Ecospeak: Rhetoric and Environmental Politics in America

7. Ecological Economics and the Rhetoric of Sustainability

7 Ecological Economics and the Rhetoric of Sustainabilify Think Globally, Act Locally In a recent column in Vtne Reader, Walter Truett Anderson writes, "Practically everybody today is some kind of environmentalist. The original movement has diversified into a vast range of organizations , political positions, life-styles, cults, sects, strategies, faiths and fanaticism." Anderson goes on to identify "four distinct wings" of the movement: (1) the politicos, whose perspective is more or less the equivalent ofwhat we have been calling "reform environmentalism," the Washington lobbyists and special interest groups like the Sierra Club; (2) the greens, which we have been calling deep ecologists or radical environmentalists, those "who want to change society deeply, drastically, and immediately, through protest and massive shifts in lifestyle"; (3) the grass-roots activists, those associated with local projects for environmental improvement; and (4) the gfobals, groups like the Worldwatch Institute and the World Resources Institute. Of this last category, Anderson writes, "The really striking difference about the global movcment is its emphasis on development. Environmental activism has stressed stopping things-saying no to pollution, technology , new neighbors. But globals are deeply and actively involved in development. ... T'heir favorite slogan is 'sustainable development' " (52-53). We would argue that, though the emphasis on "development" is indeed what differentiates the globals from reform and radical environmentalists, it is rather what links the global movement to grassroots activism and to the environmentalism emerging in the general 239 240 (l ECOSPEAK public. Though globally oriented economists like Herman Daly and Lester Brown argue for positive, sustainable development, they do not ignore, indeed they have contributed to, the ecologically based critique of standard economics. The globalists themselves would take issue with Anderson's definition ofsustainability as "economic growth that is not attended by environmental destruction" (53; italics added). Daly, the theorist of "steady-state economics" (an alternative to the gospel of growth), and Brown, the originator of the concept of sustainability , have become powerful eritics of high-growth economics and have lambasted the old liberal "illusion of progress" (L. Brown et aI., State of the World 1990, 3-16). The programs of these new economists call instead for a revision of liberalism toward a social ecology, in which institutions, communities, and individual people promote forms of development rooted in scientific understanding, ecological wisdom, small-scale production, environmentally conscious consumption, and community-based ethics. In developing an interdisciplinary research program that ultimately humanizes and adds an ecological dimension to the theoretical and advisory functions ofeconomics, Daly has created an effective framework for an environmentalist activism that can be applied to personal action as well as to local, regional, national, and international institutions. Taking up where Daly leaves off, and in the same spirit, Lester Brown has formed the Worldwatch Institute, whose primary function is public education, the gathering and disseminating of information on the international economy and its effects on the environment. Not stopping with descriptions, or even with the production of an impressive continuous narrative, the informational system of Worldwatch is devoted also to the shaping ofinstitutional policy and personal action. In their effort to influence the emerging environmentalist culture, social ecologists cast a broad net, aiming toward a globally effective discourse with universally acceptable values and strong inducements to constructive action. Like Ernest Callenbach, they evoke audience participation at many levels. Taking seriously the popular slogan, "1bink Globally; Act Locally," they show particular interest in helping a common readership of nonexperts act in ways that will benefit the global ecosystem. In a paper on "Mobilizing at the Grassroots," collected in State ofthe World 1989, for instance, Alan Durning of Ecological Economics () 241 the Worldwateh Institute staff tells encouraging stories about small patches ofgreen activity, oflocal convivial institutions, "an expanding latticework of human organizations that, while varying from place to place in many of the particulars, share basic characteristics"; The particulars include cooperatives, mothers' clubs, peasant unions, religious groups, savings and credit associations, neighborhood federations , collective work arrangements, tribal networks, and innumerable others. The universals include the capacities to tap local knowledge and resources, to respond to problems rapidly and creatively, and to maintain the institutional flexibility necessary in changing circumstances . In addition, although few groups use the words sustainable development, their agendas in many cases embody its ideal. They want economic prosperity without sacrificing their health or the prospects for their children. (L. Brown et aI., State of the World 1989, 155; italics added) The appeals ofWorldwatch...