Subject: The Natural Step

From: "Lawrence F. London, Jr." <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 4 Sep 1999 12:01:16 -0400 (EDT)

This should interest you all. Anyone ever heard of/know anything about 
The Natural Step; do they endorse or interact with the Permaculture
movement?  LL

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Fri, 3 Sep 1999 16:35:47 -0400
From: Kimberly Stoner <[email-masked]>

At the Northeast Organic Farming Association regional conference this
summer, there was a day-long workshop on the possibility of applying The
Natural Step to agriculture in the U.S.  I know there was a post about The
Natural Step and Swedish agriculture on Sanet last spring, but it didn't
make much impression on me at the time.  After hearing a Swedish organic
farmer (and president of the organic farming organization in Sweden) talk
about how this movement has transformed the thinking about natural
resources, energy, and environment in Sweden, I think The Natural Step
deserves another look from the sustainable agriculture community here.

I bring it up here, because it represents an attempt to bring a scientific
standard to sustainability.  According to the information in the workshop,
at least, there has been extensive scientific review of the orginal
documents.  At the same time, the basis has been framed in terms that, while
setting a very high standard, also make common sense.

My information is at home, but here are the "Four Conditions" as far as I
remember them:
1.  Substances extracted from the earth's crust (e.g. fossil fuels, metals,
other minerals) should not be extracted, dispersed, or used up at a faster
rate than they are being deposited.
2.  Man-made substances should not be produced at a rate faster than they
can be broken down and incorporated into living ecosystems.
3. The quality of existing ecosystems should not be systematically degraded.
4.  Existing resources should be used as efficiently and equitably as
possible.

I am sure that these are not the exact words, but I think they convey the
basic ideas.  The consideration of social systems, Hal, is limited to the
word "equitably" (which may not even be the right word) in the last
condition.  In the workshop I attended, considerable time was spent
emphasizing the fair and equitable distribution of resources.

As I am sure you can imagine, the devil is in the details, but even the
Swedish organic farmer felt that this is very challenging, but ultimately
necessary standard to reach.

Maybe I can write more, and more accurately, next week.  I am out of time
today.

Kim Stoner

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From: Toby Hemenway <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 5 Sep 1999 07:15:12 -0700

>Anyone ever heard of/know anything about
>The Natural Step

They have a web site at http://www.naturalstep.org/direct/index.html; I saw
a talk about the program by Paul Hawken at The Bioneers Conference; he's
active with them. There are informal contacts between some PC and Natural
Step people, but I don't know of formal links. They've done a good job of
moving into the "suit-wearing" niche for the sustainability crowd, working
with a number of large corporations and foundations, and grounding their
message in respectability by getting big-name scientists to endorse them.
Seems to me they're doing a very good thing. I've reprinted their
conditions in the original wording below (complete with superfluous use of
the pompous phrase "in order for." But that's just the editor in me is
nitpicking again). Their website explains these in less abstract language
and gives examples; I'd go there before arguing with them. I would argue
with condition 1, since life has always extracted substances from the earth
via roots, bacteria, and fungi (poisoning the whole planet with oxygen a
couple billion years ago). But I understand what they mean.

THE NATURAL STEP'S FOUR SYSTEM CONDITIONS

1. In order for a society to be sustainable, nature's functions and
diversity are not systematically subject to increasing concentrations of
substances extracted from the earth's crust.

2.  In order for a society to be sustainable, nature's functions and
diversity are not systematically subject to increasing concentrations of
substances produced by society.

3. In order for a society to be sustainable, nature's functions and
diversity are not systematically impoverished by physical displacement,
over-harvesting or other forms of ecosystem manipulation.

4. In a sustainable society resources are used fairly and efficiently in
order to meet basic human needs globally.

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From: eric + michiko <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 05 Sep 1999 11:17:02 -0700

I took a look at the web site Toby mentioned and copied the subtext to the
four points for those interested (below).  I see that the third "condition"
is really the key here.  The other conditions are necessary for the third.
So, it seems to me that it could be rearranged a bit.  But, overall, it's
pretty good, I'd say.  I'd also agree that they have done a great job of
filling the "suit and tie" niche.  (Who is filling the "developed" middle
class niche?)

As an interesting comparison, I also copied the Deep Ecology Platform (very
below).  It aims to fill a philosophical / spiritual niche, avoiding the
anthropocentric view of the world as resource supply for humans.  There are
other such "systems", and they basically have the same message each with
its own piece to add to the total picture.

Aim to invigorate, but at least be sustainable.

Eric Storm

***************************************************************

>From The Natural Step web site at
http://www.naturalstep.org/direct/index.html;

1
IN ORDER FOR A SOCIETY TO BE SUSTAINABLE, NATURE'S FUNCTIONS AND DIVERSITY
ARE NOT SYSTEMATICALLY SUBJECT TO INCREASING CONCENTRATIONS OF SUBSTANCES
EXTRACTED FROM THE EARTH'S CRUST. 

