global issue and local implications

Tierney 5-1
Austin Coffey

TG Plan- Impact
Sustainable development is a term that's thrown around quite a lot,
and generally without the entirely correct definition embedded in the minds
of those considering it. Defined by the Brundtland commission in 1987 as
"development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the
ability of future generations to meet their own needs", sustainable
development is a topic similar to many others in that one must be very
informed on it just to be undecided over, as the pros and cons of sustainable
development could be enough to wreck a nation or bring it to new levels of
prosperity, never before seen on earth.
What makes it unique from virtually every other economic venue is
that it will never lose much of its profitability; this is an intrinsic value of
sustainable development, as the development won't affect (negatively)
future generations' abilities to meet their needs. While there's certainly the
possibility that whatever is being produced goes down in value, that's how
the economy works, the process of creating the product will never go down
in value. That's the strongest economic benefit of sustainable development,
and most likely always will be. In addition there's the economic support of a
consumer base with increasingly more environmentally friendly demands of
corporations. Governments as well have tendencies to provide tax cuts for
companies doing their part to help the environment, although less so in the
United States than most other first world countries.
Yet for all the valued production, support and goodwill of the consumer
base, and tax cuts a company could have, there's still not likely to be a
company that's even near as profitable using clean electricity over gas in
their production of goods. It's just that much cheaper. While that gap has
definitely decreased over the last decade or so, it is likely to be a while
before any major company makes that decision without infuriating their
investors. Small, self-owned businesses and self-employed men and women
can certainly take action in that direction, and that will certainly help towards
sustainability; but until this is widespread, until most major energy
companies especially are behind it, the world will continue to see itself head
down a path of income inequality, clean water for some, 90% of the profits
going to 10% of the world, and other such pains.
In Austin, TX, where hippy is king and the weird is the normal, finding
the problems associated with sustainable development-or a lack thereof- is
slightly more difficult than in perhaps one of the Carolinas, or another
production-centered area. As Austin relies more on the service industry and
the information sector of our economy, factories are in a state of out-of-sight,
out-of-mind.
My personal impact is not particularly impressive. Hopefully some of
the knowledge we've gained and distributed can be put to good use by

global issue and local implications

Tierney 5-1
Austin Coffey

someone, but as much personal joy as moving 40 bags of mulch at Casis

Elementary might provide, it's not likely to help the world in the long run.
What might have a better chance at doing something valuable is any lesson
that those kids could learn, whether it was from us or their principle, their
outdoor classroom or anything, about environmentally conscious actions.
Because being honest, you can't always or you won't always be
environmentally friendly. No one with any common sense believes the oil
industry is just going to go away because it killed a few pelicans in the Gulf.
While there are always those people who have enough self confidence and
self reliability to not need any great quantity of material possessions, anyone
who's read Atlas Shrugged knows that there's no shame in desiring and
working towards having material possessions. Sometimes it's kill or be killed,
and in the economics of an advanced state such as ours, there are so many
ways to be killed, the people willing to take a chance on green energy are
few and far between.