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Art 35
ARTICLE
SUSTAINABILITY
SUSTAINABILITY
Summary
Two hundred years of modernity have had the double effect of bringing us to the point of
greatest progress in our development as a species and, simultaneously, to the point where
the permanence of these advances is threatened from multiple directions. The science and
technology of sustainability is proposed as a project
for the rational realization of a proposed alternative
paradigm. Its effective application requires a radical
change, and not just cosmetic modifications, in the
“
This science of direction of human activities. The recent idea of safe,
dignified and fair operating space for humanity clearly
sustainability, as it has shows the necessary direction.
been called, is
necessarily
Keywords: Sustainability science, Planetary Frontiers,
interdisciplinary, and requires Fair and Safe Space for Humanity.
the participation of all current
disciplines of science...
“ SUSTAINABILITY
Abstract
Keywords: Sustainablity Science, Planetary Boundaries, Safe and Just Space for
Humanity
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SUSTAINABILITY
Introduction
There is no doubt, the path we have followed as a species - and particularly the one
we have followed for the last two hundred years - is unsustainable because it
No does not meet the needs of the present and compromises the ability of future
generations to meet their own needs. The evidence for the first is multiple, painful and
very well documented. A limited list of unsatisfied needs includes evidence that, above
a certain income, obtaining greater wealth stops contributing to happiness [Kahneman
and Deaton, 2010], that the distribution of income is very inequitable - in the In the best
case scenario, the number of human beings living on less than 1.25 dollars a day is
estimated at 1.4 billion [The World Bank, 2013] -, as is access to food [FAO, 2013],
education [Barro and Lee, 2010], justice [Solt, 2009], etc. The evidence that we are
compromising our species' ability to meet its needs in the future also has a long list that
has been effectively summarized, for example, in the idea of the nine planetary
boundaries [Rockström et al., 2009] that include climate change, ocean acidification,
freshwater consumption and the loss of biodiversity, among others.
The discussion of the effects that the path we follow as a species may
have is as old as History, particularly with regard to the satisfaction of the
needs of the present - intragenerational equity. Attention to the conservation
of the possibilities of future generations to satisfy their needs - intergenerational
equity - is more recent and inevitably leads to the texts of Malthus [Malthus,
1798] and Carson [Carson, 1962]. In recent years, motivated mainly by the
recognition of the effects of global warming - the ten years of highest
temperatures in modern history have occurred from 1998 to date -, the
assignment of its causes to the generation of greenhouse gases (GHGs) - the
[1] The effort of many
authors to respond, continuous growth of the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere has been
rationally, to the precisely measured since 1956 and momentarily reached, for the first time in
irrational nonsense
used by those who millennia, 400 ppm in 2013 [ Mauna Loa Observatory, 2013] -, the evidence
deny the evidence of
anthropogenic climate
that the main contribution to the generation of GHGs is anthropogenic - the
change is striking. combustion of fossil fuels (coal, gas and oil) generates 88% of the energy
For example, in their
extraordinary book
used by humanity - and the criminally effective discussion - due to the time it
Bankrupt Nature: has caused humanity to lose in addressing these problems - by those who
Inattention to Planetary
Borders, Wijkman and
deny this
Theincontrovertible
, evidence1
issue of sustainability has become a central topic in the scientific research
Rockström [Wijkman of environmentalists, ecologists, geoscientists and some other researchers.
and Rockström, 2012]
dedicate 20% of their This discussion has reached many attempts of mass dissemination to the general public,
work to demonstrating
the irrationality of
“contreras”.
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through books, magazines, conferences and courses. Despite this, the issue of
sustainability has not yet achieved a single real effect that globally modifies the path that
humans follow, although some local achievements must be recognized.2
But even more interestingly, in the last ten or twenty years, attention has turned
to the issue of holistic sustainability - so to speak - which addresses not only the
problems generated by human activity in the environment, but also the shortcomings of
this activity in satisfying the needs of the
humanity itself as a whole; and studies these problems and their consequences both for
the current era -intragenerationally- and for the future of generations to come
-intergenerationally-. This science of sustainability, as it has been called, is necessarily
interdisciplinary, and requires the participation of all current disciplines of science and
the generation of new disciplines that integrate current knowledge and contribute to
generating new knowledge that allows us to address our situation in ways that are
necessarily different from those we know, since the tools of the present are the ones we
have used to get into this current mess.
