'Sustainable' is a buzz word of our times. But what really is
sustainable? What way of life? What systems? What care for ourselves and
the world around us will ensure that we all have a future? This event
highlights some of the key questions - and the thought provoking answers.
EARTH EMERGENCY
in association with Schumacher Society,
Positive News, LSE
ATTAC, LSE Organic
Conscious Society & LSE
People and Planet
presents
CREATING A SUSTAINABLE SOCIETY:
HEALTH AND SUSTAINABILITY. A question of economic, environmental & social justice
Report by Leonie
Humphreys
London School of Economics
30th April 2003
Moyra Bremner, best selling author, TV
presenter, science writer & Associate Editor of Caduceus Robin Stott, Chairman, UK
Medical Peace & Environmental Group (Medact) Sandra Hill, Practitioner of Chinese medicine
and writer Helena Norbert-Hodge, Director, International
Society for Ecology and Culture (ISEC)
Chair: Teresa Hale, Founder of the Hale
Clinic and writer
‘CONVERGENCE & ACCOMODATION’ AS ANTIDOTES TO GROWTH &
CONSUMERISM
Teresa Hale introduced the meeting explaining
that the current model of medicine which treats symptoms rather than seeking
out the causes of disease is inherently flawed. The NHS was set up to
try to ensure that the costs of medical treatment declined, but although
improvements have occurred in some areas, diseases such as sugar diabetes
is increasing, as well as childhood asthma, and it is predicted that 1
in 2 people will suffer from cancer. The pharmaceutical industry also
concentrates on treating symptoms and alarmingly the side effects of medicines
is the fourth greatest killer in both the US and the UK, after cancer
and heart disease. Litigation against pharmaceutical companies in the
US has become so frequent that legislation limiting such litigation is
currently being enacted by the Bush administration. To try to combat these
problems some suggestions were made, such as contracts with pharmaceutical
companies to encourage them to provide cost effective treatments and cures
which could help to shift the emphasis from costly treatments for long
term symptoms to cures for disease. Taxation on foods such as sugar was
also suggested as a preventative remedy to the many diseases which are
caused by excess sugar in the diet.
Moyra Bremner described the use of chemicals
in agriculture and the enormous looming crisis in soil and water within
the next 20 to 30 years. ‘Sustainability’ and ‘organic’
are vague terms which many see as ‘optional extras’, however
the facts reflect the urgency of the problems: 7 out of 10 of the most
fertile acres of the world are within 1% of dying; 4 out of 10 waterways
are poisoned; the US wheat belt is drying up; children are being born
with severe deformities (such as no arms or legs) and are also suffering
from chronic mental health problems due to pesticide use (eg in the production
of cranberries in the US); the recent drought in the US was caused by
dust blown from China due to overuse of sophisticated irrigation methods.
Soil is being damaged by chemicals which are designed to kill crop pests,
but they attack much more than the ‘pests’. The content of
funguses, insects, and vegetation (eg algae) in the soil is far greater
than on the surface by a factor of millions. The net effect of the chemicals
is to kill almost everything, including the beneficial contents of the
soil. For example micro-rhizol fungi which attach to the roots of plants
and whose tendrils draw up water and micronutrients which therefore feed
the plants, acting as a natural nursemaid, are killed by the chemicals.
Furthermore nitrates make the plants more thirsty and thus the chemicals
produce a twofold attack. The plants then need irrigation which further
damages the soil. Water use has increased many times due to irrigation
over the last few decades and soil is being stripped away to end up in
the rivers and streams. Ultimately the price of our cheap food is being
paid for in the lives of children around the world. The solution is to
use only organic production methods, which in fact are far more productive
than monocultures, in spite of claims that mass production and use of
genetically engineered seeds are necessary to ‘feed the world’.
Robin Stott discussed the links between
health and sustainability, binding environmental issues into health issues.
This depends on economic, environmental and social justice: the three
pillars of health and sustainability. Health is a state in which all aspects
of the individual are in balance: physical, psychological & spiritual
for example. One individual cannot be healthy at the expense of another,
nor from excessive use of natural resources. Health is dependent on collectives
and networks (more than genes) and a more equitable distribution of power
and access to financial & other resources. Convergence and accommodation
are principles for sustainable health: for some the ecological footprint
needs to contract and for others (eg in developing countries) they could
to expand. Our needs should be met and environmental and social justice
implemented without endangering future generations or compromising the
environment. Thus health and sustainability are central to policy formulation
which requires active participation and localisation. Wealth created outside
‘convergence and accommodation’ will undermine sustainability
and health. Various tools are available to assist this transition: environmental
and social impact assessments, creation of virtuous loops and ecological
footprints (markers of environmental space).
Sandra Hill explained that complementary
or alternative medicine (holistic medicine) is based on the understanding
that ‘the whole is greater that the sum of the parts’. Currently
medicine in compartmentalised, it has become fragmented under reductionist
theories and practices. Yet the body is a dynamic living system and through
the various types of holistic medical practices a map of the energetic
patterns of the body can be used to treat the whole body. Thus sustainable
health is based on ‘wholism’ and complimentary medicine examines
the pattern between the parts. In natural systems cycles such as the seasons
play a vital role in the dynamic patters of life. In the case of the seasons
winter represents stillness; spring: expansion; summer: fruition; autumn:
decline. All cycles begin from stillness. The loss of the natural relationships
with nature and the cycles has caused a loss of trust in our body’s
ability to heal itself: we need to understand where we need to intervene
and what with. This disassociation from nature is leading to insecurity
and fear generally. There is also a loss of understanding of death and
in our fear we are always seeking something and fall prey to advertising
for everything from drugs to insurance. Yet security comes from within
and we need to understand and accept that life is precious and mysterious.
Through science we have developed a kind of arrogance that we can understand
everything, yet in traditional systems the mystery is part of the understanding
and prevents us from playing with ecosystems and our bodies. Complexity
theory, chaos theory and natural systems theories can help us to come
back to this natural understanding of ourselves and our bodies and lead
us towards sustainable health.
Helena Norbert-Hodge spoke of the need
for economic literacy. Both the environmental and the social crises are
mounting and the gap between the rich and the poor is widening in all
countries, both in the East and the West. Now terrorism and perpetual
war is as serious as global warming and toxins. Yet there is more hope
for optimism now than even 10 years ago. In the last 5 years there has
been a shift in the understanding of the economic underpinnings of the
current global problems. Taxes and government funding is being used to
generate ‘growth’ which is a measure not of a healthy economy
but of environmental and social breakdown. Very large mobile corporations
wield the power behind the scenes, yet even within these corporations
some earn very little whilst others earn millions of dollars per year.
The sometimes vast distances between producers and consumers is a symptom
of the economics of ‘growth’. There is a structural link between
distances and scale of the monocultures, with food now being sold in ‘hypermarkets’.
Yet 50% of the global population still live on the land. The need is to
support small-scale local food movements. A grower will receive only around
5% of the value of his goods under the globalised economic system yet
local producers selling to local consumers may obtain up to 95% more for
his produce. Small scale diverse farming is in fact up to 1000 times more
productive than the monoculture system. ISEC produce a food toolkit to
promote local food movements that can be used by organisations, schools
and individuals.
Questions from the floor indicated the need for political awareness and
action as well as media coverage to address the issues described by the
panellists. A university lecturer pointed out that in 1992 a government
spokesman explained that their view was that there is ‘no link between
the environment and health’, except perhaps in the case of toxic
fumes from traffic. Governments need a serious ‘reality check’
and to examine the effects of perpetual economic growth, which cannot
be infinite with finite resources.
