WTF is sustainable development?!

Editors: Jan Peloza, Blaž Gasparini, Ingunn Aanes, Jan Magdić, Júlia HentzIllustrations: Júlia Hentz, Lilla GősiProof-reading: Nathalie A. Rodriguez McCullough, Niina LÕivScientific proof-reading: mag.Vida OgorelecDesigner: Júlia HentzPhotos: www.noexcuse.si

International partners: BeYOUnique Hungary, Young Voices Germany, Tippetue IOGT Norway

Local partners: Umanotera – Slovenian Foundation for Sustainable Development, Youth Association United Games of Nations – project Sustain*(health+art)!

Special thanks to: Alexanda Kovács, Ana Temeljotov, Andrea Noémi Erdős, Dennis Markgraf, Dorrotya Árvai, Eivind Marienborg, Filip Maslo, Helga Grønlund Hodne, Ivana Gantar, Katja Petrinja, Lilla Gősi, Marietta Buczó, Nassim Djaba, Nick Platz, Renáta Börzsei, Silje Knarvik, Timotej Gašpar, Urška Erklavec

Issued by: No Excuse Slovenia, Celovška 185, SI-1000 LjubljanaPrinted by: Birografika Bori d.o.o.

750 copies are printed on recycled paperLjubljana, January 2011

Not for saleCIP - Kataložni zapis o publikacijiNarodna in univerzitetna knjižnica, Ljubljana

502.131.1

WTF is sustainable development / [editors Jan Peloza ... [et al.] ; illustrations Júlia Hentz, Lilla Gősi]. - Ljubljana : No Excuse Slovenia, 2011

ISBN 978-961-92664-1-01. Peloza, Jan255517440

Table of contentsSustainable development

The story of the Easter IslandEconomic growthExamples of unsustainable developmentMyths about sustainable development

Climate changeWeather vs. climateMain messages about climate change

FactsExplanationsDeniers and sceptics

Active citizenshipWhy to be activeSpread the message Industry vs. consumersGreenwashing

Conclusion

568

1013

141618

2830323436

38

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Sustainable development is something we need to achieve in order to secure planet Earth’s suitable living conditions in the 22nd and upcoming centuries. And let it be social or environmental, no one wants to be left at the mercy of external factors that he/she isn’t able to control (anymore). If we don’t make it sustainable, humans will be “ejected”

out of the ecosystem we live in.

The greatest discoveries have come from people who have looked at a standard situation and seen it differently.

(Unknown author)

4

The process we went through wasn’t easy at all, but we found our ways to

deal with the challenges, so we decided to create this publication. It doesn’t

matter where you come from or what your knowledge is on this topic.

For us you can just be a random passenger that accidentally picked this

publication up. Read it, it’s worth your time! It’s not an inconvenient truth*

as we know it; it’s a view from a different angle. One could rather say

an “unconventional truth”, the truth seen through eyes of a young

person of the 21st century.

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YOUNG PEOPLE.

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Just by making this booklet, we

learned a lot and we as editors

stepped on the path we now

want YOU to follow – in the

direction of critical thinking,

constructive scepticism and

nevertheless action!

This booklet was produced by young

people. Not scientists, not politicians,

not lobbyists, just us, but with the great

help of the good and bad practices

in the field we are digging in. And it

should stay like this. By and for

* By

this

we

didn

’t w

ant t

o dr

aw a

ny a

ttent

ion

to A

l Gor

e’s b

ook

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t tru

th«

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*When w

e say »WTF is..?!« w

e mean »W

hat’s The Flavour of ..?!« and not »W

hat the F*** is...?!« as one m

ight think. Just to make it m

ore catchy, sometim

es in this booklet w

e have deliberately changed the »of« with »is« after the »W

TF« (:

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SustainableDEVELOPMENT?!Many of you have heard about this term before, while some of you still haven’t, but we aren’t mistaken if we say that you reacted, now or then, like this: “Development what? Sustainable? WTF* is this?!” Don’t worry, you’re not alone.

“Sustainable development is a development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” (Brundtland Commission- United Nations, 1987)

»

6

The story of the

Easter Island

Humanity’s foolishness is not enough to destroy its environment forever, but enough to destroy itself.

