Sustainability now

A few weeks back, the UK Guardian had featured an article highlighting that climate change is the “biggest threat to global economy in 2016,” based on a survey conducted by the World Economic Forum including 750 experts’ opinions. 

Throughout the past years, risks connected with global warming and natural disasters have made it to the top of the list of concerns. It was mentioned that “a failure of climate change mitigation and adaptation was seen as likely to have a bigger impact than the spread of weapons of mass destruction, water crisis, mass involuntary migration and a severe energy price shock”. It has been the first time in the 11 years of the existence of the Global Risk Report that the environment has been in the first place.

This result doesn’t come surprising where since years environmentalists are warning decision makers about the future consequences of our insufficiently-sustainable governance, corporate and consumer behaviour. Reports on trending products such as canned “fresh air” from New Zealand for those living in polluted cities in China or India or on droughts, floods, heat waves, coral bleaching, natural disasters and global pollution have become everyday news. 

However what is surprising is that still related actions to effectively mitigate climate change, to increase sustainable development are not increasing at a desirable rate, at the top and the bottom as well. Where one can say that “everybody talks about it”, at the same rate it seems “few are taking it seriously”. 

Climate change deniers and those who believe that the disasters and challenges we have globally are not manmade, are easy to find. Excuses are manifold: from “too difficult” to “too expensive” there are a large number of explanations reasoning for no behaviour change. This might be very well due to the current success model which is still highlighting material accomplishments and cheap production and consumption as most desirable.

And this situation displays maybe the largest trap for humankind at current: Having a look at Maslow’s five-step hierarchy of needs, the basis of all life is satisfaction of physiological needs followed by safety needs, the need for love and belonging, the need for self-esteem and finally the need for self-realisation. At the very bottom of all life there is the need for air, water and food which are metabolic requirements for survival in all animals, including humans. 

This is a rational fact, which has not much to do with “love for nature” or being an environmentalist; this is simply human as human can get. Once this level of needs is assured only, other needs become important. However in our world today, that very level of provision of material to satisfy the basic needs is considered self-understood. 

Food is related to supermarkets, not to the primary resource. Today we have to label food which has not been poisoned by pesticides and fertilisers as “organic” rather than labelling those which have been poisoned with “attention – chemicals”; we are buying drinking water in bottles, we start breathing air from cans, we cannot be exposed too long to the sun, we swim in oceans full of waste, 70% of food related products in our supermarkets are either fattening, full of sugar or chemicals, and so on. 

We have created a world which gives us many products in fast life circles to fuel our comfort, belonging, self-esteem and recognition. However by doing so, we disregard the maintenance of the very basis of our own life. This doesn’t make any sense. 

Sri Lanka, as many other countries, has signed the Paris Agreement on the Sustainable Development Goals on 22 April 2016, thus committing to act towards a more sustainable future. Sri Lanka, in the middle of re-building the country after the devastating civil war now has the opportunity to leap frog many of the unsustainable decisions made by other countries in the past. It possesses the resources, work force and skill set to do so. 

Sustainable development is not really a choice, it is a necessity if we wish to mitigate disasters and resource conflicts in the future. The process has started in April this year, in the meantime various departments and organisations are working towards this objective. 

Hope remains that with the necessary understanding of importance and urgency, Sri Lanka can now take this chance of becoming the best practice example on sustainable development in Asia. 

[The writer is working as consultant for sustainable development with the business sector, multilateral organisations and civil society on projects involving sustainable consumption and production (inclusive supply chains and industry development, renewable energy, consumer behaviour, waste management) and peace building (SD conflicts, social integration, resource conflicts). She is the founder of the Sustainability Hub Sri Lanka and the Colombo Fleamarket. She could be reached via [email protected].]