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“to build three new airplanes.” None of these comments help to reflect on
whether it is possible that the global operation of the airline - or of
commercial aviation itself - can be maintained in the long term on the
current scale. (p.3)
Figure 1:
The use of the word
sustainable is not sustainable.
[With permission from www.xkcd.com]
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much more sympathetic and, I want to believe, for different reasons they include the Talking
Heads song and the cartoon in Figure 1.
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almost two more: phosphorus cycle and ocean acidification. The resulting interpretation
is clear and forceful: if we continue to act in the way we have done in the last two
hundred years, we will be outside the safe operating zone for the species.
Figure 2:
The planetary boundaries
that define humanity's safe
operating space. The red
areas must not exceed the
green circle; although they
have already exceeded it in
three of the cases considered
and are close to doing so in
two more. Note that two of
the processes were not
qualified because we lacked sufficient data.
But what will confirm the fame and relevance of Rock-ström's original proposal
is the recent addition by Raworth [Raworth, 2012], which allows the general idea of
sustainability to be presented at a single glance. Because Raworth suggests that
Rockström's original proposal constitutes the “environmental ceiling” of the security
space, to which the “social foundation” must be added, that is, the set of resources that
every human being must access to have the opportunity of a dignified and fair life.
Eleven social priorities are proposed to define the social foundation of humanity:
1. food safety
2. economic income
3. water and sanitary facilities
4. health care
5. education
6. access to sufficient energy
7. gender equality
8. social equity
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9. freedom of expression
10. access to work
11. security
Figure 3:
The “social foundations”
that define humanity's
safe operating space. The
orange areas must reach
the green circle to ensure
the minimum of justice
and dignity for all human
beings. Note that three of
the processes were not
qualified because, in the
author's opinion, there is
still insufficient data.
Unlike the Rockström case in which we worry about not exceeding the ceiling of
planetary borders, now the question is how close are we to reaching that floor, the minimum
necessary for equity and justice? Predictably, the answer is that we are currently far from
guaranteeing the existence of this space of security for large numbers of human beings.
Figure 3 shows Raworth's estimate. As can be seen, we are not able to guarantee the social
floor for humanity in any of the eleven categories initially defined and, even more serious,
in some categories - water and sanitary facilities, gender equality, access to sufficient energy
- we are very away from that floor.
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Figure 4:
The gift of safe, dignified and
fair operating space for
humanity. Raworth's work
proposes eleven social
foundations, Rockström's,
nine planetary borders.
Sustainability proposes
reaching the social floor
without exceeding the
environmental ceiling.
Currently, although we have
not guaranteed the social
floor for all humanity, we have
exceeded the
environmental ceiling on the planet.
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Attention to sustainability is more related to the second question: are we getting better or
worse? And even more precisely, are we going to continue improving or are we going to
start getting worse? Looking at the past, the opinion of the man on the street is pessimistic,
in the manner of Manrique and Borges, but looking at the future not only is our opinion
optimistic, but we are actively committed to defending that optimism. Thus, humanity acts
in the present as if permanent economic growth were guaranteed, as if the availability of
cheap energy were assured, as if climate change did not exist. That inclination guides our
decisions: this is how we vote, this is how we buy, this is how we throw away, this is how
we consume, this is how we eat.
But one of the undoubted advantages of our present is the quantity and quality
of the information we have at hand. We have never dedicated so much effort to finding
out what is happening. And while it is true that we are very far from predicting the future
with precision, that our uncertainties are very large, that it is not impossible that the truth
ends up being on the other side of what is predicted, never before have we known so
much about what is going to happen. occur. We may not know much, but it is what we
have known the most in the history of humanity.
Current predictions of the effect of human activity in the near future are
approximate and subject to the possibility of uncertainty and error. But its denial - and the
omission to take actions that respond to these predictions - is more uncertain and
sometimes completely false. We know, for example, that if we burn all the fossil fuel that
we can extract, the average global temperature will increase above that which guarantees
the stability of the functioning of current society.
Is not this knowledge reason enough to act? Isn't it the responsibility of the
academy to lead this action? In my opinion, the answer is categorically affirmative in both
cases. What fate will human society choose in its first global test of survival? As Diamond
has shown (Diamond, 2012), different human groups have made wrong choices in
numerous local circumstances, making their permanence impossible. In our current
advantage, as already mentioned, we have never been so capable of modifying our
behavior and it is not impossible for us to reinvent ourselves and be able to avoid the evils
that surround us (Diamandis & Kotler, 2012). As always, for our modern society, our best
weapons are rationality, science, technology and education.
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Bibliography
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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons license.
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