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dignity depend on massive fossil fuel consumption, industrial agriculture, waste, or the command-and-control infrastructure of large dams, nuclear power, and sprawling mega-cities. Quite the opposite in fact. In policy circles, "the right to development" may mean the right to pollute as the Northern countries have; but for peasants and indigenous peoples, by and large, the right to development means the right to merge age-old traditions and systems of ownership and authority with the modern practices that complement, foster, and enhance them. In other words, a just transition to a post-carbon world requires precisely the kinds of strategies that have sustained land-based peoples for millennia, accompanied by the best sustainable technologies current science has to offer: organic subsistence agriculture plus fair trade; seed sovereignty ensured by genetic testing of seed stocks; locally produced electricity via wind, solar, and biogas; collective (public) transportation powered by waste oil; local water stewardship enhanced by low-cost water treatment.

Only by making all of these changes at once, and by taking the lead from the grassroots movements proposing them, can all of us, together, transform the current climate regime into one that offers real ecological security for all.

Learn more about this author, Jeff Conant.
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