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Artists save the world?

By: Emma Safe

"Imagine an ecological city, where communities are based on voluntary cooperation not competition, mutual aid not private profit, cultural diversity not globalised monoculture, permaculture not consumer culture".¹

This rosy vision of environmental repair seems hopelessly remote and unlikely to gain in proximity given our current political climate. As the pre-election party-political soap opera unfolds, public scepticism of the government's sincerity in their concern for the environment deepens. If Tony Blair really is genuine when he states that "we have fundamentally to change the way in which we run our economy, run our society" in order to avoid ecological catastrophe2 then one can only assume that his levels of legislative paperwork must be holding up progress. The government's annual report on sustainable development Achieving a Better Quality of Life, published earlier this year, shows scant levels of development in a number of critical environmental areas. Although some advancement is reported in the reduction of river and air pollution, road traffic has continued to grow and both wildlife and waste indicators have continued to deteriorate. The future seems bleak; currently Britain will not meet its target ten per cent energy from renewable sources by 2010, making climatic catastrophe an ever-rising threat. Many new road schemes and bypasses seem set to go ahead – mostly...

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