3060 Sustainable Development, Fairness and Balance for All Life

Moderator: Rev. Francis Mercer, Executive Administrator of UU United Nations Organization (UU-UNO)
Speakers: The Rev. Richard Gilbert, Alison Hall

A good definition of sustainable development comes from Kofi Annan, UN Secretary General. He said, "Sustainable development is a three-pillared experience concerning social, economic and environmental issues that all societies experience. It requires equal treatment of economic growth, social development and environmental protection." A recent UU seminar also added a fourth pillar, a spiritual component.

SPEAKER: Rev. Richard Gilbert, currently at First Unitarian Church of Rochester (New York):

Political conditions dramatically impact development. In the Philippines, for example, a lumber company had denuded a countryside and a garbage dump had 30,000 people living in it. In Mexico, even after NAFTA, Mexican border factories had huge pollution problems and terrible working conditions.

Does globalization provide a fair division of profits? The richest ten percent have 122 times the wealth of the poorest 10 percent. Corporations can supersede the constitutions of nation-states (see Bill Moyers' recent PBS documentary on globalization).

Joseph Campbell said that it was church spires in the Middle Ages that provided the metaphor for power, then it was government buildings, and now it is commercial buildings. It is no accident that the World Trade Center was the target of terrorists on September 11th.

What can the U.S. government do to help? It can ratify global warming treaties, international missile treaties, and work to end sweatshops led by companies such as Nike and Walmart.

The U.S. could ratify the so-called Tobin tax. This tax could raise $400 billion each year to help fund UN developmental activities, without jeopardizing long-term profits.

SPEAKER: ALISON HALL, from Economic Development Committee at Eglise Unitarienne de Montréal, the Unitarian Church of Montreal:

In Sweden there is already a program of environmental enforcement and education. A Swedish cancer specialist put a program into effect called "Natural Step" (see www.naturalstep.org). There are four conditions which must be met if the systems of the earth's biosphere are to continue:

1. Nature's functions and diversity must not be systematically subjected to increasing extraction from the earth's crust. There are thresholds beyond which we should not go but we don't always know what they are until the damage is done; decreasing dependence of fossil fuels is one way to attack this.
2. Nature's functions and diversity must not be systematically subjected to increasing concentrations of substances produced by society.
3. Avoid taking from the biosphere more than can be replenished by natural systems (eg, over-fishing).
4. Resources must be used fairly and efficiently in order to meet human needs.

The book The Natural Step for Business tells of four companies that are attempting to use this program.

A quotation from Paul Hawkin: "we are far better at making waste than making products." For every pound of product, we produce 32 pounds of waste.

Moderator for questions is Peggy Montgomery from the UU UNO office:

The Johannesburg Summit: The 2002 meeting is considered a ten-years-after-Rio (1992) meeting. From that conference came the "Agenda 21," a plan of action. Dr. Bohdan Czarnockie, Beaconsfield, QC, of the North Shore UU Congregation, Québec, is a representative to the Johannesburg Summit in the fall. He says the main question to be addressed is "How do we address the problems?" Many more NGO delegates will be attending at Johannesburg.

Keep an eye on the "World Watch Volume." It gives a view of the overall state of the world.

QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR:

Can you talk about the dreadful uneven development in China, with new skyscrapers contrasted with horrible poverty, desertification, floods. It's almost impossible to stop desertification.

Is population control being addressed in Johannesburg? Yes, it will be addressed certainly in the social and economic pillars.

Richard Gilbert: Americans can ask their government to re-fund the programs they have cancelled, including funds like $34 million for population growth activities.

Comment: "one child" policy in China has many implications; brats being created, girls
being aborted, left to die……

Question: How do you keep from imposing white middle class western values on other cultures? Response from UU-UNO: talk of "Adopt a Village" policy, which channels resources into specific villages in developing countries.

Closing comment: We are here because we are of the privileged: Which of these privileges are we willing to give up? It is a difficult question to answer honestly.

Report and photos by Allan Stern, edited by Jone Johnson Lewis; web formatting by Anna Belle Leiserson

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