26/01/09
Hard times and tough realities could make 2009 the year we learn the true meanings of sustainability and Jeremy Clarkson.
In November Water UK published Sustainable Water, its first report on the state of the sector (1). At the launch, Mike Keil, the impressive head of climate change at Ofwat, expressed surprise that none of his fellow-speakers had mentioned the government’s sustainability strategy (2).
Instead of its five principles – living within environmental limits, ensuring a strong, healthy and just society, achieving a sustainable economy, using sound science responsibly, promoting good governance – they talked about 'old-model' sustainability with social, economic and environmental objectives.
Dr Keil used a clever slide sequence to show what happens with this 'three pillar' approach. Three overlapping circles were seen expanding and contracting in turn. At any point one circle/pillar was more or less dominant, the others more or less invisible. It was a neat picture of the zero-sum game that may be holding back progress to real sustainability.
The trouble is that this traditional view allows stereotypes to prosper. It encourages bunkers. Economic realists climb out of theirs to scorn conservationists who would take us back to the dark ages (some mean it literally!). Environmental champions moan about damage to precious places and species.
This Punch and Judy show is unhelpful to any version of real sustainability, but particularly one that requires good governance. Because surely the essence of this kind of sustainability is to integrate aims that otherwise would be in conflict and weaken the whole effort.
Valuable supporters
The recession could entrench the dialogue of the deaf. But hard times also encourage common sense, as long as you look in the right places, not just the obvious ones. For example, what odds would you put on Alistair Darling, or Jeremy Clarkson or Professor Ian Fells as catalysts for consensus? All three are valuable supporters of sustainability if it means getting buy-in to doing the best for society in uncertain times. And the new-look Environment Agency is on side too.
As Chancellor, Mr Darling represents the mass of humanity (OK its higher echelons) for whom sustainability has nothing to do with pillars or principles or champions. "Sustainability means you’ve got to live within your means in the medium term," he has reminded us often in recent months. Quite so, and the message works for natural as well as financial resources.
Everyone has a view on Mr Clarkson. He’s that sort of man (sorry, person). At the risk of being perverse, let alone losing all my friends, mine is that he’s misunderstood. Perhaps knowingly (and profitably) misunderstood, but still misunderstood.
Ordinary lives
I know it sounds like I’m mugging the language. But hold on. Beneath the bluster, his real beef isn’t with sustainable development but people who hector ordinary folk for their ordinary lives and not behaving as they should. He thinks the case against Donald Trump's "unnecessary" golf course near Aberdeen was lost because "sensible people" couldn’t stomach either Trump or the groups who opposed him.
His analysis of the Newbury bypass stand-off between government (pro-business) and Swampy (pro-nature) was that ordinary people refused to get involved. Mr Clarkson’s comment: "In other words, you never heard from anyone who was not motivated by greed or rage" (3)
Less well known, Prof. Fells, emeritus professor of energy conversion at Newcastle University, also has bête noir credentials as scourge of "over-optimistic" renewables policy. Asked recently about the proposal for a Severn Barrage and environment policy coming up against energy need he said, "Once the lights start going out, everything spirals down. The economy goes for six and you’re not going to be able to do anything about climate change. So that comes first, climate change second." (4)
Three unhelpful perspectives on the aims of all right-thinking people? Or three wake-up calls for policy-makers facing tough realities? Our instincts are with the former, but let’s not dismiss the latter too quickly. Influence matters. My neice, 20, bright, doing history at uni, when asked about TV programmes, had to think hard to come up with anything that appealed. Her eventual answer? You guessed – Top Gear.
My case still lacks something. You may have noticed the Environment Agency is changing under new leadership. Its ad for director of operations tells applicants, "...you’ll be at the heart of our mission to meet complex environmental, economic and social issues in an integrated way". Good for the EA – and for all of us. Happy New Year!
(1) Water UK, November 2008
(2) Defra, Securing the Future, March 2005
(3) Jeremy Clarkson, Sunday Times, 9 November 2008
(4) Countryfile, BBC1, 30 November 2008
A version of this article, by Barrie Clarke, appeared in Water & Wastewater Treatment Magazine, January 2009
