features

journal > september 1999 > feature

• search • about us • español

			Versión en español Defining a New Balance Between Humans and the Environment By Jerry Casagrande and Yasmina Zaidman Every day, alarming new statistics are emerging on environmental problems: Each year 27,000 species disappear from the planet – approximately one every 20 minutes. The water table below Mexico City is dropping so quickly that the entire city is actually sinking more than five inches (13 cm) per year. Each year, 25 billion tons of fertile topsoil – the equivalent of all of the wheat fields in Australia – is lost globally. 617 square miles (1600 km²) of the Gulf of Mexico is an aquatic "dead zone" – one of 50 areas in the world where runoff from fertilizers and livestock manure have stripped the water of oxygen and killed sea life.1 If you have seen statistics like these before, consider viewing them now not only as data about environmental degradation, but also as figures that describe real decreases in human wealth. At the dawn of the Industrial Revolution, the planet's natural abundance was so great that the global human community was easily supported by the forests, fisheries, water, soil, air and other resources found throughout the world. Like the spendthrift "rich kid" however, generations of humans in the industrial age have depleted their resources far more quickly than the earth's natural systems can replenish them. Systemic degradation of not only the resources on which humans rely, but the ability for these resources to be replenished, means that each new generation is "poorer" than the one that preceded it.2 Many people today speak of the extraordinary wealth the current generation is creating; in fact, because of our degradation of the natural resources upon which our survival ultimately depends, it may be more appropriate to speak of the extraordinary potential for future poverty that we are creating. Examples of decreases in human quality of life caused by degradation of the environment are ubiquitous. Climate change, water scarcity and fishery depletion: each has a massive impact on human communities, and none is easily reversible. Last year, the Red Cross noted that for the first time in recent history, more people were displaced from their homes because of environmental and climate related disasters than because of wars or violence. We are in a number of ways undermining our very ability to feed ourselves. In India, for example, severe cutbacks in the supply of water for irrigation are coinciding with dramatic population increases. Each year, twice as much water is extracted from aquifers as is naturally replenished and as a result, water tables are dropping throughout India by 1-3 meters (3-10 feet) annually. David Seckler, head of the International Water Management Institute, the world's premiere water research body, speculates that this cutback in irrigation could reduce India's annual harvest by 25 percent. Meanwhile, India's population is expected to increase by 60 percent (or 600 million people) in the next half century, making it the world's most populated country.3 Fisheries, a significant source of animal protein that actually predates agriculture as a source of food, are now endangered as well. Fisheries analysts at the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) report that virtually 70 percent of the world's fisheries are fully- or over-exploited, depleted, or in a state of collapse. A full 35 percent of marine fish species are over-exploited, with an additional 25 percent nearing full exploitation. Commercial fishing trawlers are denuding ocean floors of all life at up to 150 times the rate that forests are being cleared on land.4 We are, in fact, the first generation in history to reach and exceed the sustainable yield of oceanic fisheries, causing major losses to the fishing industry and endangering small fishing communities worldwide.⁵ Marine goods and services have been estimated to be worth over $20 trillion, or 70 percent more than the value of terrestrial goods and services. As these resources are depleted, fishery-dependent economies across the globe are being damaged or destroyed. For example, in North America, fishing was halted in the Grand Banks off Newfoundland in 1992, in the Georges Banks off the coast of Massachusetts in 1995 and in a large section of the Gulf of Maine in January 1999. These bans were invoked to reverse crises of epic proportions in these once-abundant cod, haddock and flounder waters. As a result of the 1992 moratorium in Newfoundland, 40,000 people were thrown out of work almost overnight-the biggest single loss of jobs in Canada's history.6 Through our degradation of the environment, we are also severely and negatively impacting our own health. For city dwellers, now close to half of the world's population, poor air and water quality have become commonplace. One billion urban dwellers breathe unhealthy levels of air pollution and 220 million lack clean drinking water.7 The lack of basic services such as clean water, sewage systems and waste management is more severe for urban poor. Until recently, Manila's "Smoky Mountain" towered 40 meters (131 feet) above sea level, making it the city's most striking topographical feature. Smoky, so-named because of the haze created by burning methane escaping from its rotting refuse, was literally a mountain of garbage and was home to 20,000 of Manila's poor.⁸ Despite the often horrendous conditions of urban life, migration to cities has only increased as industrialization draws those formerly supported by agriculture to cities promising (but often not delivering) factory or service industry jobs. India's urban population alone – 256 million – could constitute the world's fourth most populous nation.9 The environmental crises felt in cities affects people across class, race and national boundaries, with over one quarter of the planet, rich and poor, living in the world's 10 largest and most polluted metropolitan areas.¹⁰