(Júlia Hentz, activist)Once upon a time there was an isolated island far away from any continent. Its inhabitants enjoyed the benefits of the paradise-like place. Hence population started to grow and

grow, life was flourishing. The more people there were, the more were to be fed and supplied. This huge demand resulted in running out of resources like food and wood, which lead to a big chaos. A civil war broke out, cannibalism started to spread and there were less and less people left alive; happiness and wellbeing on the island was just a blurry memory from the past.

7

Check:

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ww

w.mysteriousplaces.com

/Easter_IslandOn the Easter Sunday of 1722 the island was discovered by a Dutch navigator Jacob Roggeveen who found just a samll number of natives living in terrible conditions.

Although most of the inhabitants died, nature survived. The island is now flourishing again, no one could ever tell by the first sight such catastrophe had happened there in the past.

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This could also happen to Earth if we don’t do something.

What happened on Easter Island is an example of unsustainable development.

8

World, hold on...

info

The society nowadays focuses on THE ECONOMIC GROWTH as its most

important goal. It’s believed that it is important because it keeps society

moving in a positive, productive direction. The more the economy grows,

the better our society should become. Economic growth is measured

with gross domestic product (GDP) that is the sum of all goods

and services that have been produced in one year, per person. ¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦

get down

!

I don

’t want to

T h e only country in the world that doesn’t measure development with its GDP is Bhutan (located in Asia). They measure development by the happiness levels of their population.

But the problem is, in order to assure the desired productivity

which then leads to profit, many companies tend to forget

the impact on society and especially on nature, while

the governments, which are the main regulators

of these fields,

aren’t really d e a l i n g

with it.

9

The term economic growth might leave you with the impression that the bigger a country’s GDP is, the better its development and therefore population’s satisfaction is. Yes, if the happiness and wellbeing of the population was only measured by how many goods one has and services one uses; economic growth could be considered as the real indicator of development. But the wellbeing of people and the wellbeing of nature is just as important as economic growth and can’t be measured with GDP.

THE ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT shouldn’t

harm society or nature. The more you emphasise

just one part, the more harm you can cause to the other

two parts of the triangle. The balance between these three

edges and the thing we are aiming at in this publication is

sustainable development (SD).

SD

Nature’s wellbeing

Economic benefit

People’s wellbeing

*The opinion by the participants of he project Sustain!ability

get down

!

I don

’t want to

This is what young people* say about

wellbeing and happyness: Living

without fears, a lot of sun, good friends,

good music, being free to do what you

like, having a good relationship with

your family, being happy with yourself,

to be healthy, having good food, traveling

around the world.

This is what environmental experts say

about nature’s wellbeing: Living with

the carrying capacity of the planet or

region: using only renewable resources, as

much as is naturally regenerated, polluting

only as much as can be absorbed by

ecosystems, closing the loop – reuse, recycle

used products.

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Examples of

unsustainabledevelop

men

t

On the next two pages, we would like to show you two examples

of what can happen when the idea of sustainable development

is not considered. Both examples are connected to the cotton

industry.

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1. Impact on natureCotton is used to make 50% of all clothes in the world and for that, we need a lot of water. The Aral-lake that is located in Asia was once the fourth-largest lake in the world, but now it has almost dried out, mostly because of the water supply for the cotton production.

The region’s – once prosperous – fishing industry has been destroyed, bringing unemployment and economic trouble to the nearby towns.

These pictures show how the Aral-lake used to look and how it is today.

The Aral Sea region is heavily polluted, which leads to serious health problems for the local inhabitants. The retreat of the sea also caused local climate change from the 1960s on, with summers becoming hotter and drier and winters colder and longer.

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Check:

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More about the consum

er society:w

ww.storyofstuff.com

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2. Impact on society

Since 1998 the price of clothes has decreased by 34%. This is because the production is more global and has moved to places where workers are paid less. Globalization makes production cheaper, but not fairer. Apart from that, on average people buy twice as many clothes today as in the 1990s. This means that the cotton industry needs to produce twice as many clothes, too.

