Building with BRICSMichael J. Mortimer

Center for Leadership in Global Sustainability

The Center for Leadership in Global Sustainability (CLiGS), situated within Virginia Tech’s College of Natural Resources and Environment, provides education, research, and leadership needed to navigate a rapidly changing world. CLiGS is dedicated to exploring and facilitating interdisciplinary and collaborative approaches to sustainable development strategies in globally interconnected ecological, economic, and social environments. CLiGS offers a range of graduate education and professional development programs to prepare students and leaders in environmental and natural resource sustainability.

The Center is headquartered in Arlington, Virginia, just outside of Washington, DC.

www.cligs.vt.edu

About the Center

Michael J. Mortimer

Building with BRICSCenter for Leadership in Global Sustainability

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A late dinner among a few faculty in a Johannesburg airport seafood restaurant—as likely a place as any for the Center for Leadership in Global Sustainability (CLiGS) to begin embracing the notion of the BRICS. The BRICS acronym—for Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa—spawned from the need to represent the geopolitical bloc these five emerging economies represented on the world stage. Able to form a political and financial alternative to the Washington Consensus, these five countries also represented quite diverse cultures, global locations, and local sustainability challenges. At the same time, they jointly typified some of the most pressing issues en route to the world of 2050: increasing energy demands, drivers of and impacts from climate change, opportunities and concerns posed by a rising global middle class, water quantity and quality, biodiversity, food security; the list goes on. What better places for a group like CLiGS to start working?

There are dozens of such global framings (G8, G8+5, G20, the post-Cold War G-2, and even a G-Zero future world), each constructed in an attempt to sort and categorize the nations of the world according to similarities of interest and identity.

In 2013 CLiGS added two other countries—Indonesia and Turkey—to its BRICS equation, creating the BRICS-IT. These seven countries alone represent 46% of the world’s population, more than 25% of the globe’s land area, 44% of its carbon dioxide emissions, and 1/5 of the world’s total gross domestic product. Collectively—along with our work in the US—these states provide fertile ground for teaching, learning, and exploration of the CLiGS theme: Leadership for Sustainability.

But this book is not meant to photo-document the sustainability challenges and successes in these places. Nor is it a photo essay of the cultural complexity and environmental variability of these seven countries. It’s goal is more modest: to share some of the most photogenic places in which I’ve had the privilege to have worked over the last five years, and some musings on these seven countries. I hope to share some of the BRICS-IT as I see them. Think of this as a bit of a hedonistic visual journey, with a smidgen of learning along the way. Enjoy.

Building with BRICS

Introduction

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BrazilRussiaIndiaChinaSouth AfricaIndonesiaTurkey

BRICS-IT

Where in the World?

Brazil quite simply has it all—both the good and the bad. Huge, vibrant, and in many cases, very well-designed urban areas—facing difficult informal settlement and infrastructure challenges. Pristine tropical rain forests of unparalleled biodiversity—with erosive development pressures on all sides. Progressive legal and policy systems—but with one of the world’s greatest disparity between the the wealthy and the poor. If there’s a global sustainability challenge to be found, Brazil is facing it—and, one feels, might actually find a way to solve it.

Globally Microcosmic

Brazil

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Where does one begin with Russia? The largest country in the world, but not as large as it once was. The largest nuclear arsenal in the world, but still considered the Cold War’s loser. A vital energy producer to a democratic Europe, but at the same time exploiting the worst aspects of the Westphalian system in the European Union’s backyard. A former superpower, one that may be getting left in the economic and leadership wake of the other BRICS nations. Russia is in so many ways the dark horse of the 21st Century—hard to understand, and even harder to predict.

Tragic History; Uncertain Future

Russia

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India may be the most photogenic place anywhere to be found, where black & white film would be a futile and frustrating mistake. And not suprisingly. Nothing about India seems black & white—nor even grey. Everything about the country seems painted in swaths of dramatic color. Politics, cities, religion, its triumphs and failures—none are easily understood or easily categorized, but all are vibrant in their own ways. This vibrancy carries over to what many see as a bright future for this massive democracy that marches to its own drum.

