{"id":3256,"date":"2009-05-28T15:08:01","date_gmt":"2009-05-28T19:08:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/?p=3256"},"modified":"2009-05-29T15:10:14","modified_gmt":"2009-05-29T19:10:14","slug":"bono-discovers-sustainable-development-isn%e2%80%99t-sustainable","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/2009\/05\/bono-discovers-sustainable-development-isn%e2%80%99t-sustainable\/","title":{"rendered":"Bono Discovers Sustainable Development Isn\u2019t Sustainable"},"content":{"rendered":"

Breitbart<\/a> | Phelim McAleer & Ann McElhinney\u200f | May 20, 2009<\/p>\n

THE BIG problem with renewable energy is that it just doesn\u2019t renew itself. The sun does not shine enough and the wind doesn\u2019t blow enough to power the towns, cities, factories, hospitals and schools that make our lives so livable.<\/p>\n

No environmentalist would ever allow their child to be treated in a hospital fully powered by \u201crenewables\u201d. They would not take the risk that the wind might stop whilst their baby was on the operating table. They would insist that the hospital and the life support systems had a fossil fuel powered back-up. <\/p>\n

And so it is with \u201csustainable development\u201d. It just isn\u2019t sustainable. At least it does not sustain a lifestyle that those who promote it would consider acceptable for themselves. But of course that is the key. Renewable energy and sustainable development are for \u201cother people\u201d.<\/p>\n

Even though environmentalists come from societies and very often families that became rich because of their use of non-renewable energy and unsustainable development they will not allow these opportunities to be extended to the poor in the developing world.<\/p>\n

Environmentalists come from wealthy societies and families who cut down forests and burned coal and oil to make their families and societies healthy and prosperous. But, nowadays, for the poor in Africa and Asia and even middle America their path out of poverty must be \u201csustainable.\u201d No fossil fuels or factories for them. But what this really means is sustainable poverty. It is a system that condemns people to a lifetime of drudgery and subsistence farming because modernity and industrialisation is \u201cunsustainable.\u201d<\/p>\n

Which brings me to Bono, the lead singer of rock band U2 and more lately a campaigner for sustainable development in Africa, Asia and south America. In 2005 Bono and his wife Ali Hewson set up Edun a clothing range that was going to prove there is a different way to end poverty. It was going to be a non-corporate and of course \u201csustainable\u201d.<\/p>\n

At he time MSNBC said it would be \u201cclothing with a conscience\u201d. Vogue magazine said Edun was going to \u201cflip capitalism on its head\u201d.<\/p>\n

But now it seems that Bono has now discovered that big companies with their big carbon footprints are useful if you want to keep paying the wages and produce the goods and sell them. Last week the rock star announced he has sold out to LVMH, the worlds largest luxury goods company. Announcing the deal Bono all but admitted that his touchy feely version of capitalism and development just didn\u2019t work. Selling out to LVMH was a great deal, said Bono, and would \u201cbring greater and longer-term stability to our manufacturers and the communities they support\u201d.<\/p>\n

In other words my Clooneyesc view of business is plain wrong and I now have to admit that I can\u2019t pay the workers salaries without a proper business running the company. They, with their international marketing skills and economies of scale will make the business truly sustainable \u2013 that is \u2013 they will ensure that the workers have work and a salary every week and for years to come.<\/p>\n

It is an admission that capitalism works and is the only way to ensure a better future for some of the world\u2019s poorest people. <\/p>\n

. . . more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Breitbart | Phelim McAleer & Ann McElhinney\u200f | May 20, 2009 THE BIG problem with renewable energy is that it just doesn\u2019t renew itself. The sun does not shine enough and the wind doesn\u2019t blow enough to power the towns, cities, factories, hospitals and schools that make our lives so livable. No environmentalist would ever … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":497,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"generate_page_header":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[88,87,72],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3256","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-capitalism","category-economics","category-leftism"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3256","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/497"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3256"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3256\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3256"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3256"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3256"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}