In order to assure the maximization of their profit they exploit the system. While poor people (cotton farmers, people working at the factory) have no choice but to work for low pay, the owners of the label and stores have nothing to do but to take the profit. There will be no change unless the people in charge stop abusing defenceless people. The lack of public awareness on this topic leaves open doors for abusers to maintain this unfairness.

how money is distributed for a T-shirt...

Cotton farmersWorkers at the factoryThe labelThe storeOther expenses(water, colouring, etc.) 4,28

20

9,386,250,080,02

In € In %

0,080,383,25

46,8821,42100A

n ex

ampl

e of

...that costs €20.

What can do to avoid this?Does that seem unfair? There are some easy things you can do to help the situation!1) You can buy green cotton that has less environmental impact than “normal” cotton.

3) Also remember that all production is harming the environment in some way (some ways less than others) and that you therefore should try to not to buy beyond your needs!

2) You can buy Fair Trade to ensure that the farmers and workers producing your clothing are getting a decent amount of money.

you

Ju s t for your

information: the store that sells a t-shirt makes 577 times more money than the cotton farmers.

In an ideal world, sustainable development would already exist, while in the real world, there are plenty of people who still doubt that sustainable development can be achieved.

You see things and you say “Why?”, but I dream things that never were and I say “Why not?

(George Bernard Shaw, Irish writer)

The i

deal w

orld . .

.

13

Some claim that

developed countries wouldn’t be able to keep their

standard of living if we want to reach sustainable development. However, being sustainable means finding environmentally friendly substitutions for the already

existing ways of doing it. Science is there to find other ways

for producing.

2 mythsabout sustainable development

“It’s expensive”People tend to think that to be sustainable you have to pay a lot. This might be true if you have an unsustainable way of living, in this case, changing it might seem a loss, but only in a short-term perspective. Living in a sustainable way saves money on an everyday basis, so if you look at it long term, you can see that investing in sustainable technology is establishing a cheaper future. Just compare a heating system ran by gas or solar cells. You have to pay for both systems to be installed, but later you wouldn’t have to pay for the sunshine, but you would have to pay for gas.

“We are too many to achieve it”

It’s true that every e nv i ron m e nt a l problem roots in over-population. If we were ten times less, the

Earth and its regenerating and

clean-up system could handle all

humans’ requirements. However, we’re not trying to solve the problem of over-population, as there’s a need for a change in our lifestyle not in our number. Although this is a slow process, it’s not impossible and it’s still faster than a natural decrease in population.

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Earth provides enough to satisfy every man’s need, but not every man’s greed.

(Mahatma Ghandi, Hindu spiritual and political leader)

info

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On the other hand

we have the industry

that doesn’t really want

to admit that climate

change exists or that

people are responsible

for it. As some companies

are considered to be polluters and therefore

drivers of climate change, plenty of laws will be

passed in order to pay back the damage they’ve

produced to the environment and the society.

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The unsustainable development

leads to climate change...

Nowadays, the media is full of news

about climate change and most of them, are

presenting it in a really catastrophic way. With

some exceptions to the rule, over-reporting

on this issue (both in line with or against the definition of climate change) makes the people sceptic on the quality of information and therefore, many of us just become

So, why would they explain

their contributions to pollution,

if they could rather start

advocating that climate change

is not happening at all or that the

cause is not them and human-

made but natural and would

happen in one way or the other?

confused.

15

As governments, non-governmental organizations, scientists

and industries want to prove their right, they use media, as it

is the most powerful communication channel with crowds.

The citizens are overloaded with all contradictory information

on the topic and don’t know what is true or false anymore.

“Climate change refers to any change in climate over time, whether due to natural variability or as a result of human activity.” (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, 1992)

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So, what do we

suggest? Whose truth to take for granted, who is the most objective in this process?

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¦ ¦ ¦ ¦

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»

Neither of them.

Nature is. And

scientists free

of conflicts of

interests. But they

are nowadays, to

be frank, really

hard to find.

confused.

WeatherBefore digging into the topic of climate change, let’s find out what the

difference is between weather and climate, so we can distinguish between

climate- and weather-change.

