Some ideas about environtment and sustainability

It is obvious that this capitalist deregulated global system is unsustainable according to ecosystems and unfair according to a global human welfare. I see there is a hegemonic idea among economists in favour of a permanent growth. But if we analyse it, there is already enough food production to feed everybody in the world, there are already enough resources to satisfy the needs of everybody. The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) declared that 1,7 hectares of productive land would be enough for every human being on Earth to live (which is know as the ecological footprint). Nowadays, the average of ecological footprint in the United States is over 9 hectares, and a country like the Netherlands would need to have a 15 times bigger country to satisfy the footprint of its citizens. In the same time, in many poor countries of Africa and Asia, the ecological footprint covers less than 1,4 hectares. According to all this, wouldn’t it be more reasonable to focus on a better distribution of resources rather than an endless and mad growth? From 1960 to 2010 the global economy has grown from $1,36 trillion dollars to $63,2 trillion, while malnutrition was still affecting 925 million people (17% of World’s population) on 2010. So, who is this economy growth really benefiting? In this sense, I also think that a more social and human ideology is necessary, in order to improve human justice but also to reach sustainabilty.

Instead of big projects funded by states with a capital 3000km away, or by international companies with headquarters 30.000km away, I think it would be more appropriate to promote local projects adapted to the real needs of each areas, where the local population would be involved in the project and would be benefited from it. Without any corrupted polititian or multimillionaire director trying to get most of the benefits from this project.

I don't think 100% of the Western population and wealth growth depended on environment destruction and colonization, but we have to remember that a big part of it did, which makes me hesitate about the sustainability of this gorwth. On the other hand, ecosystems are very vulnerable and their capacity to adapt to changes is limited. It provokes that the more population there is the more vulnerable the environment becomes, as it suffers a higher pressure and human activities provoke effects in a bigger scale. This is why I think we have to be careful when we say that the population growth has been sustainable in the last century, because many of the technological advances in agriculture might have already produced irreversible damages.