statement of concern


Statement of Concern About World Sustainability

 

Note: The statement is updated with elaboration on Prof. Hayes's World Sustainability Web Site.


I have given much thought to the prospects for World Sustainability with eyes wide open. Here is what I now posit to frame our discussion:

 

This is what I believe will define globalization and World Sustainability, becoming evident over the coming two decades: Civilization as currently constituted cannot be sustained and will collapse within two generations or so -- nobody quite knows when -- with catastrophic consequences. While this calamity could be prevented and while many will strive to rescue civilization, the very forces, ideologies, interests, and institutions that create this global crisis will obfuscate critical remedial discourse and will thwart the diverse efforts toward restoration of vital ecological, social, economic, and political systems. The ongoing effort to forestall civilizational collapse will thus fail. The resulting trauma will be appalling and irreversible.

 

An alternative path presents itself, based on a holistic notion of sustainability applied worldwide. World Sustainability requires that mutualism and interdependence replace hierarchy, conflict, and avarice, the hallmarks of established globalization. This vision of World Sustainability amplifies a generative conception of world citizenship formed within an expanded civil society by caring cosmopolitan citizens. This vision defines an inclusively global succession to World Sustainability. While such a vision has discovered its roots, those in power will strive to extinguish its flourishing.

 

The detritus of civilizational decay will provide nourishment to sustainability but the poisons of distortion, militarism, and plunder will intensify. The outcome of this dialectic remains fluid but uncertain. The despoilers have now the upper hand.

 

The World Sustainability Mission requires that this broad statement be examined, its implications explained, and the vision of an alternative defined. Of special concern here is how to interpret this statement in practice, elaborating a strategic approach to sustainability worthy of the stakes and the challenge posed.


Regard the statement of concern, above, as a working hypothesis. The concern suggests that we should act prudently, to avert a potentially catastrophic outcome. See also my page on generations, which resonates with several of you.