Weather is the state of the atmosphere

at a given time and place, described in terms

of temperature, precipitation, wind, humidity,

cloudiness, etc.

Climate is what you expect and weather is what you get. (Robert A. Heinlein, American writer)

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Climate is the long-time average of the weather. Different regions and countries can have different types of climate.

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vs. climate“A river went over its banks today due to heavy rain.”

„A river went over its bank for the 3rd time this month due to

heavy rain. Altogether the river went over the bank 95 times in

the last 30 years, while it almost never went over before that.”

Is this an example of climate change? Yes, it is! When something like this happens many times over a period of time, we’re not seeing weather-change anymore, but a change in the average of weather (or climate).

Is this an example of climate change? No, here we are talking about weather change.

Her

e ar

e tw

o ex

amp

les

that

will

hel

p yo

u to

un

ders

tand

the d

iffer

ence

.

›

›

18

The 5 “hand” messages1.

Clim

ate

chan

ge is

hap

peni

ng.

2. At le

ast 70% of c

limate

change i

s human-m

ade.

4. Climate change is affecting our society and nature.

5. We need to do something about it.

And why so? Because we’re dealing with nature. So all we can do now is rely on science and this is how we get our data. Neither the 2nd Newton’s law is correct in all possible examples. And the data we trust is based on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

How can we be completely sure about

the first two statements? Well, we aren’t. :)

CHANGEin PROGRESS

3. There are people who don’t completely agree with this.

5

19

1st finger: Is climate change really happening?It is. It’s a fact. We’re feeling it and seeing it. In fact, the global climate has been changing for millions of years. But the trend of variations in climate nowadays is changing faster than we expected. If in other geological eras such a degree of change took up to 50 thousand years, the last trends show faster changes in global climate, being noticed even in a short period of 150 years of instrumental meteorological records. So the general population shouldn’t doubt if it’s happening or not, but if it’s c o n t r i b u t e d to by human beings or not.

2nd finger: How can we say that humans cause more than 70% of climate change?Scientific data. Actually we can also say what causes the other part - nature. However to point it out, this calculation is an average over a longer period of time and we can’t really say right now that the

distribution of the causes is 70:30 at this very moment. A strong volcanic eruption,

for instance, would on a short term (over a period of a year or two) have stronger

effects on the global climate than humans. But, again, we cannot be 100% sure about

this fact, because our knowledge of the climate is not perfect and the computers that run the

climate models are not strong enough to include all of the possible variables (effects) in their

calculations.

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There are several other greenhouse gasses that are polluting our atmosphere. And all of them are expressed in the CO2 equivalent quantities (e.g. 1 molecule of methane has the equivalent warming effect on the atmosphere of 25 molecules of carbon

dioxide in a period of 100 years). This helps to measure the total

amount of emissions of greenhouse

gasses in our society.

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Why measure air pollution with

carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions?

A big share of the World’s CO2 emissions is produced

by human activity, while most scientists agree that

carbon dioxide is one of the main causes of the recent

changes of the climate. Unfortunately our forests (but

also oceans etc.) are unable to extract (out of the air) all

of the CO2 that our society is currently emitting (but

just around 1/5 of only the European emissions!), which

means its quantity is constantly rising from year to year.

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When checking the chart we see that the companies (energy supply, industrial transport, forestry, industrial waste, commercial buildings) produce most of the emissions in order to assure the population a certain standard of living. Therefore the owners of businesses, as they are the ones mostly making profit out of selling goods and services, should be the ones addressed to choose a better production solution in order to lower the emissions.

Addressing individuals (personal transport, other waste, residential buildings) is just one solution, but more about this topic, will be presented in the next chapter.

Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide

Measured at Mouna Loa, Hawaii

Annual cycle

Jan Apr Jul Oct Jan

1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010

390

380

370

360

350

340

330

320

310 Car

bon

diox

ide c

once

ntra

tion

(ppm

v)

Greenhouse gas emissions by sectorEU - 2010

1.

2.3.

4.

5.

