Rachel Brooking
Environmental Investigator -
Office of the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment
Sustainability: the ability to continue an activity for a long period of time while maintaining diverse, healthy and productive ecosystems, and meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.
Look at me. I’m an ecology graduate, I work in an environmental role for goodness sake, and frankly I’m ashamed. From the moment I left work last night to the time I got to bed, I committed offences against the planet left, right and centre.
For a bonus point I was using public transport by bussing home. I could have walked, but it’s cold, dark and a constant trail of carbon monoxide, so I’m not going to beat myself up over that one. But I lost points when I made dinner and the organic scraps went in the rubbish instead of the compost, I took the car to the supermarket - when really I could have walked - didn’t turn lights off and allowed the packaging from my consumerism – all those takeaway coffee cups and lids – to stack up around me.
What state is the world in when someone like me – a genuinely concerned and well informed person – fails to make small steps that cumulatively have a huge impact on our planet’s ecosystem?
I am not alone in being a concerned yet complacent NZ citizen. Many NZers care about the environment and are happy to conserve vast chunks of the nation and pay for species recovery programmes. Projects like these are certainly very important, especially when we consider that two-thirds of our endemic birds face extinction.
However, preserving the environment that we don’t live in is not enough. With 85% of us living in urban areas our occupation of cities is very high. For our own health and for the health of our planet we look after our immediate surroundings.
It is easy to feel paralysed by problems we are powerless as individuals to control. It’s hard to do much about cows’ methane production, transport and associated CO2 production, deforestation, over fishing, fertiliser runoff and subsequent pollution of water-ways, industry discharges and their negative impacts on the environment. Then there is the really big picture stuff such as climate change that requires international agreement.
Sometimes the scale of these environmental issues is so big that it’s easy to forget that we still contribute to them daily, in preventable ways.
Think about your diet, for example. If the rest of the world were to eat like NZers with a high meat diet (requiring high land-use and water-use) then we could only feed 2.5 billion people, yet there are currently 6 billion people. I don’t have to eat the way I do.
What about your energy use? Between my birth and my 21st birthday NZ’s population increased by 19%, yet total energy consumption rose by 49%. I’m sure I contributed to this rise in energy use in ways that I don’t need to. If my parents could survive their first 21 years using less, then so can I! Put on a jersey.
In terms of the impact our lifestyle is having on the environment, NZ’s per capita ‘footprint’ on the earth is 10 times bigger than India’s, 5% higher than the Netherlands but 30% smaller than the USA’s. In other words, NZ’s global report card should read “could be doing better”. As a ‘developed’ country, along with the likes of the USA and Australia, we account for 19% of the world’s population yet we use 59% of all energy that goes to transportation.
So, I know the world’s environmental problems are not all my fault and are often the failings of bigger systems. But by helplessly believing I cannot shift the ‘bigger systems’ I contribute to the planet’s downfall every day by tweaking my lifestyle. I’m sorry.
This complacency is a trend which environmental academic, activist and all-round guru Helen Hughes is all too familiar with. Helen, who trained in water weeds, was the first Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment from 1987-1996. She has dedicated her life to both trying to understand the environment and getting people to do something about the damage inflicted on it.
On the bright side, there has been an improvement in the public environmental consciousness since Helen took the brand new ‘conservation’ paper at her American University in 1953. In the ’80s she witnessed for the first time a popular ‘no’ to pollution caused by things like PCP incineration.
Helen attributes much of the improved public environmental conscience to the work of women. “Not only are women more caring beings than men,” she says, “but they can also do more than one thing at once and therefore participate in what’s going on around them!”
However, it is Helen’s assertion that not that much has changed. “Sure by embracing sustainable management (with the Resource Management Act 1991), some negative trends were halted but overall we are still not sure how to sustainably manage ourselves and the environment” she says.
She argues that not enough research or investment is put into working out how to be ‘sustainable’ and that we are too complacent. “Look at the National Parks,” she implores. “This should be easy as many ‘inputs’ can be controlled, yet Abel Tasman is facing many problems such as overcrowding and too much sewage.” (Icky).
Helen’s observations don’t exactly lift my spirits. But she does impress upon me the need for us to take responsibility for our behaviour and how to treat the planet. The fact that we can take responsibility is actually quite an empowering thought.
So how do we act in a more sustainable way? I know it’s been around for a while but the saying ‘think globally, act locally’ is still a good one. I don’t want to launch into a rendition of “We are the World” (and trust me you don’t want me to either) but it goes without saying that if no one changes their behaviour at the local level then environmental problems can only compound.
Get educated and support environmental research. We can’t be ‘sustainable’ unless we know the consequences of our actions as individuals and groups. This requires both research and education.
Most of all let’s not waste time feeling guilty and wringing our hands. Here are a few simple steps (some of which are very small) you can take to ease the burden on your planet. Since I should be setting a good example, I’ll do them too!
· Energy efficiency
· Water conservation
· Environmental health
· Waste minimalisation
· Transport
· Community action
· If you are thinking of a career, consider the environment.
If you have access to the internet have a look at: http://www.eeca.govt.nz; http://www.pce.govt.nz; check out your ecological ‘footprint’ on http://www.safeclimate.net/calculator/ or http://204.174.69.51/coop/communit/meccomm/ecofoot.htm
http:// www.environment.gov.au
References: the information mentioned in this article was sourced from PCE, Worldwatch Institute, Environment Australia and MfE documents, for further information please contact the author: rachel@pce.govt.nz