Justification+for+Sustainability

Sustainability

Sustainability was defined by the Brundtland Commission of the UN in 1987: “sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” (1) However, instead of focusing on future generations, the assumption for this project is to focus on meeting the needs of people alive in the present.

A visual way of representing Sustainability is by using a Venn diagram of overlapping ovals for social, economic and environment. Sustainability is where all three meet. (2)

Systems of Survival

Guardian and Commercial systems define the ethical basis for the American government and economy. (3) These systems are symbiotic. The Guardian system accumulates power and the Commercial system accumulates wealth. Each system works to support the other. The Guardian system protects the Commercial system and the Commercial system gives up some profit and wealth to maintain the Guardian system.

The Commercial system is based on private property rights based on the Lockean Proviso (4) that enough resources remain and they are as good as before the property was removed from the commons. The Lockean Proviso says: individuals have a right to homestead private property from nature by working on it, they can do so only "...at least where there is enough, and as good, left in common for others". (5)

Lockean Proviso is not true when there are not enough resources remaining for others. Also, the Lockean Proviso is not true when what remains for others is not as good as when the last person removed property from the commons.

Guardian System Intervention

Market failure (6) is when the Lockean Proviso is not true and the Commercial system does not leave enough resources or what remains is not as good for others. Then the Guardian system intervenes in the Commercial system and creates demand for goods and services that manage common resources so that there is enough and as good for others. Attempts to correct market failure, may also lead to an inefficient allocation of resources. The purpose of a Guardian intervention is not efficiency, that is a Commercial system ethical constraint. Guardian laws, rules and regulations can be designed that are enforced to create demand for goods and services in the Commercial system so that the Lockean Proviso is true.

Feedback in Systems

Why do policymakers choose policies that fail? A policy response is rational for decision makers who fail to account for the feedback structure of a system. Only by considering the full feedback structure is the ineffectiveness of a policy revealed. By learning why feedback affects system behavior, small system dynamics models have a crucial role to play in policy making. (7) Policy makers fall prey to the “Pull my finger” joke. They develop a policy that responds to correlations, trends and events believing that they understand the cause like when the finger pull and sound are close together in space and time. The irony of public policy making is that, without understanding system feedback, what happened in the past will be made worse by a policy response. The Guardian system has for decades passed laws, rules and regulations about pollution so that the land, water and air remain good enough for others alive today. As a result, the Commercial system adjusts to deal with the change in demand for goods and services. Criticism is that the economy suffers when this happens however over time the whole society is protected by the Guardian system.

Limits to Growth

The original Limits to Growth (8) and the followup books, focus on the dynamics of increasing population, with demands for increasing living standards, by using more and more resources and increasing the pollution over time. As the population reaches the limit on land and water resources there will not be enough for others. As the Commercial system focuses on profit and wealth accumulation, they will attempt to continue to privatize land and water resources. Without Guardian intervention, the Commercial system is designed to privatize all resources and dispose of all wastes in the commons.

As the population reaches limits on energy resources society will shift by using efficiency improvements and using other sources of energy. For example, we are beginning to shift away from fossil fuels toward other energy sources. However, the limits of land and water still remain. As the Commercial system finds ways to avoid limits on food production, the limits on available land and water resources are dealt with by using market forces. However, the Commercial system depends on the privatization of resources and the ability to freely discharge wastes back into the commons at no additional cost.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">The Guardian and Commercial systems are symbiotic and depend on each other to survive. The Commercial system requires Guardian intervention when there is a market failure.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">In Marvin Brown’s words, the problem with maintaining the private property rights assumptions built into the traditional American economy is “that it excludes the damage caused by treating labor and land as commodities, and it runs up against the dangers of environmental destruction and the power of people’s demand for justice.” (9)

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">Brown’s words echo the Lockean Proviso. Treating land as a commodity requires privatizing resources from the commons. Environmental destruction results from the Lockean Proviso not being true for leaving the commons as good for others. New global institutions will be created to govern so that a new Guardian system emerges to make sure the Lockean Proviso remains true.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">References
 * 1) <span style="color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;"> [|__http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sustainability__]
 * 2) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">Ibid
 * 3) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">Jacobs, Jane. Systems of Survival: A Dialogue on the Moral Foundations of Commerce and Politics. New York: Random House, 1992. Print.
 * 4) <span style="color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">[|__http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockean_proviso__]
 * 5) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">Ibid
 * 6) <span style="color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">[|__http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Market_failure__]
 * 7) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">Ghaffarzadegan, Navid, John Lyneis, and George P. Richardson. "Why and How Small System Dynamics Models Can Help Policymakers: A Review of Two Public Policy Models." System Dynamics Society. Web. 10 Feb. 2012. < [|__http://www.systemdynamics.org/conferences/2009/proceed/papers/P1388.pdf__] >.
 * 8) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">Meadows, Donella H. The Limits to Growth; a Report for the Club of Rome's Project on the Predicament of Mankind. New York: Universe, 1972. Print.
 * 9) <span style="color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">[|__http://www.shareable.net/blog/enriching-the-commons-marvin-browns-economics-of-provision__]