6.7.1. Energy industry 31.9 %

2. Industry 21.3 %3. Transport 19.5 %4. Residental 8.5 %5. Commercial,

Institutional 3.3 %6. Agriculture, Forestry,

Fisheries 10.6 % 7. Other 5.0 %

Check:

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Check the original charts on:

ww

w.sustain-ability.si/charts¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦

¦¦¦

info The term

“greenhouse gasses” origins from the gasses that

contribute to the greenhouse effect in the Earth’s atmosphere. The main greenhouse gases are water vapour, carbon

dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide and ozone.

3rd finger: Sceptics, deniers and similar creatures (:

Although nowadays the

understanding of climate

sceptics goes in the direction

of „people who deny that

climate change is happening”,

it’s important to know that

this is not completely true.

A sceptic is “someone who

doubts”, while “someone

who denies” should

be called a denier.

While both groups can be interpreted

as people who don’t completely agree

with the existence of climate change,

we believe that the difference in

approach between those two is crucial.

The denier tends to prove his truth

and other people’s mistakes, while the

sceptic, in our opinion, is someone who

makes constructive critics in order to

deliver a better conclusion on the topic.

Due to the scientific basic agreement about climate change,

its reasons and its consequences, in this booklet we

won’t spend time on the deniers of the existence

of climate change. Whereas,

the sceptics, as we

understand them, are

more than welcomed.

Nevertheless, as already explained before, there

is a bigger number of scepticists and deniers

within polluters and people that are

talking on their behalf.

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What are you?Not sure if you’re a believer, sceptic or denier? Fill out the simple test under, calculate your score and see what you are. It’s not completely accurate, but it gives you an idea...

1) What’s wrong with warmer weather? I like the summer and I think the effects of climate change will be mostly beneficial to people.disagree 5 4 3 2 1 agree

2) It’s extremely likely that most of the effects on climate over the last 50 years come from human activity.disagree 1 2 3 4 5 agree

3) Global warming stopped at the end of the year 1998. The world temperature isn’t rising after 1998 anymore!disagree 5 4 3 2 1 agree

4) There is a wide agreement amongst experts in favour of the anthropogenic (human-made) climate change.disagree 1 2 3 4 5 agree

5) We had a lot of snow on the “Island of Neverland” the last 2 winters, which is proof that the climate is cooling.disagree 5 4 3 2 1 agree

Score: 5-13 –› denier; 14-19 –› sceptic; 20-25 –› believer

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Don’t blame Earth.It’s not Mother Nature’s fault!

As we said, the nature is contributing less than 30% to Climate change. This happens via the volcanic activity, the Earth position in the solar system, the Sun’s activity, atmosphere/ocean heat exchange, surface reflectivity, forming of mountains and more. But that’s the natural process we can’t really affect, right? So, who gave us the right to affect the balance with our activity? ¦¦¦

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¦¦¦¦

¦¦¦

info

Is it climate

change or global

warming? And where

did the term global

warming disappear? Check

our explanation on

www.sustain-ability.si/

cc-vs-gw

There are numerous problems on the Earth, starting from pollution, overpopulation, exploitation of natural resources, overconsumption of the developed countries, etc. Hundreds of problems that are causing unbearable damage to the planet can be compared to “hundreds of coats” one can put on oneself. At the same time it’s hard to carry them all on you. But try to remove just one “coat” and it will already be a relief. We are reaching the phase where Earth is not able to take off “the coats” it’s wearing and this is where the people should step in the game.

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4th finger: Climate change is affecting our society and nature

Scientists predict that a two degree average temperature rise is “very unlikely to be avoided”. It’s predicted what kind of impact a rise of 2 or 4 degrees will have on Earth.

26

If the average temperature rises by 4 degrees the consequences are predicted to be:

• Forests: the forests in southern Europe will be in a high-

danger category for forest-fire.• Water: the water resources in the countries close to the

Mediterranean can be affected up to 70%, and droughts

can occur twice as frequently. • Health: the hottest days of the year across Europe could

be as much as 8 degrees warmer than nowadays.

• Agriculture: production of some crops might rise

because of higher temperatures and longer growing

seasons. But for regions where farming is marginal, the

temperature rise might be more negative.

