BUILDING SUSTAINABLE SOCIETIES

BUILDING SUSTAINABLE SOCIETIES

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

The doctrine of ‘sustainable development’ derives from a discipline in economics that has been evolving for almost two centuries. The debate about whether Earth’s limited natural resources will continue to provide life support for humanity’s burgeoning population began with the work of the English political economist Thomas Malthus in the early 1800’s see Dixon and Fallon, 1989 . Ž . In An Essay on the Principle of Population Ž. 1798 , Malthus framed the fundamental tenet of environmentalism}namely, that because human population tends to grow in a geometric progression while subsistence can grow in only an arithmetic progression, population growth is destined to be checked by natural resource depletion and inevitable human want and misery see Eblen and Ž Eblen, 1994 .. Since the days of Malthus, economists have tended to ignore the dilemma of resource depletion. Traditionally, economists have been concerned with the efficiency of resource use. They have been slow in developing economic models that adequately account for resource scarcity and pollution. Only rarely have economists worried that some resources may be in short supply, and that if these resources are used indiscriminately, they may become exhausted and constrain the very growth for which they are developed. Hence, economic theories explaining long-term growth and technical progress have remained unsettled into the modern era see Freeman, 1973 . Ž . In recent decades, global concern has emerged about the non-renewability of natural resources as a factor limiting production and the threat to long-term economic growth caused by environmental destabilization and pollution. Economists have begun to address the question first posed by Malthus whether exponential growth in population and in resource use but only linear growth in technology and in subsistence is bound to lead to a social catastrophe}in a word, whether the contemporary course of economic development is ‘sustainable’. The first influential work examining whether the current paradigm of world economic development is ‘sustainable’ was The Limits to Growth Ž . The Club of Rome, 1972 . A team led by Donald and Donella Meadows at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology simulated a computerized world model ‘World 3’ and entered into it data Ž . assuming that population, industrial production and pollution would continue to grow exponentially in the future as they have in the past . The Ž . Meadows’ team concluded that since the world is physically finite, exponential growth of these three key phenomena must eventually hit a limit. They predicted that as of 1972, the limit was only a generation away. Absent an emergency mobilization, it would likely be reached not through a smooth transition to more frugal lifestyles, but by a crash from good to very bad conditions}a poor, crowded, hungry, and polluted planet.

IMPLICATIONS FOR URBAN SUSTAINABILITY

Curitiba, Brazil Curitiba has been called ‘the most environmentally advanced urban area on Earth’ and Jaime Lerner ‘a figure of international interest among green thinkers’ Moore, 1994 . There is good cause Ž . for this assessment, because in Curitiba, Lerner has constructed one of the world’s leading laboratories for achieving ‘urban sustainability’. Curitiba represents a fascinating synthesis of the equity planning model and the environmental planning model. In the past, equity planning measures such as providing mass transit for those Ž who cannot afford private automobiles have sel- dom been linked to environmental planning measures such as providing recycling opportunities Ž for the conscientious . By linking equity planning . measures with environmental ones for example, Ž public nutrition with refuse collection , Curitiba . has shown that positive synergies result in a fundamental economic sense. Hence, the implications of Curitiba for ‘urban sustainability’ are that social and environmental ‘sustainability’ are closely linked, and that by implementing imaginative policies to pursue both, planners can nourish ‘economic sustainability’. With an average annual family income of $5,200, Curitiba is a relatively poor metropolis. However, by combining environment-based policies like efficient public transportation, urban greening and recycling schemes with equity-based policies like free medical, dental and child care for the urban poor, Curitiba has shown how poor cities in developing countries can be made livable and affordable. The lesson of Curitiba is that its vision of the ‘green city’ is not merely an Ecotopian one. Environmentally responsible policies in mass transit, urban greening, and recycling are ‘integrated’ and ‘interlinked’ to programs to foster the health and economic well-being of the urban poor.