The Chronicle Library Shelf
State of the World 2004
Special Focus: The Consumer Society
Brian Halweil and Lisa Mastny, Project Directors
Published by W.W. Norton/Worldwatch Institute, 2004
245 pp., ISBN 0-393-32539-3
Good Stuff?
A Behind-the-Scenes Guide to the Things We Buy
Published by Worldwatch Institute, 2004, Online edition only
Reviewed by Ali Kocabas and Horst Rutsch
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At first glance, State of the World 2004—Special Focus: The Consumer Society, published by the Worldwatch Institute, might be seen as an excessive report that consists of numeric and monotonous jargon. Instead, it is an excellent and timely study that shows how people heedlessly consume our limited natural resources and produce harmful waste that threaten to wipe out our planet. In eight lucidly argued chapters, ranging from energy choices to water productivity and from food consumption to globalization and governance, the report sets out to establish an overview of the social and environmental consequences of consumption.
As Worldwatch Institute President Christopher Flavin states in the preface, the report examines “how we consume, why we consume, and what impact our consumption choices have on our fellow human beings”. At the same time, the report discusses solutions for global sustainability. In his foreword, Børge Brende, the Norwegian Minister of the Environment and Chairman of the Commission on Sustainable Development states that “the challenge is formidable, that the alternative is unthinkable”. Written by the Institute’s team of senior researchers, the report explores in detail ways in which consumption can be restrained and redirected to improve the well-being of people and the planet. It highlights the patterns of consumption and production that are required in order to create a new balance consistent with global sustainability.
In the opening chapter, “The State of Consumption Today”, Gary Gardner, Erik Assadourin and Radhika Sarin contend that “consumer society clearly has a strong allure” and that attitudes have shifted from necessities to luxuries. People usually attempt to obtain goods and services beyond their needs to satisfy themselves. Although consumption is necessary for human beings to survive and meet their basic needs, excess harms them and the Earth that provides the natural resources human beings use. In today’s world, there are an estimated 1.7 billion consumers, almost half of them in developing countries. In contrast, there are still 1.2 billion people living in abject poverty on less than $1 a day and more than 2.5 billion people who live on less than $2 a day. According to the authors, providing adequate food, clean water and basic education for the poor could be achieved for less than the amount spent annually on make-up, ice cream and pet food. For example, while pet food sales in Europe and the United States amounted to $17 million, the elimination of hunger and malnutrition would have cost $19 million; similarly, Europeans spend $11 million on ice cream, while immunizing every child worldwide would cost only $1.3 million.
In “Linking Globalization, Consumption and Governance”, Hilary French, Director of the Globalization and Governance Project at the Worldwatch Institute, points out that the spread of globalization during the 1990s has rapidly brought the western model of the consumer society to the rest of the world. Consumers have have begun to replace their traditional habits and often fail to protect native culture against competition from global goods. Ms. French rightly sees the shift towards a more sustainable pattern of consumption and production as a global challenge, and argues that global alliances need to be strengthened to reverse these unsustainable patterns. This can be achieved, as the authors argue through the report, by promoting energy efficiency, minimizing waste generation and encouraging environmental-friendly purchasing decisions by individuals and institutions.
In the chapter on “Purchasing for People and the Planet”, Lisa Mastny gives examples of how growing numbers of universities, corporations, government agencies and other institutions around the world are incorporating environmentally friendly, so-called “green” concerns into their purchasing habits. This green purchasing power, she argues, can play a key role in supporting changes toward an environmentally sustainable world.
With respect to sustainable energy consumption in countries like Norway and Japan, Janet L. Sawin explains in “Making Better Energy Choices” that people there enjoy a high standard of living while using less energy per person than the average American. In her view, government policies, including regulations, standards, subsidies and taxes, are “critical for improvements in energy efficiency and conservation”, and for the sustained growth of “cleaner and greener” energy technologies. At the same time, she argues, individual consumers can play a large role through their everyday choices “by creating demand for products and services that are more energy-efficient and by influencing wider policy decisions”.
In “Boosting Water Productivity”, Sandra Postel and Amy Vickers stress that a sustainable and secure society is one that conserves water and meets its water needs without destroying the ecosystems upon which it depends. Individuals, they argue, can play an important role by taking responsibility for their consumption habits and helping build a better world by using water more efficiently.
