theconversation | A sustainable Australia is possible – but we have to choose it. That’s the finding of a paper published today in Nature.
The paper is the result of a larger project to deliver the first Australian National Outlook report, more than two years in the making, which CSIRO is also releasing today.
As part of this analysis we looked at whether achieving
sustainability will require a shift in our values, such as rejecting
consumerism. We also looked at the contributions of choices made by
individuals (such as consuming less water or energy) and of choices made
collectively by society (such as policies to reduce greenhouse gas
emissions).
We found that collective policy choices are crucial, and that
Australia could make great progress to sustainability without any
changes in social values.
Competing views
Few topics generate more heat, and less light, than debates over economic growth and sustainability.
At one end of the spectrum, “technological optimists”
suggest that the marvellous invisible hand will take care of
everything, with market-driven improvements in technology automatically
protecting essential natural resources while also improving living
standards.
Unfortunately, there is no real evidence to back this, particularly
in protecting unpriced natural resources such as ocean fisheries, or the
services provided by a stable climate. Instead the evidence suggests we
are already crossing important planetary boundaries.
Other the other end of the spectrum, people argue that achieving sustainability will require a rejection of economic growth,
or a shift in values away from consumerism and towards a more
ecologically attuned lifestyles. We refer to this group as advocating
“communitarian limits”.
A third “institutional reform” approach argues that policy reform can
reconcile economic and ecological goals – and is attacked from one side
as anti-business alarmism, and from the other as indulging in
pro-growth greenwash.
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