It’s Getting Hot In Here

Yesterday I had a very interesting discussion with a professor at my college about sustainable development. Sustainable development, as defined by the Brundtland Commission in Our Common Future, is “meeting the needs of the present generation without compromising the abilities of future generations to meet their needs”. He asked me, “How do you convince the community to work for sustainable development, and delay gratification?”

I did not have a good answer, since that is the question on everyone’s mind. How do you tell people they need to think about tomorrow when today they are starving, or thirsty, or without energy? The root problem, as my professor believes and I agree, is the culture of entitlement. We were having this discussion the in context of post-Apartheid South Africa, when the unified government was established and Africans that had suffered under Apartheid believed that it was their turn to have unlimited access to resources. What they didn’t think about was scarcity. Yes, maldistribution was a giant problem during Apartheid, but straight up redistribution isn’t the only (or best, for that matter) solution. The infrastructure needs to be built for access to be allowed, and even then there must be a sustainable component to the access.