Sustainability
and the System Problem
by Gar
Alperovitz
Based
on an address to the Executive Staff of the
President's Council on Sustainable Development
The Good Society, Vol. 5, No.3, Fall 1995
Content:
Page
1 of 8
Introduction
Let me begin
by suggesting that the conventional debate on "sustainability"
is itself fast becoming unsustainable. I obviously mean to
be provocative--but also quite specific: At one level
there is a growing consensus that to avoid compromising the
needs of future generations any political-economic system
must significantly reduce ecological stress, restore past
environmental damage, and generate sufficient momentum so
that net environmental deterioration is halted. Although precise
definitions vary, many now recognize that "sustainability"
also requires both an institutional structure and a culture
capable of achieving these bottom line results in an ongoing
fashion.
Yet,
I believe it has also become increasingly evident that neither
of the two major "systems" of the twentieth century--capitalism
and socialism--is organized in a manner compatible with these
goals. If this is so, the conventional debate will obviously
need to push much deeper in order to confront the underlying
design characteristics of these and other systems to see if
any are--or might be--sustainable. The debate, in its present
form, is . . . unsustainable.
Put
another way, whether we like it or not the sustainability
crisis is pushing us all forward, willy-nilly, to "the system
problem."
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