“ sustainable progress ” david willmott be(civil) diptp dipmgt cops(econs, polsci) co-director,...
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“ SUSTAINABLE PROGRESS ”
David Willmott
BE(civil) DipTP DipMgt COPs(Econs, PolSci)
Co-Director, Centre for Urban and Transport Studies
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CONTENTS
• INTRODUCTION – Life IS progress
• PART A – On Sustainability
• PART B – On Government
• PART C – On Science
• CONCLUSIONS – On Parts A B and C
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INTRODUCTION
• Nature is – survival of (reach to be) the fittest
• Life is – reaching for personal betterment
• Transactions Interactions Experiences =TIEs
• Specialisation + TIEs -> community prosperity
• Human nature = genetic not (insert)-washable
• TIEs voluntary = win/win, coerced = win/lose
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Thus humanity’s personal and collective reach towards the humanly primal and eternal goal of “PEACE & BETTERMENT / PROSPERITY”…
(ie safety/security/survival & betterment/prosperity, the latter acquired from personal - not state - choice)
… within a market-based system of exchange of rights to property (in land, goods, services) (bi-laterally with barter, multi-laterally with money) is entirely natural, representing as it does the absolute essence of humanity,
and distinguishing us from less progressive animals
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The eternal “peace and prosperity” goal is inherently progressive ; this can’t be denied without denying evolution as the source of humanity’s essential nature.
“SUSTAINED PROGRESS” is the hallmark of humanity and its ongoing civilisation. “Sustainability” as “stasis” is stagnation … … and death in life, -- if not death itself.
The world can’t be stopped for those who wish to resile from progress; - like Lot’s wife looking back, they (become as) a pillar of salt.
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PART A – ON SUSTAINABILITY
1. Essentially natural, naturally essential
2. Consumption (or replacement) of resources
3. Popularisation, and political effects thereof
4. “Sustainable Development” – an oxymoron?
5. “Sustainable Management” under the RMA
6. Sustainability of a development project
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1. SUST : ESSENTIALLY NATURAL, NATURALLY ESSENTIAL
• “Planet Earth” dynamic, not static• Ecologies adapt within changing environments• Nothing new in envt/eco degradation/renewal• There never was a (static) Garden of Eden …
… rather the Garden is irretrievably dynamic • Humans survived and evolved through change … by sustaining resources … … or creating better/cheaper/efficienter ones
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2. SUST. : RESOURCE CONSUMP’N OR REPLACEMENT
• All life interacts with, changes environment• Higher life forms conserve scarce resources • As envt/ecology changes, adapt/change or die• Human brain is our sole/pre-requisite resource ;
its application enables ongoing civilisationvia exploit existing resources, then conserve, then invent to replace or for greater efficiencyin the creation of tools for survival/betterment
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3. SUST’S POPULARISATION, AND POLITICAL EFFECTS
• The “interconnectivity revolution”
• The population explosion
• Rapid change, fears, stop-the-worldism
• Vacant niche for stasist enviro-NGOs
• Predilection for forcing change via regulation
• Stasism? Dynamism? Where’s your vote?
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4. “SUST. DEVELOPMENT” : OXYMORON?
• Brundtland’s (lack of) “definition”
-> edicts by Tom/Dick/Harry Layman.com
eg cars unsustainable! biofuels sustainable!
• Beckerman “A Poverty of Reason”
eg1 : limits to resource availability
eg2 : intergen’l equity is moral high ground
Environmentalism a new form of imperialism
• Attempts to reconcile Stasism with Dynamism
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5. “SUST. MGT.” UNDER RMA
• Why displace TCPA with RMA? • Economic driver transformed to Env’tl driver• Associated demolition of MWD and City Engrs• Town planners/enviro-NGOs as monopoly
…………………………………………..advisers to government & local government
• “Smart growth”-style “designer cities” restrict/distort “natural” (efficient) expansion more resource-intensive($$/energy/materials) eg rail transit, dense housing, service upsize
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“INTEGRATED THINKING”
• Left Brain
LogicalSequentialRationalAnalyticalObjectiveLooks at parts
(function/efficiency reality-oriented)
Eg Science, Engrg
• Right Brain
RandomIntuitiveHolisticSubjectiveIntegratingLooks at wholes
(arrangement/shape appearance-oriented)
Eg Arts, Town Planning
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6. SUST. OF PRIVATE SECTOR DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS
• Project benefits ignored in assessments
• Consultation favours local over Reg./Nat.
