Stinking green greed?

Filed in archive Sustainable Development on July 7, 2006

(From the announcement of the Volvo Environment Prize)

First thing of note today, Publius Pundit's Robert Mayer is reporting from Honduras and from the post we get some comparisons about eco-friendly tourist development and a more slash-and-burn type quick development. Though Robert seems pretty upbeat here about one resort, I can't help but think that the other resorts are more the norm with their garishness and unstustainability.

Standing on the balcony and looking out over the trees and to the ocean, words escaped me. It was a merging of modern man and nature in its purest form, a vision more stunning than the simple untamed wild or the concrete jungle. It's the future. Who said the earth had to be destroyed in order to reap profits from it?

We can't forget that five years ago there was nothing there on that island, at least no major development. I don't see how one small resort with good practices outweighs the rest of the resorts with their bad practices that he describes. If that's the future, it's not much better than the present. Better yet to have a plan in place before the development occurs, otherwise you're going to have people with the social ethic do their thing and the rest cut corners knowing they'll make a buck anyway. Plus, I tend to think even high end eco-tourism ventures also attract more not-so-eco-friendly developments partly because they see that offering a lower cost resort they can take away some of that business. Or am I wrong about that? Sorry for being a Downer on this, but from what he's written here and from the pictures the place doesn't seem so different than other overdeveloped coastal tourist destinations. Also, it seems a bit odd that there's so much positive spin, at the same time there are passages like this:

The last we saw as we approached the end of the long line of resorts was the most bizarre of them all. It was under construction, but so far it looked like something out of the Flintstones. The stony looking water slide had a giant Lego sticker slapped on it.

"It's always the Americans that build these things. They're so bizarre, I just don't understand it!" Disbelief washed over his face. It was true, though. All three had been built by Americans and, largely, were the only ones that just didn't mesh.

Water slide? Lego sticker? It turns the stomach. The piece goes on to say that there is an association that meets to approve projects and make sure they fit with the ethic of preserving the environment of the island. If that's so, how did they approve the ones just mentioned above that are currently under construction? It doesn't make much sense.

Lights were out at ten, and the island went completely black. Lying in bed that night, the concept of eco-friendly investing really had got a hold of me. In a growingly post-materialist society, Wal-Mart would face greater competition from the Whole Foods of the world, where slightly higher prices not only buy you more personable service, but a cleaner environment as well. Developing countries nowadays can do so without adversely affecting their environments as they did in years past. It really is the future.

For all it's good intent, I come away from this piece thinking that it's more whitewash than anything. Instead of the intended positive feeling for eco-friendly tourism that the piece is supposed to promote, I have an overall negative feeling that he chose the wrong place to write about. Or at the very least, that his triumphalism has outpaced the actual reality of the situation. Sure, he's found the diamond in the rough, but that doesn't mean the rough automatically turns into a diamonds as well.

In other news ...

*"I would not say that conserving the environment and quickly spreading benefits in an equitable manner is a utopian vision - but it is certainly a challenge!" says Douglas Hainsworth at EcoClub.

*Arise Technologies says it has secured a commitment from Sustainable Development Technology Canada (SDTC), to provide $6.5 million of funding for Arise's $19.8 million project to develop and demonstrate a new approach for refining high purity solar grade silicon.

*Residential green building conference comes to San Francisco September 28-30.

*4Nonprofits lets us know that the Purpose Prize finalists have been announced.

*The William Davidson Institute has created web pages chronicling their recent Base of the Pyramid (BoP) research conference.

*Net Impact will hold its annual conference at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University on October 27-29.

*Twelve young German environmentalists attend eco-camp in Malaysia.