Marien, Michael. 1994b. "Infoglut and competing problems: Key barriers suggesting a new strategy for sustainability." Futures 26(2): 246-256.

Thesis:

The author discusses two key barriers to achieving sustainability: a glut of information from the new information technologies, and competing problems which seem more immediate. Marien concludes that we need "...a new strategy for sustainability that copes with infoglut by a major investment in effective outreach, and acknowledges competing problems by linking sustainability to these concerns" (p.246).

Summary:

Marien submits that in the near future, "it does not seem likely that most societies (especially the so-called 'developing' societies) will have evolved in any substantial manner towards any reasonable definition of sustainability" (pp.246-47). He outlines three scenarios, none of which he views as satisfactory, which he predicts are the probable future of the world's sustainability status (pp. 252-53). They are: (1) false success, in which there is a widespread feeling of activity and progress which downplays true threats; (2) mini-success/regress, in which "environmental progress is made on a few fronts, but off-set by worsening conditions in other areas"; and (3) evident regress, in which attention to environmental concerns is forfeited to other more immediate world problems, such as war, plagues, etc.

The author pinpoints two key problems that he argues contribute to the likelihood of any of the above scenarios characterizing the future. First, 'infoglut' "brought on by the burgeoning information society, creates a plethora of entertaining and commercial distractions from our many problems" and adds complexity to problems, making them more difficult to understand and address (p.253). Marien proposes that an outreach campaign should work to improve the social marketing of sustainability, the goal being to "mainstream the marginal (p.250). Among his suggestions are the following (250-51):

Aim crisp messages at broad audiences, e.g. publishing in the op-ed pages of major newspapers.

Publicly debate with anti-environmentalists, in order to sway neutral observers.

Boost a nationally syndicated green columnist.

Promote an annual 'Top Ten Greenlist of Books', comparable to the bestseller lists.

Promote green Nobel prizes.

Support widespread, multi-age civic education around sustainable living.

Promote a new sustainability-related labeling scheme for nations, rather than obsolete Cold War labels (First World, Third World) and economic labels (developed, developing).

A second barrier to sustainability, according to Marien, is the urgency of competing problems. These are issues which command much of the political energy and attention of citizens and public officials. They may be region specific, such as the abortion rights issue in the United States, or virtually universal, such as education, health, crime, economic stability, issues of ethnic and gender equality etc. Many of these issues seem more immediate or pressing than environmental sustainability, and it is often relegated to the 'back burner' of concerted public attention. In conjunction with this, is a "widespread tendency to discount the future" (p.251) Thus, "occurrences appearing to be far removed from one's immediate neighbourhood in space and time are heavily discounted" (p.251, drawing on Linstone, 1977). Marien proposes that environmentalists need to get involved in other issues, and to link those issues to sustainability concerns. This would serve to develop a broadly supported "coherent ideology for our times" (p.252, drawing on Paehlke, 1989).

Marien concludes by stating that similar to a global military operation, the movement for sustainability needs to conceive and implement a "broad, overall strategy to reposition itself for greater success" (p.254).

Keywords: infoglut, sustainabilty, public issues