In “Moving Toward a Less Consumptive Economy”, Michael Renner sheds light on whether or not a less consumptive economy is possible as a way of life. It is due to extreme consumption that humanity and earth have come to the edge of an environmental abyss, he writes, as the world’s finite resources are rapidly being depleted and degraded. Although the use of resources and generation of pollution and wastes continue to grow, he argues, we still have a chance to control consumption attitudes with coalitions at the government, business and consumer levels.
Brian Halweil and Danielle Nierenberg emphasize the importance of controlling eating habits in “Watching What We Eat”. Food choice has a great impact on the environment and human health. Most of the industrially produced food we consume contains chemicals. The authors stress that it is important for individuals and communities to look at whether or not the food we consume is produced with pesticides, hormones or antibiotics. In the realm of food, they argue, “Governments and corporations often lag behind consumers” and are slow to make changes without widespread and persistent public outcry. They believe that consumer coalitions and alliances with farmers could be effective in improving the way we eat.
In the final chapter, “Rethinking the Good Life”, Gary Gardner and Erik Assadourin discuss the links between wealth and well-being and highlight ways in which “infrastructures of well-being” could be created. The authors note that consuming more than needed often drives people to work longer hours and isolates them from their social environment. “Overall quality of life is suffering in some of the world’s richest countries, as people experience greater stress and time pressures and less satisfying social relationships, and as the natural environment shows more and more signs of distress”, they argue. Meanwhile, in poor countries, quality of life is degraded by a failure to meet people’s basic needs. They stress that societies, by strengthening social relations, learning to live in harmony with nature, tending to basic needs and promoting interaction among human beings can move away from an emphasis on consumption to an emphasis on well-being. This, they conclude, “could be as great an achievement in the twenty-first century as the tremendous advances in opportunity, convenience and comfort were in the twentieth”.
For more than 20 years, State of the World has guided global audiences in understanding crucial social and environmental issues. For its 2004 edition, The Consumer Society, WorldWatch Institute has issued an accompanying online-only publication, Good Stuff? A
Behind-the-Scenes Guide to the Things We Buy, which traces the less obvious impact of more than 25 everyday consumer items—from cellphones to chocolates, from cleaning products to plastic bags. The publication, as well as many other resources, can be found at the WorldWatch Consumption Web portal. |
The State of the World’s Cities, 2004/2005
Globalization and Urban Culture
Published by UN-Habitat/Earthscan, 2004
198 pp., ISBN 1-84407-160-X
Reviewed by Tom Osanjo and Rasna Warah
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The United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-HABITAT) on 14 September 2004 launched The State of the World’s Cities 2004/2005. Focusing on globalization and urban culture, the report lauds multiculturalism as an urban phenomenon that should be celebrated, not feared, as it enhances the fabric of societies and brings colour and vibrancy to every city it touches. The report shows that there are approximately 175 million documented international migrants worldwide. The flow of humanity into the cities is fuelling a new multiculturalism that has the potential to broaden their cultural and ethnic dimensions. However, it notes, some cities have been unable to cope with multiculturalism, which has generated increasing xenophobia and ethnic tensions. It therefore calls on local governments to help create harmonious and inclusive multicultural cities by combating xenophobic ideologies and anti-immigration policies.
According to World’s Cities, the more developed economies attract most of the international migrants (77 million), followed by the economies in transition of Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Republics (33 million), Asia and the Pacific (23 million), and the Middle East and North Africa (21 million). In many cities, lack of affordable housing and discriminatory practices force newcomers to live spatially segregated lives in ghettos, where they suffer labour exploitation, social exclusion and violence. This is unfortunate, says the report, because immigrants make important economic contributions not only to the urban economies of the host countries but also to the countries they leave behind. Remittances back home are second only to oil in terms of international monetary flows, providing an important and reliable source of foreign exchange finance. In 2003, for example, Indian diaspora sent back $15 billion, exceeding the revenues generated by the country’s software industry.
In his foreword, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said that policy makers need to plan for “cities of difference”, which are open to all and exclude none, and are able to capitalize on the benefits of a multicultural existence. This requires the engagement of all non-governmental and community stakeholders on the basis of legislation that guarantees the rights of citizens to the city and judicial systems that enforce those rights.
On her part, UN-HABITAT Executive Director Anna Kajumulo Tibaijuka said that the report provided valuable information on progress made in the implementation of the Habitat Agenda and towards the realization of the Millennium Development Goals and targets on slums, water and sanitation. “The report shows how poverty is increasing in many cities and how this is partly an outcome of the uneven costs and benefits of economic globalization. In addition, it shows how urban poverty has been increasingly concentrated in particular neighbourhoods that have generally become the habitats of the urban poor and minority groups: racial minorities in some societies, international immigrant groups in others,” she said.