In Living Color

India

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China does everything on a grand scale. But of course. How else would a culture responsible for the Great Wall and the Grand Canal do it? The astounding economic growth, unparalleled development of infrastructure, and the success in tackling poverty are visible everywhere. With more than 200 cities with populations greater than one million residents (the US has about 9), China operates at a scale that almost defies comprehension. The vast scale is matched only by the incredible pace at which these changes have occurred. This has all been at a cost however. China contends with one of the highest disparities between the wealthy and poor in the world, with dire water shortages, and with the pollution impacts of its industrialization and rapid urbanization—60% of groundwater and 20% of farmland polluted is nearly the stuff of legend. Pragmatism and time will tell how long this paradox continues to haunt the Middle Kingdom.

Big in China

China

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South Africa stands alone among the BRICS-IT as the land of hope. With its often sophisticated infrastructure, abundant and valuable resources, technological know-how, and advanced banking system, the country is unlike any other on the continent. And with the demise of Apartheid in 1994, the outlook for the future could not have been brighter. There remain struggles in bringing that future to fruition, but that’s what hope is all about.

Imagi-Nation

South Africa

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The Indonesian island of Bali evokes vivid images of a lush, tropical paradise—a land of simple pleasures, exotic temples, and pristine beaches. The reality, however, quickly pops that romantic balloon. This utopian imagery seems more and more the exception rather than the rule. Bali’s population density of 673 people/square kilometer far exceeds the Indonesian average of 124 people/square kilometer. That density intensity manifests in urban sprawl, land use conversion, extensive and intensive tourism development, severe waste disposal challenges, and institutional degradation of the socio-historic melding of religion and water sustainability—the subak.

Island nations face the particular triple challenge of climate change, resource scarcity, and population growth. Bali is no exception. What will be exceptional is if these challenges can be addressed in a way that reifies the romantic notions all the while ensuring space for modern island lifestyles. Paradise indeed.

Paradise Lost?

Indonesia

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Standing astride—figuratively and literally—Europe and Asia, the West and the East, Islam and Christianity, the past and the future, Turkey holds a perilous and precious paradoxical place in the world. With an ancient metropolis steeped in history but as cosmopolitan as any city you can ever visit, the fastest growing economy in Europe (and among the fastest in the world), and a landscape with the diversity of countries many times its size, Turkey is a modern marvel.

But like other emerging economies, Turkey faces the challenges and costs resulting from its own rapid success. Turbulent governance, air and water pollution, loss of biodiversity, land degradation, and mitigating for tourism exploitation all present obstacles for the future.

But just imagine if these challenges can be overcome—Turkey can be an icon for sustainable development on both sides of the Bosphorus.

Istanbul, not Constantinople

Turkey

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The conflagration that engulfed the ancient section of the Chinese town of Shangri-la (formerly Zhongdian) in January of 2014 was at once a tragedy—destroying most of the historic Tibetan old town and ruining the businesses and homes of hundreds of residents—but also an opportunity; an opportunity to thoughtfully consider the planning, design, and meaning of the eventual reconstruction.

Likewise, CLiGS has paused to consider the BRICS-IT framing I’ve described in this book. It is, after all, just one possible way of organizing the variability among the world’s 195 sovereign states. The goal of any of those framings is to be able to comprehend relationships and opportunities. What made sense five years ago as a way forward for our new center to make its way in the world may not make as much sense as it once did. Of course these countries have in no way become irrelevant or uninteresting during that time period. But the way that CLiGS is framing the future and its own global aspirations has begun to change.

Much of the Global 2050 story that CLiGS both subscribes to and is contributing to is premised upon where the people will be, where the cities will be growing, where the middle class will be rising, and where the resource demands, sustainability challenges—and the innovation opportunities—will be the most intense.

As CLiGS—and others—see the world, the places I just described will likely be in urban Asia and urban Africa. CLiGS has therefore revised its international framing for where we work and where we focus. Gone is the BRICS-IT, to be replaced by MISTIC—Morocco, India, South Africa, Turkey, Indonesia, and China. While lacking the notable concentration of resources and resource demands that the BRICS-IT represents, the MISTIC states present both a focus on the two key emerging continents (Asia and Africa), while simultaneously providing an even broader cross-section of the world’s states. Looking forward to sharing the next five years with you.

-Michael J. Mortimer

Afterword

From BRICS-IT to MISTIC

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Dr. Michael J. Mortimer is the founder and Director of the Center for Leadership in Global Sustainability.

He has traveled to more than 25 countries with camera in hand.

His work can be found at www.michaelmortimerphotography.com

About the Author

© 2014 Michael Mortimer