OP-ED In pursuit of sustainability

Author: Jack Byrne

The current economic turmoil in the world comes with many lessons, some of which we know but seem to have forgotten. A core principle of economics involves the relationship between capital and interest: invest your capital wisely and spend the interest it earns. By some strange mathematics we had capital that was leveraged way beyond any realistic return on its investment and a lot of people are holding worthless IOUs because they believed in the impossible. Sometimes such illusion is useful, such as when pursuing grand aspirations of human achievement. But when it includes a disregard for some fundamental principles of how the world works, it can lead to disaster.

There's a parallel turmoil in the world of natural capital. I refer to the value of all the services nature provides us: flood surge protection by coastal mangrove swamps and estuaries, soil aeration and fertilizer production by earthworms, fish and shellfish food produced by the oceans, and so on. The best estimate of the value of the fertile soils, fresh water, breathable air, stable climate and the other life-support services provided by Mother Nature is $33 trillion in 1997 dollars. That's about twice the global gross national product. Just like we treated our financial capital as though it could generate interest that was impossible, we are treating our natural capital as though it can provide impossible rates of interest.

The best measure of this imbalance is expressed by the ecological footprint which includes all the agricultural land, forests and fishing grounds required to supply the food, materials, and space we humans need to live. It also includes the ecosystem services mentioned above. By the best estimate available, at our current rate of consumption we have gobbled away about 25 percent of the earth's natural capital. At this rate we will need two earths by 2050.

I don't know how to create a second earth and I'd bet the smartest people on earth don't know either. We are smart enough however to learn and to act for our own self-interests. We are also capable of unselfish cooperation, which is what it will take to avoid kicking half the population off the planet if current trends continue. The countries with the biggest ecological footprints will have to reduce their consumption of natural resources while those with the smallest, with very few exceptions, will need to grow theirs in order for their people to have a dignified and adequate quality of life.

What will help us get there? For starters, it would make sense to put a price on the value of the ecosystem services that we do not include in the cost of the products and services we purchase. We did this years ago when we put a price on acid rain causing pollutants and it did wonders. There is legislation in the works now to put a price on carbon dioxide emissions and we need to tell our political leaders that we want that done ASAP. We also need to support the creation of a global carbon trading system in which all countries participate including our own.

Closer to home, we each need to take a look at our own ecological footprints and ask "What choices could I make that would make a significant difference in my use of natural capital?" Little things add up quickly when a lot of people do them. For example, if every household in the US had energy saving compact fluorescent light bulbs we would reduce consumption of electricity by 35 percent, which would also significantly reduce the amount of climate warming carbon dioxide emitted to the atmosphere. The next time you need to replace a vehicle, get one that has higher mileage efficiency. In the meantime, look for ways to reduce the miles you travel alone in your vehicle. And so on. The point here is to make this kind of thinking and acting a habit. Each of us can pursue sustainability in our own unique ways while we work together for the bigger changes needed on the national and international front to assure that all of us here now and those to come will have a decent life on a healthy planet.

To calculate your own ecological footprint go to www.myfootprint.org.

(Jack Byrne is the College's Director of
Sustainability Integration.)