Last Gasp: by Jonathon Porritt

page

1 2 3 4 5

A boat stranded as the Aral sea dries up

The great British snail hunt

The not-so-humble snail can tell us a lot about climate change and geology - and that's why we need you to join in with the great British snail hunt.

Do your bit

Cutting waste, reducing packaging, recycling - find out how you can do your bit and help the environment.

Jonathon Porritt offers his opinion on the prospects for the environment

Start by doing right by conventional market economics: get rid of all perverse subsidies that pay people to destroy the environment. Franz Fischler's new proposals for common agricultural policy (CAP) reform are a serious step in the right direction. But George Bush's US farm bill (pumping $180 billion of new subsidies into US agriculture over the next 10 years) is an even more serious step in the wrong direction - and yet another example of the kind of redneck unilateralism that is persuading more and more people of the status of the US as the number one rogue state.

Next, start internalising some of the costs that allow business to dump on to the environment, so that the price we pay for things more accurately reflects their true costs. Massively improve the efficiency with which we use energy and resources, so that every unit of production comes at a fraction of its current ecological impact.

Then get real about sustainable development on a global basis. Address the needs of poorer countries as they see them, not as we see them. Underpin their economies by securing and enhancing natural capital (in terms of water supply, sanitation, local food production, biodiversity, sustainable forestry, clean energy, and so on) rather than accelerating its destruction.

Further, slow the rate of population growth by prioritising investments in better primary healthcare and education for women, as well as far easier access to contraception.

Finally, rein in "crony capitalism", constrain the power of multi-nationals, channel foreign direct investment into socially-inclusive and ecologically sustainable wealth creation.

Pipe dreams? It's hard to see why. There are already more than enough inspiring success stories around the world to demonstrate what now needs to be done on a global basis. Bringing about such a transformation is not impossible. But it does demand a quality of political leadership that Earth scientists and green activists currently can only dream about.

First published in The Guardian newspaper Wednesday July 17, 2002
SocietyGuardian.co.uk © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2002

< previous Page 5 of 5

Content last updated: 18/08/2004