EDITORIAL
ELIZABETH DOWDESWELL
United Nations Under-Secretary General
and Executive Director, UNEP
By the time this edition of Our Planet reaches
you, the HABITAT II Conference will have ended amidst calls to recognize
that the economic and social prospects of nations in the next millennium
will depend on the cities. The Conference will also have emphasized the
imperative of local responsibility and education, as well as public
policy, in encouraging environmentally friendly behaviour.
This is important because urbanization is regarded as a source of our
dominant quantitative-growth approach to development. Urbanization is seen
to de-emphasize the role of the natural environment. Never before have so
many lived in a world so cut off from any understanding of the fragility
and finiteness of resources. One result of this separation is the view
that resources are virtually limitless - a basic assumption of
technoculture.
The notions that the aim of the society is to maximize gross output from
all processes, that the most vigorous and progressive nations are those
which maintain high growth rates of energy consumption and the use of
natural resources, and that technology is good and provides the means of
solving humankind's problems, now transcend national identities and even
political ideologies.
As these ideas have led to a drastic modification of the global
environment, I think the time has come to reassess our most basic cultural
beliefs. It is no longer valid to assume that someone else can bear the
consequences of wasteful, thoughtless or inappropriate development. It is
no longer valid to think in the short term or to place the immediate needs
and desires of one group or species above those of others. And it is no
longer valid to consider ourselves as being in command of or unaffected by
natural processes. If we are to realize sustainability, we must
successfully harmonize human needs, interests and activities with those of
nature.
The challenge is to find new pathways to enhance the promise of a
sustainable future. While the key to this lies in reassessing our way of
life and the ethical and cultural values that govern it, answers may also
be found in religious teachings and in the world view propounded by
indigenous peoples.
Some people argue that the ideas and values for establishing an
ecologically feasible and socially desirable society were conceived in the
past and that they are failing because they run counter to the prevailing
cultural ethos. But I believe that there is the need to exercise choice
and discretion based on a system that values the environment for what it
intrinsically stands for and not simply as a means of satisfying our
needs.
The important role of cultural beliefs enshrined in human values is being
increasingly recognized by the global community and is reflected in the
expansion and strengthening of the environmental movement over the last 25
years. At the local level, this shift can be seen in the growth of the
environmental self-help groups and neighbourhood action around the world.
At the national level, political parties have begun to give environmental
issues a central place on their agendas. And at the international level,
the evolution of environmental values is reflected in the two
international conferences held in Stockholm and Rio and their outcomes.
The cultural dimensions of environmental problems need to be examined
thoroughly. Unless we come to an understanding of the beliefs and
attitudes that underlie many of the destructive policies and behaviours
threatening us, the identification and implementation of alternative
paradigms and structures will at best be superficial.
People form the basis of every society and large-scale effects are
ultimately attributable to the sum of actions by individuals. Our success
or failure in bequeathing a sustainable future to our children will
depend, ultimately, on the development of a critical, knowledgeable,
reflective citizenry conscious of its environmental interests, values and
priorities and possessing the wherewithal to effect change. Promoting such
environmental citizenship is a learning task and one which will involve a
fundamental redefinition of our relationship with the
environment.
