In essence, The Green Valleys is a concept. It isn’t a new concept, its one understood by our predecessors and by people across the world. It is simply this: we cannot live beyond our means. In fact, it is the crux of sustainability. We all understand this when we check our monthly bank balances, that we cannot spend more than we earn or else we will enter debt and be less able to meet the demands of the following month.

 

While we understand this on a personal level, many find it difficult to recognise that on a global level humanity is living beyond its means. Yet we see the effects of it daily, whether as increasing prices, environmental damage or social problems. The global picture seems too complicated, too large for an individual to have any effect or to take action to redress. We are daunted by the complexity of social systems, environmental systems and the global economy. Yet these incredibly complex systems really function on the same fundamental premise as ourselves: we cannot live beyond our means. It is the reduction of global issues into separate boxes that clouds our understanding of the issue as we focus on the contents of each box and not its position in relation to the other boxes.

 

Economists concentrate on the artificial concept of money and value, where growth is king, where if people have money their needs can be catered for and the environment is a resource to exploit. Humanists place people above our environment, not within it and while recognising economic factors, they fail to consider our dependence on the environment. Environmentalists recognise our place in the environment but, too often, fail to recognise underlying social or economic issues of which environmental degradation is merely a symptom.

 

It is the model of sustainability, the concept of environment, community and economy supporting and benefitting from each other that we need to foster. Yet our decision makers concentrate on one aspect at a time. They solve an economic problem with no thought of environmental or social effects, a community problem without considering the economic and environmental impacts and try to tackle environmental problems without involving people or any thought of how it can be made to benefit the economy. There is a continued failure to make these links and to tackle all three aspects simultaneously, while considering them all of equal importance.

 

We face many challenges at this point in human existence. We have social problems, environmental degradation and a stalled economy. We see our fuel and supermarket bills rise and our land, sea and air altered by our activity. We fear for our children in a future climate and wonder about the security of our jobs, the potential to lose our homes to flooding and whether the next generation will curse us for our excesses. We all know these issues, we see them on the news, see our politicians discuss them, see our scientists work to better understand them, yet we see the situation become worse and feel more and more helpless to act.

 

If our decision makers fail to act, how can we as individuals and communities?

The fact is we can, because we recognise the link between community, environment and economy. We see it in our towns and villages, discuss it in our pubs and shops and read it in our newspapers. We can act and we must act as we are the experts when it comes to our little patch of Earth we call home. It is our focus, we value it, consider it of importance and we know its key aspects, its problems and its opportunities. We place ourselves at the heart of this environment, we understand its economy and are part of its community. This is something we share with all the people of the world – we all have somewhere we call home. This is our opportunity and one we can share and replicate, not just throughout our region, our nation or continent, but we can share it with all the citizens of the world.

 

Welcome to The Green Valleys.