The Politics of Ecological Space

The recently published Living Planet Report calculates that humans are consuming a third more of our natural resources than the Earth can replenish each year. As a result, the report suggests that the world is heading for an ecological credit crunch. This state of affairs can be directly attributed to the prevailing economic growth paradigm which promotes increased productivity and consumption as a solution to the global problem of under-development and poverty. Consequently, the continued promotion of economic growth is becoming a primary threat to the environment and its ability to sustain all life on Earth.

Ecological Justice

The core problem with economic growth is its inability to address issues of ecological justice and ensure democratic and just relations between ALL life-forms on this planet. As such, economic growth is a paradigm that only seeks to address the well-being of humans but simultaneously creates a cycle of neglect towards non-human life-forms. In this respect, economic growth is a human-centric model of development which at the same time erodes the environmental basis of human survival. Therefore, as long as human life-forms place their needs and interests over and above the needs and interests of non-human life-forms, the ability of Nature to support human existence is continually put into question.


Ecological Economics

In recent decades, alternative economic paradigms have been put forward as a way of acknowledging, to varying degrees, the rights of Nature to a sustainable existence. These alternate economic models contribute towards creating an awareness of ecological justice and can be schematically represented as a continuum depicting different levels of economic activity:-

Unrestrained growth : Neo-liberal and laissez-faire policies

Lower growth : Transition Culture Network[1]

Zero-growth : Centre for the Advancement of a Steady State Economy[2]

De-growth (contraction) : Objection to Economic Growth (Decroissance) Movements[3]

As can be seen, these alternative types of economic activity are represented by different organizations and movements.

Transition Culture Network
A grass-roots initiative that aims to create resilient networked communities in the face of a peak oil environment and fossil fuel depletion with a particular emphasis on the re-localization of economies to reduce fossil fuel dependency. In the main these measures are aimed at reducing the human-production of the greenhouse gases which generates climate change

Centre for the Advancement of a Steady State Economy
An initiative to promote the development of a steady state economy in order to reduce the environmental degradation and the global conflicts directly caused by the imperatives of the economic growth paradigm. An initiative that also challenges the idea that technology will provide sustainable solutions to facilitate continued economic growth now or in the future and so emphasizes the re-localization of economies and just human-human and human-nature relations

Objections to Growth (Decroissance) Movements
A global movement of movements that actively promotes economic de-growth, the re-localization of economies, voluntary simplicity (downsizing) and democratic and just relations between ALL life-forms. In particular, utilizes a post-development critique to challenge economic growth, capitalist models of development and the inequitable distribution networks which maintain the divide between the global rich and the global poor


When taken together, these alternatives form a complete model to highlight the possible transition from ecologically unsustainable economic paradigms to ecologically sustainable economic paradigms.


Ecological Societies

The ability of humans to create ecological societies is dependant on the willingness to create social, political and economic justice for ALL life-forms. This invariably must take into account the right of ALL life-forms to co-exist in an environment of balanced living in order to create ecological sustainability. In turn, this must take into consideration the right of ALL life-forms to kill since it is the life/death relationship between ALL life-forms that underlies ecological sustainability. This means that humans have to build into their social, political and economic calculations what I have termed The Discrimination Principle in that decisions need to be made which discriminates between which life-forms live and which life-forms die in order to create robust ecosystems. This type of endeavour will need to be constituted and underpinned by the likes of The Earth Charter in order to enshrine the rights of Nature into human institutions and so ensure that ALL life-forms are treated with dignity in relation to their existence or sacrifice. Once the rights of Nature are constituted, the needs and interests of ALL life-forms will need to be represented by a Council of All Beings in order to ensure that the highest standards of dignified existence and sacrifice are maintained.

Ecological Consciousness

Much work needs to be done to ground humans and their models of survival into an ecological consciousness in order that humans develop a realistic sense of their dependency upon Nature. The desire to continually consume resources (that is non-human life-forms) beyond the capacity of Nature to reproduce them is a prime example of the neglect many humans exhibit towards Nature in their everyday lives. This neglect is particularly apparent in the behaviour of most modernizing industrialised societies – as promoted by governments, the private sector and the public in general – and is a course of action which, if continued, will lead to ecological impoverishment for ALL life-forms for generations to come. Therefore it becomes obvious that In order to stop unnecessary ecological degradation and the slow erosion of our basis of survival, humans will need to learn to value and respect the rights and responsibilities of ALL life-forms to a dignified and sustainable existence here on Earth.


Useful links

The Living Planet Report
http://www.panda.org/news_facts/publications/living_planet_report/

The Earth Charter Initiative
http://www.earthcharter.org/

The Council of All Beings
http://www.rainforestinfo.org.au/deep-eco/coab.htm

The Constitution of the Rights of Nature in Ecuador
http://climateandcapitalism.com/?p=479

Just Transition Alliance
http://www.jtalliance.org/docs/climate.html

Re-connecting with Nature – The Work of Joanna Macy
http://www.joannamacy.net/html/great.html

International Community for Eco-psychology
http://www.ecopsychology.org/

European Society for Ecological Economics
http://www.euroecolecon.org/index.htm

New Economics Foundation – A Green New Deal
http://www.neweconomics.org/gen/greennewdeal.aspx

Club of Rome “A New Path for World Development”
http://www.clubofrome.org/eng/new_path/

Positive News
http://www.positivenews.org.uk/cgi-bin/Positive_News/welcome.cgi
[1] http://transitionculture.org/
http://transition-brum.wikispot.org/Home
[2] http://www.steadystate.org/
[3] http://www.r-m-o-c.net/
http://www.degrowth.net/
http://www.esf2008.org/registrations/merged/degrowth-and-social-rebirth-the-logical-steps-to-2
http://mondediplo.com/2004/11/14latouche

***Thanks for this, Mark and Project 2012.