Beyond Environmentalism

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Beyond Environmentalism Envisioning a Sustainable
and Desirable Future
Robert Costanza Gund Professor of Ecological
Economics and Director, Gund Institute of
Ecological Economics Rubenstein School of
Environment and Natural Resources University of
Vermont Burlington, VT 05401
http//www.uvm.edu/giee
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In their essay The Death of Environmentalism,
Michael Shellenberger and Ted Nordhaus identified
a critical missing element in the environmental
movement. Despite the extreme threats to our
future, they claimed that not one of Americas
environmental leaders is articulating a vision of
the future commensurate with the magnitude of the
crisis. Environmentalism has instead relied on
a negative vision, a complaint-based style of
activism that fails to engage with the public.
It has become too focused on technical policy
fixes and single-issue politics and is no longer
capable of dealing with the worlds most serious
ecological crisis.
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The object of this seminar series is to move
beyond the negative environmentalism of the past
by creating a positive, detailed, shared vision
of a sustainable and desirable futurea future in
which living in harmony with nature is not a
sacrifice, but an improvement in everyones
quality of life a future that can captivate and
motivate the public a future that we would be
proud to leave to our grandchildren. Until we
create and widely share this vision, we have no
hope of achieving it.
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FInite Global Ecosystem
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Anthroposphere
Marc Imhoff Biospheric Sciences Branch NASA
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Empty World Energy Planning?
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Empty World" Model of the Economy
Individual
Property rights
Utility/welfare
Private
Public
Consumption
(based on fixed
Manufactured
Building
preferences)
capital
Goods
Cultural
Norms and
Economic
GNP
and
Education, Training,
Perfect Substitutability
Labor
Policy
Research
Process
Services
Between Factors
Investment
Improvement
Land
(decisions about, taxes
government spending,
education,
science and
technology
policy, etc., based
on existing property
rights regimes)
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The Challenge Sustainable Management of an
Ever-Changing Planet
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World Primary Energy Supply by Source, 1850-1997
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OIL AND GAS LIQUIDS 2004 Scenario Updated by
Colin J. Campbell, 2004-05-15
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March 2 Richard Heinberg New After the party
energy in a sustainable and desirable future
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Atmosphere
NCAR can now run these kinds of models for more
than 1000 years
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Biosphere
Sea-viewing Wide Field-of-View Sensor (SeaWiFS)
data on marine and terrestrial plant productivity
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FInite Global Ecosystem
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Recycled
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Full World Model of the Ecological Economic
System
positive impacts on human capital capacity
Well Being
being, doing, relating
(Individual and
having, being
Ecological
Community)
Complex property
services/
doing, relating
rights regimes
amenities
- having,
Individual
Public
Common
having
- being
Consumption
(based on changing,
Solar
adapting
Wastes
Energy
preferences)
Restoration,
Natural Capital
Conservation
Evolving
Goods
Education, training,
Human Capital
Cultural
Economic
GNP
and
Between Capital Forms
Norms and
research.
Limited Substitutability
Production
Services
Policy
Institutional
Process
SocialCapital
rules, norms, etc.
Investment
(decisions about, taxes
Manufactured
Building
community spending,
Capital
education, science and
technology policy, etc., based
negative impacts on all forms of capital
on complex property
rights regimes)
Materially closed earth system
Waste heat
From Costanza, R., J. C. Cumberland, H. E. Daly,
R. Goodland, and R. Norgaard. 1997. An
Introduction to Ecological Economics. St. Lucie
Press, Boca Raton, 275 pp.
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Empty World Vision
Full World Vision
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Changes in human well-being under Millennium
Assessment scenarios

• In three of the four MA scenarios, between three
  and five of the components of well-being
  (material needs, health, security, social
  relations, freedom) improve between 2000 and 2050
  
• In one scenario (Order from Strength) conditions
  are projected to decline, particularly in
  developing countries

(Mad Max, A2)
(Big Government, B1)
(Star Trek, A1)
(Ecotopia, B2)
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February 2nd Rik Leemans, Wageningen
University Scenarios of a sustainable and
desirable future lessons from the Millennium
Ecosystem Assessment
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Donella (Dana) Meadows 1941-2001
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Principles of Effective Envisioning
1. In order to effectively envision, it is
necessary to focus on what one really wants, not
what one will settle for, i.e. Really
Want Settle For Self esteem Fancy
car Serenity Drugs Health Medicine Human
Happiness GNP Permanent Prosperity Unsustainabl
e Growth 2. A vision should be judged by the
clarity of its goals, not the clarity of its
implementation path. Holding to the vision and
being flexible about the path is often the only
way to find the path. 3. Responsible vision
must acknowledge, but not get crushed by, the
physical and political constraints of the real
world 4. It is critical for visions to be shared
because only shared visions can be responsible.
5. Vision has to be flexible and evolving.
Thus the process of envisioning is at least as
important as the particular visions themselves.
from Meadows, D. 1996. Envisioning a Sustainable
World. pp. 117-126 In Getting Down to Earth
Practical Applications of Ecological Economics,
edited by R. Costanza, O. Segura, and J.
Martinez-Alier. Washington D.C. Island Press.
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Current Situation Lack of Shared Vision
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Shared Envisioning
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Envisioning a Sustainable and Desirable America
The vision so far (see http//www.uvm.edu/giee/ESD
A)
World View Humans as a part of nature
Steady state, ecological economy Goal
quality of life rather than consumption
Natural Capital Protected as essential life
support Depletion heavily taxed
Built Capital Runs on renewable energy and
natural capital Emphasis on quality rather
than quantity Small communities rule (both
within and outside cities)
Human Capital Balance of synthesis, analysis,
and communication Meaningful, creative work
and leisure Stable populations
Social Capital A primary source of
productivity and well-being Strong
democracy
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The Challenge Create a shared vision of a
sustainable and desirable future
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