soil-conservation-people-religion-and-land.pdf - South West NRM

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life-support systems of the earth and the resources on which they depend. It is an ecological sustainability. However, sustainability has a wider connotation when it indicates as well as ecological sustainability the sustainability of social structures and political systems. It could be argued, for example, that neither capitalism nor socialism, as at present practised, are sustainable political systems. Sustainability in the real world is a relative matter, just as is justice. The call for a sustainable society refers to the indefinite future not 'the infinite future'. We will do well indeed to envision social forms that can persist for even a few hundred years, although that is a short time from an evolutionary point of view. From these considerations some conclusions can be drawn about the characteristics a sustainable society will have : 1. The population will be well within the carrying capacity of the planet. What that population would be depends on the economic habits and social organisation of the society. 2. The need for food, water, timber and all other renewable resources will be well within the global capacity to supply them. 3. The rate of emission of pollutants will be below the capacity of the ecosystem to absorb them. 4. The rate of use of non-renewable resources such as minerals and fossil fuels will not outrun the increase in resources made available through technological innovation. 5. Manufactured goods will be built to last: durability will replace inbuilt obsolescence. Wherever possible materials will be recycled. 6. social stability requires that there be an equable distribution of what is in scarce supply and that there be common opportunity to participate in social decisions. 7. The emphasis will be on life not things, on growth in quality not quantity, on services not material goods." Ofconnor (1986) suggests that in practice it will only be possible to implement sound development principles if we go beyond the superficial conceptions of economic growth which have been so prevalent. We need to understand that growth is neither ''@goodw nor "badg1 per se. It is only meaningful to speak of growth if the factors of rate, direction, context and quality of growth are specified. "To speak simply of 'progrowthg versus 'anti-growth' or 'zero growth' is nonsensical.
As Ashby points out past experience with societies in a state of zero growth is far from reassuring. He makes the point that they usually stabilise with a small dominant minority of wealthy people and a large oppressed minority of permanently poor people with a minimum of mobility between the classesf1 Following the classic work of Daly on no-growth economics, Boulding (1975) has given a useful overview of how we might move into a steady-state economy: "The key then is for economists and environmentalists to work together toward three important goals: controlling pollution, transforming our present linear or frontier economic system to a steady-state economy, stabilizing rather than continually increasing the flow rate of materials and energy, and achieving a more just distribution of the world's finite resources. The first goal is essentially a short term one, based on controlling or redirecting output. Why must we change to a steady state? By now the answer to this question should be obvious. As long as we live in a finite system with finite supplies and capacity to absorb and renew our output a steady state is eventually inevitable. we cannot continue our linear lifestyle of acquisition - consumption - disposal - human dissatisfaction - environmental disruption. The American dream can no longer be, as social commentator Russell Baker phrased it, I1to convert goods to trash as fast as possible". The only arguments among scholars are how close we are to the limits of the earth. Increasing evidence points to the idea that we must make this transition within the next 30 to 100 years to avoid nature's more harsh methods of achieving a steady state. Whether the transition can be accomplished by some major changes in existing economic systems or whether it will require a totally new approach no one really knows. Man perhaps - represents the latest in this long series of catastrophes. He has certainly eliminated a large number of species,; though I have seen no estimate of how much he has diminished the genetic pool of the ecosphere. The fate of the mammoth, the dodo, and the passenger pigeon (and perhaps now the whale) testifies to man's skill as a predator. Perhaps because . of- man's remarkable- capacity for surviving in an unprecedentedly wide variety of environments, including now even the moon, and his consequent propensity for introducing old species into new environments, the earth is no longer a collection of relatively isolated and unrelated ecosystems but has become a single ecosystem with man, his artifacts, and his domesticated plants and animals as the dominant comple~.~~ To draw further from Kenneth ~oulding (1975): IUHerman Daly shows us several types of growth that must level off in a steady-state world: population growth, blind economic growth, and the growing gap between rich and poor. What kinds of
Page 4: SOUL CObJSERVATION PEOPLE, RELIGION
Page 8 and 9: with " Generous sod", Dennis displa
Page 10 and 11: Stewardship - What Is It? Stewartls
Page 12 and 13: the earth's resources. However, it
Page 14 and 15: Certainly the earth and thus man, w
Page 16 and 17: That each Church set up a commissio
Page 18 and 19: LET THE RED VAN SPEAK In 1854 "the
Page 20 and 21: WHAT SHOULD WE TEACH What must the
Page 22 and 23: established a dualism of man and na
Page 24 and 25: R IBLIOGRAPHY Anonymous. 1985. Stat
Page 30: PREFACE : This paper has been writt
Page 33 and 34: vital supplies. The once-heroic pio
Page 35 and 36: to land use decision-making which t
Page 37: a approach for Australia. The dange