• Water: Higher average temperatures will cause changes

in rainfall patterns. This will affect river flows and the

availability of water – some will get more water than now,

some less. It’s predicted that around the Mediterranean

Sea, there will be more droughts than now.

• Health: The hottest days across Europe might be as

much as 6 degrees warmer than they are now.

Check:

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ore

deta

iles a

bout

the

cons

eque

nces

of c

limat

e ch

ange

can

be

foun

d on

:w

ww.

sust

ain-

abili

ty.si

/con

sequ

ence

s

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For Europe, the most important consequences with a 2 degrees rise are predicted to be:

And even though we aren’t mentioning it, the other parts of the world would also be seriously affected by both a 2 and 4 degree temperature rise. And even though it’s a bit “out there” and extreme, you can imagine a...

27

¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦

„The population of the newly established Scandinavian Republic has just passed 1 billion people” (living conditions in Europe would only be good in the North – migration to Scandinavia will become a serious problem).

„The big desert of Hungary

became a good shelter for Tuaregs

from the Algerian desert” (Hungary

would turn into a desert because of drought

and deforestation).

„The territory of the Netherlands 40% smaller” (with the sea-level rise, parts of The Netherlands would disappear).

5th finger: ACTION – look on the next page and you will get to know more about this (:

infoCows fart methane is a very dangerous greenhouse gas. Because humans eat more meat than needed, there are also more cows.

More cows = more farts = more methane. ;)

¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦

...newspaper headline from 2060:

Being an active citizen means that you care for the things that are going on around you, you don’t take everything you hear/read for granted and you would like to make the place you live in a better place.

the guidelines for an active citizen with:

And why should be active?

There are many reasons for that. Starting with the fact that

it’s a great possibility for you to acquire new skills, gain

new friends and build networks of people who see

things in a similar way as you do as well as helping

you visit places. But what’s most important, it

makes you feel better. Why not giving some

extra energy of yours to people who need

it. Active citizenship in our words is

community engagement, too.

And of course, when we say active,

we mean being active in a positive

way (not being an active citizen

that robs stores, for example.)

¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦1. Criticize

2. Suggest3. Act

It’s as simple as that (: *in “WTF (W

hat’s the flavour) of European citizenship?!”, No Excuse Slovenia, 2008

active

¦¦¦

¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦

¦ ¦ ¦

¦¦¦

¦¦

We

sim

ply

des

crib

ed*

I

Being a citizen means having civil, political and social rights, but at the same time duties and privileges. If we look at citizenship in this way, we can understand it as a membership in a community (city, state, nation, country).

29

But apart from the positively active citizens, there are plenty

of them that use their extra energy to make a profit. Making

profit isn’t necessarily a bad thing, as long as they make it in an

honourable and fair way. And not all people or industries do so.

Their marketing, apart from the most visible promotional part (marketing also consists of products, its placement and price) is many times immoral and consumers are being manipulated. If you’re passive and don’t point out what they’re doing, you’re allowing businesses an unfair profit.

ww

w.sustain-ability.si/ongoing-imm

oralities

Check:

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¦¦¦

¦ ¦ ¦

¦¦¦

¦¦¦

30

Changes were made in physics, technology, religion, biology, art, etc. It took a lot of hard work for Albert Einstein to present the idea of relativity, and many people still doubt Darwin’s theory of evolution. Bill Gates became rich and famous because he

worked hard and made a product that people wanted to buy. These people faced threatening challenges and still, they achieved something. You don’t have to be the Martin Luther King Jr. of the 21st century, even

a small change can make a big difference, if not elsewhere, then in your life. A bit of experience in today’s demanding society is always a plus.

When asking active young people of your age, what actually motivated or stopped them from becoming active...

¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦Mother Theresa Jimmy Wales (founder of Wikipedia), Margaret Thatcher, Michael Jordan, Mark Zuckemberg, Pablo Picasso… have one thing in common. These people and hundreds of others made a change that has had an effect on today’s society. And they are humans, with a day that lasts not more than 24 hours, like for you and me.

On the next pages we will also show you some ways to fight

immoralities. We aren’t presenting classic suggestions, like join an

organization; make your own event and so on, as we presume that

the ways to get active are mostly visible for today’s youth.

