Global Teacher, Autumn 2001

There are finite resources on this planet. Only so much land, only so much fuel. The only way you can make lots of money out of these finite resources is to take an unfair share of the resources. Which means that somewhere there'll be someone else (or more likely millions of someone elses) who have less than their fair share. You can't make a packet out of producing trainers unless you pay the people who make them very little, and get other people to buy lots for lots of money.

The economy of most of the world, and certainly the big corporations of the G8 (France, Canada, Great Britain, Germany, Japan, Italy, USA and Russia) is based on making profit. Capitalism doesn't produce things we need. It produces things in order to make a profit. So whether we need them or not, if companies can sell them they'll keep making them. That is not sustainable living. If we want to preserve some of this planet, if we want to share what we've got more equally then some people are going to have to downsize. And to be honest it's not about me turning a few lights off. It's about the big, really big, players saying "OK, well we've had a good innings, and now it's time to let go of our mansions and our yachts and our control over our governments. We will no longer try to make as much money as possible by selling as much oil as possible, so that there will be minimal carbon emissions. What we'll do is we'll stop trying to get people to buy new stuff all the time and we'll make do with less ourselves". Likely story. But if we keep telling ourselves that it'll all be alright if we turn off our lights then we are not really changing anything. More than that, we are in danger of creating an illusion that its possible to be sustainable without challenging the very system that makes us unsustainable.

When your main aim is profit, and then more profit, you need raw materials, labour and consumers. If you want to keep growing (the hallmark and raison d'etre of capitalism) you have to keep seeking new sources of raw materials, low cost labour and new markets. Sustainability doesn't come into it. Sustainability is about producing what we need - producing for now without jeopardizing the future. It is incompatible with the capitalist motive of profit and growth.

There are plenty of examples in the world of sustainable living. Almost all of them come under threat from the dominant world economic system because they do not conform with it: they do not produce for and they do not buy from the dominant world economic system.

Sustainability and capitalism are irreconcilable. One sets out to use resources wisely according to need, the other sets out to use as much as possible to gain as much profit as possible. All talk of recycling, reusing, renewable energy sources, less pollution on a domestic level come to nothing when big business is more concerned with protecting profit than protecting the environment. President Bush's refusal to shift on the Kyoto protocol on Climate Change was fuelled by the oil industry's fears that cutting the use of oil and coal would affect profits. Agreements on environmental issues are plagued by refusal of many countries to be bound by rules. At best there are guidelines. Countries don't even have to reduce the amount of pollution they produce, they can simply buy pollution credits from countries with less greenhouse gas emissions. Yes we will have to stop shifting food that can be grown locally half way across the world. Yes we will have to cut fuel consumption, and use renewable energy. But we will also have to put a stop to the system which encourages production and consumption at levels way beyond sustainability. And we will have to challenge the means by which that system operates, and in doing so create a world in which everyone has an opportunity to share in the resources that we have. A world where people come before profit. If as educators we do not address this wider picture, if we stay in the safe haven of solar panels and compost, then we are at best tinkering around at the edges, and at worst supporting the very system that is destroying this planet.

Back to Discussion Articles Page