	Systemic economic change begins with internalizing externalities – to learn more, click here		These facts and other evidence demonstrate overwhelmingly the negative impact of environmental degradation on human nutrition, health and livelihoods. To halt such degradation and to restore a healthy environment capable of supporting future generations, nothing less than a change in direction is required. Humans must reverse their practice of consuming more resources than our planet can restore for future generations. This reversal of course towards sustainable development will demand changes in almost all aspects of human decision-making and behavior.11 It will require changes in economic systems, legal systems, education systems and more. It will require changes of every person as well, from business people to consumers, from politicians to voters. Such systemic change requires action-oriented visionaries with intimate local knowledge and broad global perspective as well as an ability to identify the root causes of human problems. Social entrepreneurs fit this prescription for change. For example, social entrepreneurs Chico Mendes and Mary Allegretti developed the idea of an extractive reserve – a concept that has protected over 7 million acres (2.8 million hectares) of rainforests and assured the livelihoods of forest-dwellers by eliminating incentives and opportunities for deforestation. The unique blend of local knowledge and global perspective that characterizes social entrepreneurs is exemplified by Alejandro Camino. Alejandro, a Peruvian, has intimate knowledge of the cultures, ecosystems and livelihoods of the Andes. He also has the global perspective to recognize that the communities of the Himalayas, half a world away, have much in common with those in the Andes. He now is working to bring these two communities together so that each may help the other to define a sustainable form of progress. Social entrepreneur Nalini Nayak recognized that environmental degradation is often the root cause of the impoverishment of human communities. A social worker by training, Nalini is working to ensure the livelihoods of small-scale fishers on the west coast of India by implementing mangrove forest conservation. Such conservation will improve the health of fisheries, help reduce erosion and provide coastal communities with long-term sources of income on land and in the sea. Recognizing the impact that social entrepreneurs have already had in redirecting humans towards a path of sustainable development, Ashoka is launching its Environmental Innovations Initiative. The Initiative will draw upon the experiences of over 200 social entrepreneurs working in the fields of environmental conservation and sustainable development to identify leading principles that can accelerate the pace of change in the field. These principles will differ from many sets of "environmental principles" in that, rather than defining a "sustainable future," they seek to describe what the path to a sustainable future might look like – that is, in keeping with the action-orientation of social entrepreneurs, they will tell us how to generate change. The principles will be supported with proven implementation strategies. This issue of Changemakers serves as an introduction to the Environmental Innovations Initiative. Future issues will focus on conservation and development issues, showing how different principles can be applied to resolve a single problem. Here is a look ahead to some of the ideas that the Initiative has thus far identified and which will be elaborated upon in future editions of Changemakers:
	Examples: As a child, Rosa María Ruiz wandered among the people and creatures of the Bolivian rainforest, envisioning a park that would protect them – then she made it happen		Create a Common Vision of a Sustainable Future: If one wishes to go somewhere, one must know where he or she is going. What exactly might a sustainable future look like in any given community, company or organization? How can we each use that vision to begin taking concrete steps to reach that future? How can this vision appeal to all members of a community so that everyone plays a role in its realization? These are questions that social entrepreneurs are not only asking, but also beginning to answer.
	Diana Pombo is pushing environmental protection to the top of the agenda in Colombia's government and rural communities		Create a Legal Framework: A strong legal framework is critical to conserving our natural resources. Such a framework begins – but does not end – with the passage of legislation. Without appropriately educated lawyers and judges, without monitors trained to ensure compliance with the law and without processes that assure that worthy cases are brought to court, laws do not suffice to protect the environment. Change agents must ensure that legal frameworks include appropriate legislation supported by the human resources and market/government systems necessary to ensure their enforcement.
	Pisit Chansnoh is helping impoverished fisherman on Thailand's Andaman Sea take a stand to protect both the coastal ecology and their own livelihoods		Experiment with New Forms of Economic Activity: Although the evidence demonstrates that our current economic system has fundamental flaws that make it unsustainable for the environment and for society, realistic alternatives to that system are not yet readily available. A great number of social entrepreneurs are therefore investing in experimentation. They are testing new ideas for sustaining livelihoods and ecosystems at the same time. Change agents – including business, the citizen sector, government and for-profit and not-for-profit financiers – must increase substantially the amount of experimentation in the field to provide the world with a wide range of approaches for meeting human needs sustainably.