The report says that “the fruits of globalization”, which include economic growth, rising incomes and improvements in the quality of life, were rapidly being offset by the negative aspects of rapid urbanization: increased poverty and greater inequality. The last two decades have witnessed a transformation of the global economy that has led to vast economic, social and political realignments in many countries and cities. The trend towards open markets has enriched some countries and cities tremendously, while others have suffered greatly. World trade in this period has grown from about $580 billion in 1980 to a projected $6.3 trillion in 2004, an elevenfold increase, the report says. Flows of capital, labour, technology and information have also increased greatly and transformed the role of cities in a globalizing world.
World’s Cities predicts that the world’s urban population will grow from 2.86 billion in 2000 to 4.98 billion by 2030. It further reveals that urban-based economic activities account for more than 50 per cent of gross domestic product in all countries, and up to 80 per cent in more urbanized countries in Latin America and Europe. It notes that one of the regions that seems to have benefited the most from the fruits of globalization is Asia and the Pacific. During the early 1970s, more than half its population was defined as poor; average life expectancy was 48 years, and only 40 per cent of the adult population was literate. Today, the percentage of the poor has decreased to about one fourth of the population, life expectancy has increased to 65 years, and about 70 per cent of adults are literate. This unprecedented decline in poverty in Asia and the Pacific has been described as “one of the largest decreases in mass poverty in human history”. Of all the world’s regions, according to report, Asia also ranks lowest in almost all types of crime.
For more information, visit the UN-HABITAT Website (http://www.un-habitat.org/mediacentre/sowckit.asp). |
A Global Agenda
Issues before the 59th General Assembly
of the United Nations, 2004-2005
Edited by Angela Drakulich
Published by UNA-USA, 2004, 320 pp., ISBN 1-880632-69-1
Reviewed by Giovanni Campi
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Any person interested in understanding the work of the United Nations should take a look at “A Global Agenda: Issues before the 59th General Assembly of the United Nations”. Published annually by the United Nations Association of the United States of America (UNA-USA), the book has become an invaluable reference for representatives of governments and international organizations, as well as students and scholars in international relations.
Redesigned in 2003, the publication features a new format, with essays, expert commentaries and a reference section. The 2004 edition of A Global Agenda is organized in eight main thematic chapters, focusing on the diverse issues faced by the United Nations, including the Iraq war, terrorism, trade and development, as well as UN reform. As UNA-USA President William H. Luers underscores in his introduction, “rather than focus solely on Iraq–as the media, and as a result the world public, have done over the past year–this book aims to delve into many other issues before the United Nations, its Member States and various agencies and organs”. This edition keeps its main focus on less spectacular but no less urgent issues, such as health security and HIV/AIDS, while also covering other themes relevant to the United Nations, such as sustainable development, human rights protection, peace-building, terrorism, drug trafficking, international law, and global trade and development, as well as the budget, management and reform of the UN system.
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| The United Nations Postal Administration on 14 October 2004 issued a set of eight commemorative stamps on the theme “Human Rights (Education Decade 1995-2004)”, designed by Yuri Gevorgian, known as Yuroz (Armenia). |
A separate section, consisting of three in-depth essays, discusses some of the challenges faced by the world Organization, including some important political issues, such as the United States 2004 election campaign, which are likely to affect the United Nations role and effectiveness. The texts are supplemented with relevant tables, data and appendices. The addition at the end of each chapter of insightful commentaries by scholars, such as Richard Coate, Director of the Richard Walker Institute of International Studies and professor at the University of South Carolina, and Ilona Kickbush, professor of global health at Yale University’s School of Medicine, makes the book an even more valuable tool for analysis and research.
Overall, A Global Agenda gives a comprehensive and authoritative look at the UN system, representing an informative way for UNA-USA to fulfil its educational aim, which is is to write about the United Nations for the United Nations, all the while, in Mr. Luers’ words, “constantly working to strengthen the commitment of the U.S. Government, Americans and people around the world to the United Nations so that it can become even more effective”.
For more than two decades, A Global Agenda has guided global audiences in understanding crucial issues before the UN General Assembly. For more information on the 2004 edition, as well as many other resources such as the annual “Global Agenda Speakers Series”, visit the UNA-USA Website (http://unausa.org).
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