I many times make reference to going down the rabbit hole. To do so with any expectation of success, fully requires an open and discerning mind. I believe I have that, but even then, I am often faced with things that stop me in my tracks and make me have to ponder the magnitude of what I am learning. The cognitive dissonance that comes with contradictions to my own conditioned beliefs and my need to face it all makes me see things that many people would rather not even look at, let alone face. Yet, it is this illumination of ‘truths’ that gives me both despair for how we as a species allowed everything to get so bad, but also hope for a better world to come. This is from a knowing that the global power-brokers that seem to control us is something that can be ended – actually much more easily than we might realize. But we all have to understand how this debauched system we take for granted came to be. Since COP26 (Conference of the Parties, #26) is just finishing up let me use this as a point of reference for today’s blog posting.
As I hear about the latest debacle of elites gathering to discuss ideas for solving our global environmental problems, let me briefly go back to a couple of earlier global get-togethers that promised to resolve our growing global problems. The first Human Environment Conference in Stockholm, Sweden, in 1972, brought together political big-wigs (Leaders and diplomats), notable scientists, lots of media, and a host of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) from 179 countries. (A good turn-out since there are some 194-249 countries depending on how you rate their independence – some are just nation states within a country.) This was a massive global effort for the first time focusing on the impact of human socio-economic activities on the environment. The main results of this conference were a global recognition of environmental problems from technological advancement, the creation of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), and a global treaty to protect human health and the environment from the effects of persistent organic pollutants (POPs). In a nutshell, a lot of words passed with the promise of many more words to come, plenty of pledges, but ultimately minimal action to rectify the ever-growing problems.
Jump forward 20 years, and we have the now famed, United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), also known as the ‘Earth Summit’, which was held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, from 3-14 June 1992. Again, lots of fanfare, lots of words and promises from world leaders. What came out of that meeting was Agenda 21 – a comprehensive plan of action to be taken globally, nationally and locally by organizations of the United Nations System, Governments, and Major Groups in every area in which human impacts on the environment.
I had recently changed my academic focus from biochemistry to Environmental Education, Environmental Communication and Environmental Interpretation, and was keen to find out ways to save the world. I was a little naïve and idealistic at the time, after all I was a true believer back then. However, as the years have gone by, I see more and more that Agenda 21 is about developing a centralized governing body to ‘control’ our bad environmental behaviors. While I don’t dismiss the benefits of centralization, and am in somewhat in favor depending on the level of control, I think centralized systems need to be overseers and/or regulators of the system and not governmental bodies issuing mandates and dictates of what is needed. That control should always be at the local level with centralized regulation to ensure that the big picture is never lost. I use the U.S. Forest service as an example of this where rampant cutting of forests by individual U.S. states was curtailed by federal government regulations to maintain national forests at a sustainable level of harvest overall.
Back to UNCED. What excited me was the unprecedented number of NGO representatives at Rio, who presented their own vision of the world’s future in relation to the environment and socio-economic development. In October of 1992, I attended the ‘Eco-Ed: “A World Congress for Education and Communication on Environment & Development’ in Toronto, Canada, where many of the Rio NGOs came to give their perspectives. I heard amazing stories of work being done locally around the world, spoke to many NGO delegates, and got some unique and different views other than the media circus that the media ran about the Rio conference.
I was really into Sustainability since the term ‘Sustainable Development’ was used by The Brundtland Report, published in 1987 by the United Nations World Commission on Environment and Development – ‘development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.’ It was one of the many things that made me change career focus. Yet, even back then I always questioned why the problems really existed and what would really be needed to get a massive change to occur. I had no illusions that big business would voluntarily make the changes, although I was always out looking for business practices that would point the way (e.g., B-Corporations). Check out my earlier posts on some of the positive things I found out (e.g., Technology and Business {February 2018}, Businesses Making a difference {February 2018}). The problem is that most of the sustainable business modelling you can read great things about are small and medium level businesses in which the leaders are truly environmental and visionary (e.g., Patagonia, TOMS, Zara, Tom and Jerries). The problem we face is trying to get the transnational corporations to be that way and therein lies the crux of the problem. Most of the talking heads in these global meetings are from the really big guys with socio and psychopaths running them with little room at the table for the smaller B-corporate voices.
So, there was the first COP meeting in 1995 in Berlin, and here we are 26 COP meetings on in Glasgow and what has happened? Lots more words and a lot more promises and pledges. I won’t say I have gotten cynical over the last 30 years but my naivety and nice simple global perspective have certainly gone away – too many years exploring the rabbit warrens of power and economics will do that to you. First a reality check for us all. None of the world’s problems are just the fault of world leaders, big-bad corporations, or any other Cabalistic system we might name. WE are just as complicit in the overall harm to the planet – we buy into the system they have set up for us. While many of us now recognize this fact, getting into real solutions is simple but trickier, since we are not simply talking about modifications to the current global economic system, but the humongous elephant in the room – the very infrastructure that supports the total system. And that brings us back to the transnational corporations again, and that elephant is very big indeed.
To Be Continued ………………….
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