”. But at present we are not doing this because we are living beyond our means. The amount of Oil we consume to continue our current standard of living is completely contradictory to the sentence above. Politics is not about representing the people who have elected you, that’s just democracy; it is about staying in the job you’re in or moving up the ladder of power. Cutting the standard of living now, to preserve the future standard is not politically viable. A politician is judged on items such as economic growth, how they improve the infrastructure (more roads is always better it seems) etc. But we don’t need a wholesale change of the political class; I’m not advocating any revolutions! but we need a change in our thinking, the ideas and desires of the general populous need changing. And to be honest, I cannot see that coming very easy. At present the challenges that face us because of poor sustainable development are not severe enough to facilitate a major change in our ways. But I believe that in 5 to 10 years time when the price of oil is a multiple of what is today then change will happen, but will it be too late?