Page 41 - Design for Environment A Guide to Sustainable Product Development

20 Chapter Two

These observations were made within a scientific context, but
they go far beyond science. They reflect a profound ecological aware-
ness that is ultimately spiritual. Many laypeople have experienced
similar revelations. Having been cut off from their organic roots, they
feel a sense of reverence at rediscovering them.
In his influential first book, Earth in the Balance, Al Gore aptly
described the crisis of the spirit that insulated our civilization from
environmental awareness. He quotes the words of the American In-
dian Chief Seattle upon ceding his tribal lands to the government [8]:
If we sell you our land, remember that the air is precious to
us, that the air shares its spirit with all the life that it sup-
ports … if we sell you our land, you must keep it apart and
sacred, a place where man can go to taste the wind that is
sweetened by the meadow flowers … This we know: the earth
does not belong to man, man belongs to the earth. Man did
not weave the web of life, he is merely a strand in it.

As history can attest, this message was largely ignored. Those
few who foresaw the unfortunate side-effects of industrial develop-
ment—pollution, wilderness destruction, soil erosion—often adopted
a Malthusian outlook, predicting catastrophic consequences if we
did not mend our ways [9]. To this day, there are skeptics who believe
that the only path to sustainability is a retreat from globalism to a
simpler, locally based lifestyle.
In fact, Malthus’ predictions of worldwide famine were incorrect
because he did not foresee the incredible impact of technological
change on human productivity. Innovations, such as the internal com-
bustion engine, the telephone, the transistor, genetic engineering,
and, of course, the Internet, revolutionized our ability to generate
economic value. However, we cannot take false comfort in our ability
to pursue unfettered economic growth. In 1992 a team of global mod-
elers updated the famous Club of Rome study, The Limits to Growth,
which was released 20 years earlier. They concluded that [10]

• Pollution and resource usage have already surpassed
sustainable levels.
• We need drastic decreases in population growth and
material consumption, and increased efficiency of material
and energy usage.
• A sustainable society is still technically and economically
possible.
These assertions have an eerily familiar ring today—we have
made some progress in limiting environmental pollution, but con-
sumption of energy and other resources has climbed briskly, and we
are continuing to release greenhouse gases at an ever-increasing rate
(see Chapter 3). Many economists have now acknowledged the need