Why to be active?

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We believe that there are more motivators than stoppers, and

therefore we believe there is no reason not to be active. Every stopper can

find a motivator – remember that! But also the other way round, so make

sure you don’t get in the vicious circle and just do nothing.

Stoppers

Motivators

¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦

• Not enough information on the topic• People around you aren’t taking action• Too much information • It’s comfortable not to do anything• I will wait for somebody else to start and then maybe I will follow

• It is fun and broadens my mind

• I get experiences

• Great to see results of your own

work• Fairness – your conscience is

pushing you

• It’s trendy• Other people are active

• Solidarity

...this is what they said:

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Become a multiplier!Being the only one who cares about a cause is often really demotivating.

On the other hand, finding out there are other people in your community

and beyond that share the same ideas, brings you motivation and power.

Sharing your thoughts, ideas and data you possess and also simply

talking about an issue and motivating friends to take action, expands the

possibilities of an impact.

Just by engaging another person and each of these persons engaging another two, starts to make a difference. If the same pattern goes on and on, it turns out that there is a crowd supporting a cool initiative. And this is called power!

Connect, share, talk, debate if you wish, just be the small “first” snowflake that roles down the hill and catches others, resulting in an avalanche of ideas and action.

¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦

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Crowd effect or

A crowd, which is a mass of individuals having at least one interest in common, is very powerful. Whether it is a cluster of fishes sticking together to protect themselves from predators, or a bunch of people that are protesting against a certain law, the crowd is modifying the will of the individuals for the sake of the “ultimate” goal.

What do young people who already are active say?

“Being active is great because you can actually change the world around you in a positive way. This way we can create a society where everybody wins and nobody looses.”

Nassim, 22

“By being active you really get a feeling that you can make a change. This doesn't mean that you will change the world but you will at least do something. What we do isn't much if you look at each thing separately but all our efforts together will result in something. The thing that your actions have an effect is the best feeling.”

Filip, 17

“I like to be active because I feel useful like I'm doing something not only for myself (learning how to talk in front of people) but also something for the community. I believe in the change and I can see that the change is really needed. I hope that we are successful in what we are doing. We want to make people aware of what is happening around them. Our goal is to make people act.”

Ivana, 18

1+1 = 3¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦

OK, becoming a part of an non-governmental organization is one thing, but what else can be done to achieve a change in the society?

34

Aff ect politicians

PersuadesCreates demand

GOVERNMENT

INDUSTRY($,€)

CONSUMERSActive citizenship

Lobby

Affect laws

Boycott productsMake jobs

Buy products

Mak

es la

ws

Pays

taxe

s

Makes law

s

we affect it?

Lobbying

Example: If the government wants to make a law restricting the amount of

plastic you can buy, the companies that produce plastic will be affected and will

decide to lobby government to change or abandon this law. The most common

argument in this situation, to defend their position, would be that with this

law plastic producers would lose income therefore resulting in job-reductions.

Lobbying is trying to persuade a politician, the government or an official group that a particular thing should or should not happen, or that a law should be changed.

A lobbyist is someone who tries to persuade a politician or official group to do something. (Cambridge online dictionary)

So,

how

can

¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦

¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦»

We can affect above-mentioned actors in different ways, but we decided to present two of them: a political - lobbyism; and an activistic one - boycotts.

35

Due to many misleading marketing techniques and immoralities in the

production processes by some companies, consumers tend to boycott

certain brands or companies. This is why companies need to change their

marketing strategies, and in the process…it’s very easy to claim they’re

environmentally friendly or ”green” when they aren’t. More following on

the next page.

Boycotts and consumer power

Examples of boycotts:

• Mahatma Gandhi led India to boycott British goods.

• A large part of the world’s countries boycotted South Africa during its

apartheid period. Also the South African football team was excluded

from FIFA till 1992 due to the same reasons.

• Consumers have been boycotting Nestlé for their promotion of infant

formula over breast milk to poor mothers in developing countries.

• Consumers have boycotted Esso because they refuse to invest in

renewable energy sources, deny the existence of global warming and

undermine the Kyoto Protocol.

