Sustainable development 225there is an urgent need to interconnect more strongly research in the
natural sciences with that in the social sciences. The integrated frame-
work presented in Chapter 1 (Figure 1.5) illustrates the scope of interac-
tions and of required integration between all the intellectual disciplines
involved.
Sustainable development
So much for uncertainty in the science of global warming. But how does
this uncertainty map on to the world of political decision making? A key
idea is that of sustainable development.
One of the remarkable movements of the last few years is the way in
which problems of the global environment have moved up the political
agenda. In her speech at the opening in 1990 of the Hadley Centre
at the United Kingdom Meteorological Office, Margaret Thatcher, the
former British Prime Minister, explained our clear responsibility to the
environment. ‘We have a full repairing lease on the Earth. With the work
of the IPCC, we can now say we have the surveyor’s report; and it shows
there are faults and that the repair work needs to start without delay. The
problems do not lie in the future, they are here and now: and it is our
children and grandchildren, who are already growing up, who will be
affected.’ Many other politicians have similarly expressed their feelings
of responsibility for the global environment. Without this deeply felt and
widely held concern, the UNCED conference at Rio, with environment
as the number one item on its agenda, could never have taken place.
But, despite its importance, even when concentrating on the long
term, the environment is only one of many considerations politicians
must take into account. For developed countries, the maintenance
of living standards, full employment (or something close to it) and
economic growth have become dominant issues. Many developing
countries are facing acute problems in the short term: basic survival
and large debt repayment; others, under the pressure of large increases
in population, are looking for rapid industrial development. However,
an important characteristic of environmental problems, compared with
many of the other issues faced by politicians, is that they are long-term
and potentially irreversible – which is why Tim Wirth, the Under
Secretary of State for Global Affairs in the United States Government
during the Clinton Administration, said, ‘The economy is a wholly
owned subsidiary of the environment’.
A balance, therefore, has to be struck between the provision of nec-
essary resources for development and the long-term need to preserve the
environment. That is why the Rio Conference was about Environment
and Development. The formula that links the two is called sustainable