	S.L.N. Swamy's vision for energizing people from all walks of life has brought volunteers to the aid of rain forests in India		"Walk the Earth" to Instill Environmental Values: By 2010 half of the world's population will live in urban areas.12 Given the size and nature of urban areas and the poverty associated with them, many urban dwellers have little opportunity to interact with Nature. Unsurprisingly, that absence of interaction may leave individuals unaware of our essential link to the natural world – that is, that we are an integral part of Nature, not separate from it. A number of social entrepreneurs are demonstrating that by venturing on wilderness experiences, or "walking the earth," city-dwellers begin to achieve a greater awareness of the essential links between humans and the natural world and come to respect the needs of natural systems. From there, they also begin to understand the impact that their own actions – although occurring far from "natural" areas – have on the integrity of ecosystems. These principles, which will be fine-tuned in the coming months, and others yet to emerge from the experiences and lessons of social entrepreneurs will be explored in greater detail in future issues of Changemakers. Particular emphasis will be placed on describing practical strategies for implementing overarching principles. This issue of Changemakers profiles the work of two social entrepreneurs who, in different ways, epitomize the search for a sustainable development path. Jadwiga Lopata has realized the hidden economic value of the lifestyle of small organic farmers in Poland and is taking giant strides to insure the maintenance and spread of that lifestyle. Martín Camacho Morales has developed an entirely new occupation – that of the bird-breeder – and in so doing, is insuring the survival of Mexico's endangered bird species. Both of these social entrepreneurs have identified and implemented mechanisms that can in the long-term change our course, maintain our livelihoods and begin to restore the natural abundance that is the birthright of generations to come. Jerry Casagrande is senior project manager of Ashoka's Environmental Innovations Initiative. Yasmina Zaidman is an Environmental Innovations Initiative Associate at Ashoka. Footnotes Topsoil and species statistics come from Hawken, Paul, The Ecology of Commerce, HarperCollins, p.3; Mexico City statistic comes from Living on Earth, A Thirsty City, aired by National Public Radio during the week of 2/19/99; The Gulf of Mexico figure comes from "Humans' Impact Puts Earth at Risk" by Glennda Chui, San Jose Mercury News, August 4, 1999. [ back ] While global resources were clearly sufficient to support the global population prior to the Industrial Revolution (the world's population has increased sixfold since 1800), there have been instances throughout history in which individual civilizations have encountered environmental limits and even collapsed as a result of unsustainable hunting, fishing, logging, or land-use practices. The ever-increasing globalization of the 20th century has brought with it the globalization of resource degradation, making current environmental problems an issue for the entire population, not simply a single civilization. Although perceived environmental limits have sometimes been overcome by human-developed technology, we have yet to uncover a way to provide a limitless supply of natural resources or depositories for our waste. (See Brown, Lester R. and Flavin, Chrisptoher; The State of the World 1999, Worldwatch Institute, WW Norton, New York, p.4) [ back ] Brown, Lester and Flavin, Christopher, page 12. [ back ] Chui, Glennda; "Humans' Impact Puts Earth at Risk," The Mercury News, Aug. 4, 1999 [ back ] Brown and Flavin, p. 13. [ back ] Goldman Environmental Prize, www.goldmanprize.org [ back ] O'Meara, Molly, The State of the World 1999, Worldwatch Institute, 1999, p. 134. [ back ] Smoky Moutain was finally razed to the ground in the early 1990's. O'Meara, Molly, "Exploring a New Vision for Cities," State of the World 1999, W.W. Norton, New York, 1999, p. 140. [ back ] O'Meara, Molly, "Exploring a New Vision for Cities," State of the World 1999, W.W. Norton, New York, 1999, p. 135 [ back ] Rural and urban environmental problems are closely linked. When natural resources in rural areas are degraded to a point where they can no longer support rural residents, migration to cities results. This migration increases the stress on urban water and sewage systems and increases urban air pollution. [ back ] The World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED) defines sustainable development as "development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs." Our Common Future, WCED, Oxford University Press, (Oxford: 1987), p. 43. [ back ] O'Meara, Molly, The State of the World 1999, Worldwatch Institute, WW Norton, New York, 1999, p. 136. [ back ]

			September 1999 Journal Home Page