Environmental Politics - Who

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Environmental Politics - Whos Job Is It To
Build A Good Future?

• David Risstrom

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Why Are We Here?

• You?
• Degree, status, expectation, security, dont
  know, absolutely certain.
• Me?
• Asked by Darko.
• Different hats.
• Barrister, ACF Councillor 1999-2005, 2004
  Victorian Green Senate candidate, ICLEI Vice
  President 2003-4, Melbourne City Councillor
  1999-2004, BA, LLB, BSc(Hons), Director of social
  housing, purchasing and waste companies
• WASE male who doesnt expect to be here forever
• I want you to make a difference

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Do you have opinions?

• Questions are OK
• Discussion is OK
• I have been wrong before
• My former partners can confirm that
• I would rather you thought than listened

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Im doing architecture, not politics

• Architects help to structure our future
• You will be unelected arbiters of peoples
  choices
• We all help to construct architects
• Whose decisions lead to people living in
• A MacMansion in Narre Warren?
• A 1 bedroom unit in Docklands?
• A 1984 Ford Falcon station wagon?
• A grass hut in the Amazon basin?

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Ecopolitics, Green Politics, Environmentalism

• There are different forms of environmental
  politics
• They all are based on how humans interact with
  other species and their environment

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• The majority of modern political thought and
  understanding assumed humans were capable of
  controlling their environment
• Liberal thinkers emphasised individual freedom
  and liberty
• Socialist thinkers saw individual freedoms
  creating practical inequality and loss of
  potential

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• Modern political ideas were built on a confidence
  that influence over the environment constituted
  control
• Humans are a powerful species
• We have had great success in modifying the
  environment to our purposes
• We are all involved with life and the battle with
  entropy

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• Combating entropy requires energy
• In hunter gather societies, limited by hunting
  success
• Agriculture allowed better nutrition, bigger
  brains
• Industrial revolution allowed huge increase in
  productivity
• Agricultural Green revolution hoped to combine
  both

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Environmentalism

• 1960s identified by many as catalyst of modern
  environmental thought
• The world is less functional than we think
• Rationalism and functionalism challenged
• Cheap energy assumed to be relatively limitless
• Coal, oil, nuclear, hydro and solar.
• Effectively no limits to growth
• Growth is good. More is better.

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• 1970s Limits to Growth debate crystallised
• OPEC oil shock
• Loss of confidence in nuclear age
• Environmental degradation
• Sustainable development
• Climate change

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• Current era
• We are all environmentalists now
• Unlimited economic growth still seen as normal
• Inequality increasing
• Population limits a political no go zone
• Increasing recognition humans rely on a healthy
  environment
• Limited willingness to live sustainably
• Uncertainty about the future

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• Population
• Consumption
• Peak Oil
• Climate Change
• Water shortages
• Loss of productivity
• More may bring Affluenza

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Millennium Ecosystem Assessment Findings
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What should we do?

• We dont know
• Biggest political problem in thousands of years
• Successes and difficulties in gaining political
  power
• 2004 Federal election

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Who has the power to secure sustainability?

• Who?
• Why?
• Can they?
• Do we want to?

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• Conflict between individual gain and public goods
• The Tragedy of the Commons
• The Boiling Frog Principle
• Largest mass extinction in 65 million years
• 10 million species. May lose half
• Our main concern is if humans are one of them
• I like frogs

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Who has the power to secure sustainability?

• Do we need to give up any choices or freedoms to
  live more sustainably?
• Debatable
• Denied
• Uncomfortable
• Pessimistic?

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• Living sustainably creates more freedoms
• More generous view of life
• Intergenerational equity
• Green politics still primarily emphasises
  democracy and participation

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Natural Environment

• Alpine National Park
• Tourism, cows and cattlemen
• Recognition of Wilderness as a Land use
• Wasteland
• Terra nullius based on utilitarianism
• Urban areas under higher demand

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Urban Environment - Melbourne

• Residential energy saving project
• Attempt to introduce 5 star rating in 1999
• 60L
• Commercial Buildings Partnership
• 5M Sustainable Melbourne Fund
• Triple Bottom Line Assessment
• Green Purchasing and Building
• Energy Demand Management

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• 2020 Zero Net Greenhouse Gas Target
• Queen Victoria Solar Panels
• Melbourne Principles for Sustainable Development
• Solar Cities
• Bringing Sustainable Living Fair to Melbourne
• Green Map for Melbourne
• Bagging Melbourne (in a nice way!)
• Growing Green
• Watermark Water Campaign

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A Privileged One in Six Billion

• You are among the most powerful people on Earth
• Think about how your assumptions influence you
• Empathising is useful
• Decide if you want to make a difference
• My suggestions are at www.davidrisstrom.org
• Do something about it
• Do what you think is right!

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Thank you