"We have an opportunity over the decade ahead to shift the structure of our economic, environmental, and social systems towards greater energy efficiency, and more responsible use of our natural resources and relevant resource-based knowledge and expertise. Our economic growth over the next decade and beyond cannot be built on the same principles and technologies, the same energy systems and the same transport modes, that we are familiar with today." - South African Finance Minister Trevor Manual, Budget speech, Parliament February 20th, 2008.
It means , according to Cronon (1996), that deep reflection and respect must accompany each act of use, and means too that we must always consider the possibility of non-use. It means looking at the part of nature we intend to turn toward our own ends and asking whether we can use it
again and again and again- sustainably-without its being diminished in the process. It means never imagining that we can flee into a mythical wilderness to escape history and the obligation to take responsibility for our own actions that history ines- capably entails. Most of all, it means
practicing remembrance and gratitude, for thanksgiving is the simplest and most basic of ways for us to recollect the nature, the culture, and the history that have come
together to make the world as we know it. “If wildness can stop being just out there and start being also in here, if it can start being as humane as it is natural, then perhaps we can get on with the unending task of struggling to live rightly in the world-not just in the garden, not just in the wilderness, but in the home that encompasses them both.” (Cronon, 1996:89).
Furthermore, the development of Environmental Management Frameworks and environmental
management plans should aim to be more holistic and encompass the sustainable future recommendations and requirements set out in the role of the planner section of this chapter in order to work towards a more sustainable future in the management and negotiation of the relationships between humans and nature. Such frameworks of the future should aim to accomplish more than environmental management objectives which aim to monitor, measure, manage, and mitigate the negative impacts of
should aim to increase the ecological base of the environment and enhance it, attempting to undo the damage that has already been done, in order to restore environment to the position they were in prior to
development.
Millions can be lifted out of poverty without ruining the planet with the help of clean sustainable energy (Practical Action, Power to the People, 2002).
Energy is the golden thread that connects economic growth, increased social equity, and an environment that allows the world to thrive (UN Secretary-General Ban Ki- moon, Sustainable Energy for All Initiative, 2011).
2.11 Personal Reflection
My personal approach, as a future planner, is echoed throughout this chapter, through the choice of literature for inclusion in this literature review. Furthermore, it echoes the opinion of Monbiot (2014) who encourages a return to nature. He argues that to be aware of and love nature is to experience a series of griefs for its wounds. He offers hope for the future through a return to the past, when nature was so intrinsically intwined in society. Our ancestors, through immense skill, had to read the signals of nature as a means of survival. Monbiot (2014) argues that humans today still possess that skill and that tapping into it will restore the enchantments, wonders, and experiences of nature which
we are inherently wired to respond to but which have been fractured from human society through unsustainable
development in the past. He recognizes that nature is in us and we are in nature.
2.12 Conclusion
Having highlighted the importance of nature in supporting human life and society, and having articulated a number of paradigms and ways of thinking about the relationship between nature and human society, this chapter can be concluded. It is evident that a paradigm shift is necessary in order to ensure sustainable futures for both humans and nature. The role of the planner and planning and
recommendations for the future followed a discussion of ways in which the relationship between nature and humans can be better understood and a personal
reflection. Recommendations have been made for ways in which sustainability could possibly be enabled in the future, in a way which is ethical and fair to both human society and nature. It has become increasingly evident that the two cannot be separated and that institutions and frameworks in the future need to take more seriously the role of nature if it is to continue sustaining human society. In a final word of conclusion, my personal worldview considering the management and conduction of the relationships between human society, development, and
nature can best be articulated by the words from a song from Disney’s Pocahontas entitled “Colors of the Wind” (quoted below). The song was written for the movie in the context of the land claims made by the Americans for resource consumption and development, at the expense of the indigenous, local, native American Indians who knew and loved the land on which they lived, in a
symbiotic relationship with nature. Essentially, it is the cry of an American Indian woman (Pocahontas) in urging the Americans to better understand the land and natural systems of the land which they were attempting to claim.
“You think you own whatever land you land on The Earth is just a dead thing you can claim But I know every rock and tree and creature
Has a life, has a spirit, has a name Come run the hidden pine trails of the forest Come taste the sun sweet berries of the Earth
Come roll in all the riches all around you And for once, never wonder what they're worth
The rainstorm and the river are my brothers The heron and the otter are my friends And we are all connected to each other
In a circle, in a hoop that never ends You can own the Earth and still
All you'll own is Earth until
You can paint with all the colors of the wind.”
Songwriters: ALAN MENKEN, STEPHEN LAURENCE SCHWARTZ
My personal worldview echoes that of the cry of
Pocahontas, in the song lyrics above, and is a personal cry to others to rethink the fundamental societal approaches to nature and our human relationships with it. It urges the reader to engage in a way of thinking which tries to better understand the links between nature and society as one single whole in order to enable more sustainable futures in terms of human relationships with nature.