The World Summit on Sustainable Development
PRESS RELEASE:
The World Summit on Sustainable Development began on August 26th in Johannesburg, South
Africa. The summit, nicknamed "Rio+10" marks the 10 year anniversary of the Earth Summit in
Rio de Janeiro. Although no formal treaty is expected to come from the summit in
Johannesburg, there promises to be some significant negotiation over what policies should be
adopted for the next century to address poverty and environmental issues brought by further
development. [For more details about the Summit, including issue papers and an agenda,
visit www.worldsummit2002.org
or www.johannesburgsummit.org/flat.]
There are controversial issues related to sustainable development on Georgiašs coast that
citizens have been grappling with for some time. In fact, a regional non-profit group, the
Center for a Sustainable Coast, was formed five years ago to the principles of
sustainability to address trends affecting coastal Georgiašs growth, economy, and
environment. The Center has been working with public officials, other state and local
groups, business people and the public to raise awareness about the cumulative and
longer-term consequences of ongoing development.
"Although a major portion of the region's business sector and many jobs are derived from our
natural resources, officials often overlook their economic importance. By our reckoning,
about 40,000 jobs in coastal Georgia are dependent on rivers, estuaries, marshes, beaches
and related natural resources. This includes about $500 million brought in annually by
commercial and recreational fishing and seafood processing businesses," says David Kyler,
the Centeršs executive director. Another $500 million a year is estimated to be associated
with more nature-dependent businesses ranging from camping and kayaking to bird-watching and
hunting. That adds to at least $1 billion every year, not including the value of water
filtration, flood control, and other vital functions of nature.
According to Kyler, these economic factors must be taken into account when decisions are
made that affect our natural resources, and that is not presently being done in most cases.
"Public officials continue to allow polluters to contaminate our air and water in the false
belief that this will protect jobs and business interests, when, in fact, the opposite is
true. For example, coal-burning power plants across Georgia spew mercury into the air,
which winds up in our waters and fish. About half of the entire state's fish advisories are
found in coastal waters, way out of proportion to our share of Georgia'"s geographic area.
These facilities also produce acid rain, destroying plant life."
This is just one of many public policies that are adversely affecting both nature-based
business and the public's health, as well as coastal resources, says Kyler. "If we tallied
the costs of health care required by people with respiratory illness caused by polluted air
into the costs of electricity sold by dirty power plants, they would not be competitive with
their more responsible rivals. Moreover, investment in clean energy technologies, like wind
and solar, would be more likely to be made. In many places they are already proving to be
far better for society."
"Our current means of making decisions about how resources are used, including what does and
does not get taken into consideration, is woefully outdated," says Kyler. He is backed up by
many national experts, like Lester Brown of the Worldwatch Institute, and the newly created
Earth Policy Institute. In his recent book Eco-Economy, Mr. Brown explains why a new form
of accounting is needed to guide economic development decisions.
"We spend a lot of time worrying about our economic deficits, but it is the ecological
deficits that threaten our long-term economic future. Economic deficits are what we borrow
from one another; ecological deficits are what we take from future generations. When our
numbers were small relative to the size of the planet, it was humanmade capital that was
scarce. Natural capital [like fish, trees, marshes, and river systems] was abundant. Now
that has changed. As the human enterprise continues to expand, the products and services
provided by the earth's ecosystem are increasingly scarce, and natural capital is fast
becoming the limiting factor while humanmade capital is increasingly abundant." (p.21)
Another example of crucial importance to Georgians, says Kyler, is water. "We are suffering
from poor choices made in the over-development of Atlanta, far beyond the capacity of
natural systems to support that rampant urbanization. Coastal resources are being directly
threatened by related activities and water demands upstate."
"At the same time, with the full support of public officials, water has been allocated in
huge quantities to industry, agriculture, and power companies with little concern about the
consequences and without examining practical alternatives. As a result, we are now in a
water crisis of potentially disastrous proportions. Meanwhile, the state continues to issue
water withdrawal permits without any obligation to improve efficiency. It is essential for
the state to require all water users to achieve maximum feasible water-using efficiency
before issuing more permits, regardless of the claimed needs. We can no longer afford to
squander vital resources to support unwise growth."
Until decision-makers can agree on the methods to be used in resolving conflicts over
resource use and protection, Georgians and other Americans will continue to suffer the
downside of obsolete policies. It is abundantly clear that workable solutions must be based
on responsible evaluation of natural systems and how to use them sustainably.
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