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Reviews / Comptes Rendus
| Gary C. Bryner, Gaia's Wager: Environmental Movements and the Challenge of Sustainability (Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2001) |
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SHOULD CANADA SIGN the Kyoto protocol and thereby commit itself to what is actually only a modest reduction in its emission of greenhouse gases? This is an issue that is generating considerable debate in the mainstream media these days. Typically, supporters of this accord cite scientific evidence indicating the need to cut back on fossil fuel consumption in order to halt global warming. Critics, questioning the reliability of such evidence and, indeed, the very existence of global warming, talk instead about how cutbacks in consumption would lead to an economic slowdown. For political scientist and law professor Gary Bryner, Blaise Pascal's famous wager on the existence of God — believing saves us from eternal damnation if God exists and costs us nothing if he does not — provides a relevant model for responding to the opposing positions taken on the Kyoto Accord. Because the stakes associated with global warming are potentially as damning, we should pursue a similar precautionary approach. Focusing on climate change as the preeminent global environmental issue and one that is closely related to the inherently and strategically ambiguous concept of ecological sustainability, Bryner views the signing of this international legal agreement as a key step in an orderly transition to an ecologically sustainable society. Although he acknowledges that the shift to renewable energy will entail costly upfront investments for some economic interests, he insists that it will open up compensatory opportunities for others. Bryner, however, is pessimistic that the eminently attainable reduction in greenhouse gases mandated by Kyoto is likely to be undertaken by the United States in the near future. His pessimism is rooted in a whole host of reasons having to do with what he considers to be the limitations inherent in contemporary American liberalism, but not in liberalism per se. |
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In order to understand Bryner's analysis of why the US is unlikely to ratify the Kyoto Accord, it is useful to look at his notion of what constitutes "thick" sustainability and how it might be attained. For Bryner, a "thin" sustainable development attempts to balance economic growth with ecological sensitivity without introducing any fundamental changes in either technology or lifestyle. In contrast, a "thick" sustainability prioritizes ecological survival over economic growth by allowing only economic activity that is consistent with maintaining "critical natural capital." Acknowledging the need to address how poverty promotes environmentally-damaging ways of eking out one's living and, beyond this, the necessity of inculcating a sense of individual responsibility, "thick" sustainability fosters social justice measures entailing a more equitable local and global distribution of resources as well as "strong" democracy. While he links the "thin" version to the Rio "Earth Summit's" Agenda 21 recommendations, Bryner sees the binding reductions in greenhouse gas emissions outlined in the Kyoto agreement as shifting debate toward a "thick" sustainability. Hence, attaining "thick" sustainability becomes a matter of implementing effective public policies, establishing standards and regulations, and ensuring compliance with these policies by promoting cultural practices, and thus private behaviours that are rooted in post-materialist values. Such public policies and personal behaviours, however, fly in the face of a liberalism emphasizing liberties and rights — especially the liberty of unrestricted consumption and the right to private property — in contrast to one that is oriented instead around responsibilities and obligations. In essence, what Bryner is calling for is a shift from the American tradition of Lockean liberalism, oriented around negative liberty, to a Rawlsian form of liberalism rooted in justice. Hence, his call for a "thick" for "strong" sustainability — like the "strong" democracy advocated by American democratic theorist Benjamin Barber, which seeks to constrain the excesses of capitalism by enclosing it in an "envelope" of laws and welfare measures — is ultimately just a call for the greening of capitalism. |
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Bryner's book provides a clearly written, comprehensively researched, and exhaustively detailed account of recent American and international environmental politics, public policy, and law, with a particular focus on issues related to climate change. With its multiple tables of statistical data and appendices of texts and websites for further reference, this book would be quite a useful resource for anyone delving into the intricacies of environmental policy or, more specifically, the politics underlying the Kyoto Accord. Given that it encompasses as well substantial treatments on social movement theory, green political parities, environmental NGO's, international trade agreements, and environmental economics, its reach, however, extends significantly beyond environmental policy and politics. Yet, while Bryner's text offers a wealth of information on all of these subjects and it does so by employing the very contemporary and relatively new lens of environmental sustainability, the analysis it presents assumes a political spectrum that is totally circumscribed by liberalism. |
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Taking as his point of departure the assumption that replacing capitalism is, in all likelihood, an impossible feat, Bryner summarily dismisses any attempt to work outside the liberal framework as diverting attention away from the vital process of formulating and implementing policies capable of effecting immediate environmental improvements. Hence, ecosocialism, green syndicalism, and the entire left-green spectrum are defined out of existence. As a consequence, the "radical" end of Bryner's ecopolitical spectrum is assigned to deep ecologists who reject "industrialism" and subscribe to an "absolutist" sustainability proscribing any use of nonrenewable resources. Yet, deep ecology, which also seeks to implement change by starting at the level of individual values and lifestyles, ultimately shares, albeit in a more extreme form, the same fundamentally individualist and idealist liberal tenets that underlie Bryner's "thick sustainability." The only challenge Bryner mounts to capitalism is that it is not, at present, operating as it should be — i.e., markets should not allow the externalization of production costs by polluters but should ensure that burdens and benefits are distributed "fairly." Such a regulation of markets is the main function of the liberal state. In keeping with this assumption, Bryner views the state, when it is operating as it should be — i.e., being held accountable by elected representatives for the harms it produces — as an inherently neutral institution as well. Hence the link he makes between "strong democracy" and the "ecological reshaping of capitalism." In good liberal fashion, he argues that the success of the environmental movement depends upon its channeling of its energies into endeavours like interest group politics, lobbying, and ultimately, the formation of green (liberal) parties. Occupying the seat of power at the national and, increasingly, the supranational level, such bodies can incorporate the environmental values espoused by individual citizens into enforceable public policies that are capable of regulating international trade and thus protecting the global commons. In contrast, organized labour, to which he accords only a mention in passing, is portrayed as an environmentally conservative force favouring job security over environmental regulation and thus, on the whole, as opposing the Kyoto Accord. |
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The main problem with Bryner's "thick" notion of sustainability is the "thick" envelope he employs to hide the question lurking at its center: Is capitalism sustainable and, moreover, sustainable not only on the environmental but also on the human level? Broaching this question calls into play a "strong" democracy that exceeds liberal representation and that necessitates linking the political realm to the economic. |
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Regina Cochrane
University of Calgary
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