Language, Sustainable Development, and Indigenous Peoples: An Ethical Perspective

Ethics and the Environment, 5(1)47-60 ISSN: 1085-6633 Copyright © 2000 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights of reproduction In any form reserved. Bruce Morito Language, Sustainable Development, and Indigenous Peoples: An Ethical Perspective Holistic language has been employed as little more than an honorific in environmental policy formulations guided by the principle of sustainable development. In preambles of sustainable development documents, holistic language has been used to underscore the imperative of preserving ecosystem integrity and acknowledging our dependency on these systems. It has also been used to call attention to the need for a new framework of policy making, a change in direction that has been recognized as necessary for formulating environmentally sound policy. Part of this new framework involves questioning traditional concepts of the human agent and value assumptions . Yet holistic principles play virtually no substantive role in the formulation of policy. The outcome of this omission is that holism has been co-opted, rather than incorporated into sustainable development initiatives. A practical consequence of this move is that some subscribers to sustainable development principles have their values and perspectives co-opted, rather than incorporated, since the analytical system through which problems are identified and solutions developed is determined by a dominant sector of society, not by a holistic understanding of society. Aboriginal peoples have been among those whose values and perspectives have been co-opted. In 1990,1 argued this discrepancy allowed holistic language to be used as a motivating device for soliciting subscribers, but had nothing to do with actual policy. Today , the problem has deepened as sustainable development has become more ubiquitous and influential. I will try to show how sustainable development deeply entrenches a tolerance for contradiction, which in turn engenders a co-opting of Aboriginal perspectives and values by those subscribing to the dominant economic Direct all correspondence to: B. Morito, Centre for Global and Social Policies, Athabasca University, 1 University Drive, Athabasca, Alberta, CA T9S 3A3; E-mail: brucem@athabascau.ca 47 48 ETHICS AND THE ENVIRONMENT Vol. 5, No. 1, 2000 values on resource use and political perspective. This tolerance effectively suppresses the underlying moral imperatives that drive efforts to protect Aboriginal peoples. INTRODUCTION TO THE MORAL MANDATE Since the political world's embracing of the report by The World Commission on the Environment and Development (WCED) in 1987, we have become accustomed to hearing holistic language employed in setting the stage for environmental policy. Canada's Green Plan makes explicit reference to the holistic nature of our dependency relation to the environment. It asserts that, ". . . we exist not simply as individuals, but also as highly active parts of an ecosystem that is itself alive" (Government of Canada 1990, 27). It reaffirms the Commission's message that our economic development can and must be sustained by the environment (5). It goes even further when it claims that we must protect the environment, not merely for our own sakes, but for the sake of the environment itself. Having intrinsic value (15), the environment has an inherent right to exist (10). However obscure the notions are of intrinsic value and inherent right, their use is clearly meant to draw attention to the need for fundamental change in the ways we understand ourselves as moral agents. When the language of intrinsic value is used, it is in connection with holistic language , which in turn calls us to change the conceptions we have of our separateness and uniqueness. This fact is well-articulated by T.F.H. Allen, B. Bandurski, and A.W. King (1993) in their report to the Great Lakes Science Advisory Board. We can no longer think that "There is the system, and humans are defined as acting upon it from the outside. The ecosystem approach unequivocally puts our species inside the system , not as an outside influence but as a working component." The by now, commonly-targeted view, thereby warranting only a brief outline, that the report rallies against has a long-standing, deeply rooted historical background . For at least three hundred years, we have viewed the environment as a valueneutral , inert mechanism, alien to human reason, and existing solely as a resource for human consumption (classical anthropocentrism and liberalism...