Page 41 and 42: exclusive right to use the land, ne
Page 43 and 44: matter. They certainly don't do tha
Page 45 and 46: a constraint on our freedom of acti
Page 47 and 48: and every individual creature and t
Page 49 and 50: Christians was noted. Both display
Page 51 and 52: Nature's Harmonies'. As David Lowen
Page 53 and 54: key phrases in Genesis are: "Have d
Page 55 and 56: Can Values and ~thics be Taught? Pl
Page 57 and 58: "The university's job may not be th
Page 59 and 60: coming generations. The list below
Page 61 and 62: National goals should change as pro
Page 63 and 64: indicators can continue to progress
Page 65 and 66: the problems of the present. It sho
Page 67 and 68: Cook, E. 1970. Environmental Ethics
Page 69: Santmire, H. P. 1970. Brother Earth
Page 73 and 74: --- - - - - - I. ORGANISATION AND I
Page 75 and 76: 7' - - F a - - present parties, hav
Page 77 and 78: 5. Res~onsibilitv of Faculties of A
Page 79 and 80: A -- 15. Role of Urban-Based conser
Page 81: FEDERAL STATE LOCAL EDUCATION l N C
Page 87 and 88: - - --< -- - I. ORGANISATION AND IN
Page 89 and 90:
present parties, have failed to con
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Responsibilitv of Faculties of Agri
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15. Role of Urban-Based Conservatio
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FEDERAL STATE LOCAL EXTENSION LANDH
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government. In this way the long-st
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on a permanent basis. 8. -Role -- -
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%==. 10. Wider Use of Group Methods
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N0113V UOJ S31V3S3Lnlll QNV S13A31
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11. In Queensland, about 40% of nat
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Earth Garden, May 1 986 speak or th
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combines very small holdings with s
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The stages of cultural and ecologic
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The role of trees in controlling so
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proportions,. - _ 6. We must bring-
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an Land Degrad By Brian Roberts The
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principles ror de~elopment In \uch
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Exposed clay subsoil following seve
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evide~~c-to indicate that this situ
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the field and the proportion of exi
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A.I.A.S. Symp. 20/10/89 EFFECTIVE G
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These figures exclude the contribut
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these four requirements are met, th
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the association of the group with a
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A rational analysis should be made
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REFERENCES Anonymous. (1978). Basis
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APPENDIX 2 ELEMENTS OF A SHIRE LAND
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' I a -I how T'S NEW IN LAND C CTS
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and tresspassers, rather than as cr
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The Present Position . - - - ~r&e&t
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on Objectives - - -- - - ----=:I .
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APPENDIX 2 * 1. clear goals which a
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.A- 7. Planninq -- - -,sip - proble
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Brian Roberts, DDIAE 1989 Farm plan
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farm plan or major changes in physi
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Cover Story LAND STE ARDSH udes Tow
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individual's rights. No individual
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B R Roberts Darling Downs Institute
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attention at an early date. Advisor
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TABLE 1 1 LE AGRICULTURE 1. LAND CA
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th~should be ol t1[;11 c.onc-crn to
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which could form the cornerstone of
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CLEARING: WHO SHOULD DECIDE? Brian
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. Who has the knowledge and informa
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Range Monitoring Workshop Nat. S.C.
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Because most of the pastoral zone i
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FIGURE 1 iabifity ratings for Austr
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environment as distinct from the ef
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will be referred to later. It is de
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~ield workers are agreed that the i
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consumed in good and poor seasons r
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sufficiently to meet the criteria a
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Roberts, B. (1986). Proc. Sec. Int.
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The second reality is that in some
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choices of cultivation practices ar
Page 241 and 242:
For those roads that are parallel t
Page 243:
Role of Trees in the Property Plan
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