I wrote ta while back about the GEEP pledge that I signed. \u00a0I was happy to do that as I want to support GEEP.<\/p>\n
And yet, I have a reservation about the argument GEEP uses [*]. \u00a0The pledge letter says:<\/p>\n
\"We recognize that environmental degradation\u2014now accelerated by climate change\u2014threatens the existence of most species on the planet and deprives people of the most basic and universal human rights of all: the right to live free of conflict and injustice, free of want; the right to grow and learn and to someday pass along to future generations a world better than the one they inherited.\" \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n Well, yes it does, but it is not the only thing that does this; our social and economic structures, preferences and decisions do so too \u2013 I am not making an ideological point here as all large-scale socio-economic systems we have tried so far\u00a0have done this. \u00a0Moreover,\u00a0environmental degradation\u00a0<\/em>itself doesn't just spring unheralded out of the vacuum, but is caused by the\u00a0social and economic structures, preferences and decisions that we have and make.<\/p>\n This is why sustainability, appropriately conceptualised, is a more helpful focus than environment. \u00a0I try to make this point now whoever I can and it can be tricky. \u00a0The key, I think, is to make common cause with people and groups that understand the integrated nature of our problems.<\/p>\n