Taking Responsibility for Sustainability
“Does Sustainability have to hurt?”
The question we all need to ask ourselves is what can we do to ensure a healthy productive life for all
the world’s children? and/or, what can I do to be a better steward of the natural and man-made
resources that are part of my way of life?
It stands to reason that our response to these basic questions is influenced by our Worldview which in
turn is influenced by our experiences, education, opportunities and talents. I grew up in South Africa
during the 1960’s and 1970’s- a period of extreme racial discrimination “Apartheid” and was very aware
that my Zulu playmates did not have the same opportunities as myself the white rancher-kid. At the
same time I was exposed to the incredible wild beauty of the African Veldt that was still mostly un-spoilt
and which the ranchers took great pride and responsibility to manage and conserve.
My passion as a Professor of Agriculture and Natural Resource Management and founder of the nonprofit Sustain-a-Kid Foundation is to help spread the message of Sustainable Development. A form of
human development that seeks to provide for the needs of the world’s population by ensuring
economic stability and a healthy social infrastructure, while using nonrenewable natural resources
wisely and renewable resources within the limits of the potential to replenish themselves, to ensure that
our children have a healthy future. I believe that Sustainability is the answer to our current model of
human development that grew up in the industrial revolution and has tended to abuse our natural
resources. It was assumed that the supply of fossil fuels, minerals, clean water, food were limitless and
pollution, water shortages, starvation were merely the “cost of doing business”. We need to help
provide the scientific answers, economic, technological and social solutions that others can apply to
their life and work.
The exponential growth of the world’s population is considered to be our main environmental and social
problem. The breakdown of our economic systems and social unrest has led to the rise of an estimated
50,000 social action groups around the world that represent the millions of people who are quietly
working on various aspects of sustainability.
The history of Sustainability is embedded in the Environmental movement of the 1960’s and 70’s that
arose mostly due to concern over pollution in the 1st world nations of USA and Europe. The work of
people like Rachael Carson, published in her book “The Silent Spring” - highlighted the dangers of
polluting water/air led to essential policy and infrastructure changes like the Clean Water Act and the
Environmental Protection Administration. In 1972 the United Nations (UN) Conference on Human
Environment was convened in Stockholm, Sweden to find positive links between Environmental
Concerns, economic growth and employment. In 1987 the UN established the World Commission on
Environment and Development to seek ways that environmental concerns could be translated into
greater cooperation between governments –the resulting Brundtland Report gave us the most well
recognized definition of Sustainable Development “Development that meets the need of the present
without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” The three key
concepts/criteria were presented – the importance of balancing the environmental, economic and
social spheres of sustainability. 2002 saw the World Summit on Sustainable Development in
Johannesburg, South Africa. Under a mood of “do not ask us to cut down our rainforests while we
cannot feed our children” President Mbeke of South Africa opened the conference by stating, “Islands of
wealth surrounded by oceans of poverty are unsustainable and therefore unacceptable to the
developing world”.
Article by: Naville Slade
Professor at VVC