• Extraordinary process hoops imply knowledge
• Transfer of property rights to city, neighbours
• RMA outcomes generally counter-productive
of “Sustainable Development” defined as
resource conservation (except of scenes)
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PART B - ON GOVERNMENT
7. On the nature & purpose of Government
8. Competence of Government generally
9. Societal stability and sustainability
(primary responsibility of Government)
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7. ON THE NATURE AND PURPOSE OF GOVERNMENT
• Govt exists to sustain cooperative society
• Nobel North’s three governmental eras
(separated by agric. & indust. Revolutions)
• Nobel Buchanan’s “Public Choice” theory
• Current “interconnectivity revolution”
• Global government? Good for whom?
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8. COMPETENCE OF GOV’T
• Democracy necessarily mediocracy
- policy selection necessarily ideological
- policy effectiveness necessarily mediocre
• Govt growth = bureaucratic empowerment
• Ideology as necessary focus for groups/depts
• Simplistic quickfix = “Unintended Conseq’s”• UCs can be enormously counterproductive
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9. SOCIETAL STABILITY AND SUSTAINABILITY
• Underlying presumption of sust society
• But many potential major disruptors
• Current global problems include …
• What do we (you) want most ?
• Will “Enviro-Sust.” preoccupation deliver ?
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PART C - ON SCIENCE
10. Science as the means of human progress
11. Risk as an essential aspect of science
12. Corruption, denigration, demotion
of science/technology
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10. SCIENCE AS THE MEANSOF HUMAN PROGRESS
• Human progress via trial, error, correction
• “Dark ages” of “correct thinking”-> stasis
• Renaissance :free thought >creativity, progres
• Scientific method formalises ancient abilities
- requires impartiality = exclude personal values
• Analogous to separation of church and state
- sustainability is values/belief, science is secular
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11. RISK AS AN ESSENTIAL ASPECT OF SCIENCE
• All projects involve unknowns = risk
• Risk increases with problem complexity
- but are problems really more complex?
• Increased caution warranted
- except where alternative risk worse
• The safety-at-any-cost regulatory industry
• Precautionary “Principle” precludes risk
- and progress. Classic agent of stasism
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12. CORRUPTION, DENIGRATION AND DEMOTION OF SCIENCE
• “Vision” needed to initiate scientific proof
• Proof (may) validates vision, not vice versa
• “Political correctness” imposes / fixes vision
- associated “proof” is probably corrupt
• “Post Modernism” antipathetic to science
• Consultation + lay “experts” trump science
• Dissolution of MWD, City Engineers
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CONCLUSION - ON SUST
• “Sust.” must support progress, not prevent it
• Otherwise … (“not with a bang but a whimper”)
• Priority : Sust Society; Sust Envt as affordable
• Beware govt elites imposing absolutist values
• 50yr Plan : Flexible or (Policy) Fixation?
• Project benefits us’lly overwhelm costs/effects
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CONCLUSION - ON GOVT• Freed/Democr facilitates “Peace & Prosperity”
Sust.Freed/Democr prior goal to Sust Envt
• UN/enviro-NGO Envtl Imperialism kills LCDs
• Politicians easily captured by bureau policies
- Price of Freed/Democr is eternal vigilance.
- Public must mind the bureau minders,
… seek constitutional checks & balances
• Subsidies prop up unwanted services – beware
• OTT on climate/oil distract from greater threats
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CONCLUSION - ON SCIENCE
• Left brain professions must be reinstated
as (balancing) advisers to (local) govt
• Without that, society must/will stagnate
• Sciences must self-protect from shonky
by - clear separation from values/politics
- avoid values in Codes of Practice/Ethics
• “No man can serve two masters”
such as client and imposed values