Is sustainable development an oxymoron

This semester, Teresa Giménez, director of the Spanish Language Program and lecturer in foreign languages in the School of Arts & Sciences, is teaching a course about sustainable development and culture in Latin America. The course exposes students to the environmental, economic, and social facets of this type of development through an examination of regional agricultural scenarios. For example, global conglomerates reap huge profits off the sale of coffee grown in Costa Rica, yet farming the beans is no longer a way for the country's people to make a sustainable living.

Giménez addresses the Costa Rica example further. "The sustainability issue here comes from the fact that modern development is unequal. In Costa Rica, most of the coffee producers are smallholders. Coffee prices are highly volatile, and the crop is mainly exported raw and processed in Europe or the United States where big, multinational companies make a huge profit. But the growers of coffee in Costa Rica are not making a living, which is a part of sustainability that can get overlooked. Costa Rica's coffee culture is kind of disappearing because parents don't want their kids to grow coffee and be unable to make a living."

She adds, "Another side of sustainability focuses on environmental considerations, and when you can't make a living, it's hard to put in place sustainable practices because they're expensive."

Giménez argues that the term "sustainable development" itself is an oxymoron.

"In practice, economic growth often requires resource consumption and environmental impact, which can undermine sustainability," explains Giménez. "This tension is particularly evident in many Latin American economies, which are highly dependent on exporting raw materials. Countries such as Ecuador, Bolivia, and Mexico rely on oil, gas, and minerals to drive their economies. Extractive industries also have significant social impacts, often leading to the displacement of Indigenous communities, health problems, and conflicts over land rights."

This story is by Katelyn Silva. Read more at Omnia.