Why “Sustainable Development” is a Lie

By Derrick Jensen B.Sc

Guest Writer for Wake Up World

“Sustainable development” is a claim to virtue, but the word “development” used in this sense is a lie.

The word “develop” means “to grow”, “to progress”, “to become fuller, more advanced”. Some synonyms are “evolution, unfolding, maturation, ripeness”, and some antonyms are “deterioration, disintegration”. But here’s the problem…

A child develops into an adult, a caterpillar develops into a butterfly, a stream harmed by (say) mining might in time develop back into a healthy stream; but a meadow does not “develop” into white-box houses, a bay does not “develop” into an industrial port, a forest does not “develop” into roads and clearings. The reality is that the meadow is destroyed to make the “development.” The bay is destroyed to “develop” it into an industrial port. The forest isdestroyed when the “natural resources” are “developed.”

The word “kill” works just as well. The term “development” is just colonialism applied to the natural world.

Sustainable Destruction

Think about it. You’re going about your life, when someone comes along who wants to make money by “developing” the “natural resources” that are your body. He’s going to harvest your organs for transplantation, your bones for fertilizer, your flesh for food.

You might respond, “Hey, I was using that heart, those lungs.”

That meadow, that bay, that forest were all using what you call “natural resources.” Those “natural resources” were keeping them alive. Those “natural resources” are their very body. Without them they die, just as you would.

It doesn’t help to throw the word “sustainable” onto the front of whatever you’re going to do. Exploitation is still exploitation, even if you call it “sustainable exploitation.” Destruction is still destruction, even if you call it “sustainable destruction.”

One sign of intelligence is the ability to recognize patterns. We industrialized humans think we’re smarter than everybody else. So I’m going to lay out a pattern, and let’s see if we can recognize it in less than 6,000 years.

CONTINUE READING:

Also by Derrick Jensen:

• Forget Shorter Showers – Why Personal Change Does Not Equal Social Change
• We Must Reclaim True Environmentalism!

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