• The Arab League boycotted Israel and companies trading with Israel,

due to the occupation of Palestine

Boycotting means to refuse to buy, use or take part in something as a way of protesting (Oxford dictionary).»

we affect it?

¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦

¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦

¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦

On the other hand environmentalists would lobby other ministries to

support the restriction.

No Excuse Slovenia is inviting you to boycott products and services from companies that are promoting themselves as being eco-friendly, why they are not. To know more why, check the next page.

36

Greenwashing – or who washes your brain?

Greenwashing is activities by company or an organization that are intended to make people think that it is concerned about the environment, even if its real business actually harms the environment (Oxford dictionary).…or in short - when a company tries to make itself look more environmentally friendly than it really is.

»

37

Every company has its reasons for that:

Airbus made adverts where passenger planes are filled with

beautiful landscapes, pretending that their airplanes are green

and clean, when in reality the flight industry leaves huge amounts

of CO2-emissions in the atmosphere. British Petrol (BP) invested

money in the National Wildlife Federation after the scandal in the

Mexican gulf where approximately 795 billion litres of oil where

spilled after an explosion on an oil drill. And Audi made a campaign

that claims that buying an Audi A3 diesel is actually good for the

environment, while a diesel-car still pollutes the environment.

Being environmentally friendly is trendy among companies

and consumers tend to rather choose the products that seem to

be respecting nature. But if it’s not true and you know it, why

would a richer company win against the honest competitor?

To stop this manipulation, boycott products from the companies

that use greenwashing as one of their marketing approaches. There

are similar products from other, truly environmental friendly

companies. Another option is to lobby politicians to change laws

that allow this marketing technique.

You can read more about greenw

ashing on:w

ww.sinsofgreenw

ashing.org

Check:

¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦

¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦

¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦

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So finally, WTF is sustainable development, again?!As we mentioned in the first chapter of this booklet (page 5), the most

commonly used definition of Sustainable development is the one produced

by the United Nations in 1987. However other people were also thinking

in this direction…

“We developed from stone age not because we ran out of stones, but because

we found and started using something better, metals. That’s what we need to do

in the case of the today’s carbon base society.”

(Lucka Kajfez Bogataj, IPCC

member)

“Sustainable development means that we use our unlimited brain capacity instead of our limited natural resources.” (Juha Sipila, Finnish politician)

“Our problems are man

-made, therefore they may be

solved by man.” (John F. Kennedy,

former U.S. president)

“Don’t save the planet, save your asses! The planet will stay; you are the one that is not going to survive!” (Unknown author)

ˇˇ

“Sustainability is to leave the world better than you found it, take no more than you need, try not to harm life of the environment, make amends if you do."

(Paul Hawken, environmentalist)

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If you want to know even more about what sustainable development, climate change and active citizenship really is, check on

www.sustain-ability.sifor the latest updates.

¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦

¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦

• www.mysteriousplaces.com• www.sustainablefootprints.org• ”International trade and

growth” book by Victor D. Norman.

• www.tutor2.net.• www.etiskforbruker.no• Ethical consumer – a project by

WWF, Oikos and Fairtrade.• www.mindfully.org

• Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

• www.CO2now.org• The Met Office Hadley Centre• www.nature.org• ”Lobbying in EU”, www.

foeeurope.org• www.sourcewatch.org• www.sinsofgreenwashing.org• www.stopgreenwash.org

No Excuse Slovenia aims to a positive social change and personal growth of young people. It fosters their social participation and activation of their peers. By peer-to-peer and intergenerational dialogue it raises awareness

about current topics and encourages young people’s critical thinking.

Through various projects the organization promotes and advocates for sustainable development, tolerance, healthy lifestyles, active citizenship

and inclusion of young people with fewer opportunities in the society.

No Excuse Slovenia is an apolitical and a non-profit making organization.

About the organization: No Excuse Slovenia

Where did we find the information?

REPUBLIKA SLOVENIJAMINISTRSTVO ZA ŠOLSTVO IN ŠPORT

URAD ZA MLADINO

This project has beed founded with support from the European Commission. This publication relfects only the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained inthere.