Analysis : Industrial Ecology versus Sustainable Development?

Monday evening, a meeting on industrial ecology was held outside the Assembly work. As early as 1995, the FPH launched a Workshop on this new way of thinking industrial systems, which resulted, among others, in the publication of the work, "Toward an Industrial Ecology" (Suren Erkman, 1998, Edition Charles Léopold Mayer) and of an issue of Proposal Papers on this topic (distributed along with the other Proposal Papers during the Assembly).
Industrial ecology starts from the finding that our output-intensive society causes constant growth in the flows of matter and energy: natural resources are drawn and "waste" is rejected. To replace this type of approach to processing "end of pipe" pollution, which only acts upon the output of the production process, industrial ecology tries to rethink the production system and the whole of human production activities as an ecosystem, with as its aim to consolidate it. Such stabilization supposes capturing the flows of matter and energy, starting, among others, with the use of waste as raw materials.

The meeting was attended by several researchers of different disciplines (scientists, sociologists, etc.) who came to present different initiatives. Another aspect of the discussion had to do with the concept itself. This is a true philosophy, a new way of conceptualizing industrial production, development, our relation to the environment, and more deeply, our place in the natural order.

Several evolutions were observed: first, the recent integration of the concept of industrial ecology into the legislation of the county of Geneva; the creation of an organization for the promotion of the sustainable development and industrial ecology in France, under the sponsorship of the French state utility EDF; the launching of an international Society for industrial ecology this year...

This concept currently appears as one of the most concrete routes for the application of the principles of sustainable development. Will it appear in the declarations and international conventions to come ("Rio +10" Summit in Johannesburg in 2002...)?

The meeting was concluded with Suren Erkman's invitation to send him any comments and critiques inspired by the Proposal Papers drafted for the assembly, to improve it, to amend it, and to give it its final form in view of its ulterior publication (as for all the Alliance Proposal Papers, still temporary).

China experiencing freedom?
Journalists of the People's Daily organize every day between noon and three p.m. a discussion forum unique in the world. By opening www.people.com.cn, thousands of Web surfers, Chinese for the most part, chat on the topic of the day with the seven-hour time difference (it is evening in the Far East). The field of education allowed Edgar Morin to connect with 5,000 Chinese citizens. More than 2,000 questions were addressed to him in three hours! He had to answer, and his answers had to translated! Yesterday, Wednesday, 4,000 people held a talk on interreligious and cross-cultural issues… Every day, on of the Assembly guests goes to the Grand Palais and is enticed by this game of free speech.
A government newspaper founded in 1948, the People's Daily has a greater than three-million circulation and employs 500 journalists, 200 of which devote their energy to the Web site of the Communist Party's official paper, a Web site that has become the only open public forum in the country. What Westerner could have imagined just a few years ago that 700,000 Chinese citizens would log onto the Japanese Internet? This is a multimedia revolution! More than 100,000 people are subscribed to express themselves on the Internet, and often on issues that are hardly tolerated in the paper version of the daily. Words are chosen in order to avoid bad surprises. One doesn't say "democracy," but "participatory management by the inhabitants." For the first time, the Web site opened its discussion forum to people outside the country. A honor for all the members of the World Assembly.