A better world is possible - Global Commons Institute

Copyright Bruce Nixon 2010. All rights reserved. This electronic copy is provided free for personal, non-commercial use only.
www.brucenixon.com
Chapter 8 - Greening the world: what needs to be done about climate change, peak
oil and ecological destruction – Paradigm change, green transport, green heat and
power, good models March 2009
We have the opportunity to create a world that is sustainable, just and free from poverty and violence in
which everyone has the chance of a fulfilled life. All over the world people are doing what is needed - in
Cuba, Ecuador, Germany and Scandinavian countries such as Denmark, Norway and Sweden. Where
technology can help, it is there and just needs to be developed and used. It is a matter of choice. Will we
choose to do it? We have had ample warning as to the consequences if we don’t.
We have to develop green, ecological economies. This means learning from nature. Our processes are linear,
destructive, wasteful, and out of balance. Nature wastes nothing. It recycles everything and renews itself.
We are part of nature and we need to be part of that process. Nature’s processes are circular: creation,
growth, maturity, decline, death, recycling and rebirth. Everything is interrelated, in balance and in harmony.
That is why people feel healed in nature. Yesterday I heard Rupert Isaacson story of how his autistic son
Rowan was calmed and healed by horses in Mongolia.
We get our “kicks” from more – more money, more power, more consumption, more excitement, more
gadgets, new, the latest, faster, further, bigger, cheaper, more complex, – not better, healthier, fairer,
happier, more fulfilling. We are bemused. Our business leaders and politicians are all “on it” without
realising it. Growth, they think, is the solution to everything.
This is the meaning of sustainability:
“Living without compromising the needs of the future”
Principles are needed to guide decisions. Without them, a coherent strategy is not possible.
Basic principles
Work towards limiting our carbon and ecological footprints to a sustainable world average
Use renewable resources wherever possible
Minimise use of non-renewable resources, use them efficiently and they should be recycled
No more renewable resource should be used than can regenerate in the same period
Release of materials into the environment should not be greater than the environment’s capacity to
absorb them
Toxic substances should not be used or disposed of in ways that are a threat to future generations
The precautionary principle should be applied and incalculable risks, such as nuclear power, should
not be taken
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