In a sustainable society, human activities such as the burning of fossil
fuels, and the mining of metals and minerals will not occur at a rate that
causes them to systematically increase in the ecosphere. There are
threshholds beyond which living organisms and ecosystems are adversely
affected by increases in substances from the the earth's crust. Problems
may include an increase in greenhouse gases leading to global warming,
contamination of surface and ground water, and metal toxicity which can
cause functional disturbances in animals. In practical terms, the first
condition requires society to implement comprehensive metal and mineral
recycling programs, and decrease economic dependence on fossil fuels.  

 2 
IN ORDER FOR A SOCIETY TO BE SUSTAINABLE, NATURE'S FUNCTIONS AND DIVERSITY
ARE NOT SYSTEMATICALLY SUBJECT TO INCREASING CONCENTRATIONS OF SUBSTANCES
PRODUCED BY SOCIETY. 

In a sustainable society, humans will avoid generating systematic increases
in persistent substances such as DDT, PCBs, and freon. Synthetic organic
compounds such as DDT and PCBs can remain in the environment for many
years, bioaccumulating in the tissue of organisms, causing profound
deleterious effects on predators in the upper levels of the food chain.
Freon, and other ozone depleting compounds, may increase risk of cancer due
to added UV radiation in the troposphere. Society needs to find ways to
reduce economic dependence on persistent human-made substances.  

 3
IN ORDER FOR A SOCIETY TO BE SUSTAINABLE, NATURE'S FUNCTIONS AND DIVERSITY
ARE NOT SYSTEMATICALLY IMPOVERISHED BY PHYSICAL DISPLACEMENT,
OVER-HARVESTING OR OTHER FORMS OF ECOSYSTEM MANIPULATION. 

In a sustainable society, humans will avoid taking more from the biosphere
than can be replenished by natural systems. In addition, people will avoid
systematically encroaching upon nature by destroying the habitat of other
species. Biodiversity, which includes the great variety of animals and
plants found in nature, provides the foundation for ecosystem services
which are necessary to sustain life on this planet. Society's health and
prosperity depends on the enduring capacity of nature to renew itself and
rebuild waste into resources.  

 4
IN A SUSTAINABLE SOCIETY RESOURCES ARE USED FAIRLY AND EFFICIENTLY IN ORDER
TO MEET BASIC HUMAN NEEDS GLOBALLY. 

Meeting the fourth system condition is a way to avoid violating the first
three system conditions for sustainability. Considering the human
enterprise as a whole, we need to be efficient with regard to resource use
and waste generation in order to be sustainable. If one billion people lack
adequate nutrition while another billion have more than they need, there is
a lack of fairness with regard to meeting basic human needs. Achieving
greater fairness is essential for social stability and the cooperation
needed for making large-scale changes within the framework laid out by the
first three conditions. 

To achieve this fourth condition, humanity must strive to improve technical
and organizational efficiency around the world, and to live using fewer
resources, especially in affluent areas. System condition number four
implies an improved means of addressing human population growth. If the
total resource throughput of the global human population continues to
increase, it will be increasingly difficult to meet basic human needs as
human-driven processes intended to fulfill human needs and wants are
systematically degrading the collective capacity of the Earth's ecosystems
to meet these demands.  

*******************************************************

                 The Deep Ecology Platform

1. The well-being and flourishing of human and nonhuman life on Earth have
value in themselves (synonyms: inherent worth, intrinsic value, inherent
value). These values are independent of the usefulness of the nonhuman
world for human purposes.

2. Richness and diversity of life-forms contribute to the realization of
these values and are also values in themselves.

3. Humans have no right to reduce this richness and diversity except to
satisfy vital needs.

4. Present human interference with the nonhuman world is excessive, and the
situation is rapidly worsening.

5. The flourishing of human life and cultures is compatible with a
substantial decrease of the human population. The flourishing of nonhuman
life requires such a decrease.

6. Policies must therefore be changed. The changes in policies affect basic
economic, technological, and ideological structures. The resulting state of
affairs will be deeply different from the present.

7. The ideological change is mainly that of appreciating life quality
(dwelling in situations of inherent worth) rather than adhering to an
increasingly higher standard of living. There will be a profound awareness
of the difference between big and great.

8. Those who subscribe to the foregoing points have an obligation directly
or indirectly to participate in the attempt to implement the necessary
changes.

-- Arne Naess and George Sessions

Source:  _Clearcut: The Tragedy of Industrial Forestry_, edited by Bill
Devall (San Francisco: Sierra Club Books and Earth Island Press, 1993).

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