In my last writing here, I spoke of protecting our needs by protecting the earth's needs. I mentioned the various ways in which particular people are doing that. This time I want to take another, more sobering step.
As I suggested, there is much evidence of humankind "waking up" to
the effects of our way of life on the environment. However, there is still a tendency for many of us to think that we can go on living the way we do, but just be a little more careful about how that affects the natural world. So we respond to the plight of the sea lions, or whales, or the South Island robin, working for a better balance between our needs and the needs of other species and the environment we share.
But this approach tends to reveal the persistence of an age-old idea that the natural environment is somehow separate from us. It's something we visit occasionally, care for and enjoy, while also needing to protect ourselves from it. We tend not to think that we are utterly dependent on it. We are occasionally reminded of this truth by a climatic disaster, but mostly we manage to avoid it.
Over the past 200 years or so, we have come to believe that economic growth is what is important. That's not surprising, given the benefits we have gained. And until recently it seemed like the planet's resources were limitless. But there are signs everywhere that we have been living beyond our planet's means. We are heading for what Paul Gilding, the ex-chief executive of Greenpeace, has called The Great Disruption.
Using various studies undertaken by teams of international scientists he shows that humankind is heading for a massive economic and ecological crisis. These studies show we are currently living beyond our eco-system's limits in a wide range of areas, including the basics of food, water and fibre. It is estimated that by 2050 we will need at least three planets to support the increasing population (9 billion by 2050) combined with their desired economic growth. This is not mere philosophy. It is basic science.
