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SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
Introduction
Sustainable development- the new catchword of environment work and development- what does it mean?
The purpose of this chapter is not to provide an answer, but to get you to think about what the answer to this question might be. Youth working on social justice issues believe that sustainable development should be about the fair distribution of resources, where in a world of plenty for some and where others go hungry, there is a move to a more just and equitable society.
Many of the current inequities between north and south can be traced back to colonization. The colonial expansion of European countries established the still existing relationship between Northern and Southern countries, a relationship based on the fueling of the northern economies through the exploitation of the peoples and resources in the South. The ex-colonies continue to provide cheap labour and materials for the northern markets. Colonization brought hunger, violence, disease and genocide to people in Africa, the Americas, Asia, the Caribbean and Oceania. Indigenous people lived on the land, sharing its resources, yet with colonization communal land became owned by colonizers, resulting in landlessness among the poor majorities of the South. Cash cropping replaced communal farming, and it also allocated roles to the colonies in the world market: Cuba became a sugar producer, Malaysia produced rubber and Sri Lanka produced tea. (Buenor, p. 69)
The majority of people in the North and a minority in the South enjoy the benefits of growing economies, fed by the exploitation of world resources, while the majority of people in the South survive without having access to resources or benefits. With one-sixth of the world's population, the North controls most of the wealth in the world. Western Europe, North America, Australiasia and Japan account for 65% of the world's income while Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Pacific account for 25%. This gross inequality continues to grow. (Litvinoff, p. 32) The economic models designed in the north for the rapid industrialization of the South have failed and in many instances exacerbated the problems. So where do we go from here, and can sustainable development get us there?
Moving away form our current situation to a more sustainable future needs to occur in both the North and the South. Moreover, sustainability cannot be imposed in the South when it is the North that is responsible for most of the environmental degradation and over consumption of resources in the North.
What is clear is that we cannot continue with our current development practices, change has got to happen, and there is an obvious need for social and economic restructuring. How will youth play a role in all of this?
All over the world, young people are working on environment, development and social justice issues; youth have already demonstrated that they play an important role in building sustainability. Sustainable development involves new ways of thinking, new ways of doing things. The potential lies in young people to generate these changes. The responsibility for the path we take in the future lies in the hands of today's youth, whether we continue the current rates of destruction, or create a more equitable and peaceful society. What role as a young person will you play?