Abstract
Rod Oram’s collection of three ‘postcards’ (p. 13), or short essays, is an exploration of the tenuous relationship between human beings and the environment in Beijing, London, and Chicago. Born and raised in the United Kingdom, spending more than 20 years working in Europe and North America, covering finance news in Asia, and immigrating to New Zealand in 1997, Oram is well-placed to understand a complex diversity of local perspectives and responses to global problems.
Oram argues that the sources of – and solutions to – these problems can be linked to human endeavour. Three Cities is a turbulent ride through the déjà vu of big city experiences. Each city has its own temporal, spatial, cultural, and economic dilemmas with damaging environmental impacts, yet somehow they are similar to other places we may know. Despite these thematic familiarities, the reading experience is not always predictable because it is often confronting and confusing, and at other times upbeat and optimistic
According to Oram, in Beijing, the business sector is debt-riddled, exports are slowing, and society is ageing. Government and business infrastructure stands idle due to overcapitalisation. Soil and air pollution levels are deadly and globally infamous. Oram’s onslaught of thick ‘facts’ in the Beijing chapter is sometimes overwhelming. But, as he says in the introduction, this is a postcard, and he makes ‘no attempt at a deep integrated roadmap of our future’ (p. 13). While readers are welcome to trust in Oram (or to suspend disbelief), they are also invited to undertake deeper research with the help of additional readings cited at the end of the book.
London is Oram’s second destination. Where Beijing is dense with statistics and fiscal data, London is thick with interpretive narrative. We are treated to Oram’s ringside anecdote of a celebration, held by the People’s Assembly Against Austerity, in response to Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour leadership victory. The faithful gather before former Greek finance minister and ‘Global Minotaur!’ Yanis Varoufakis (pp. 42–3), who rallies the assembled with impassioned warnings about ‘the cold breeze of disruptive technologies’ (p. 46) that threaten to strip them of jobs and relative worth – while acknowledging some of those technologies may alleviate the nation’s environmental problems.
Oram then segues neatly into ‘Doughnut Economics’ (p. 49), explored in conversation with self-proclaimed ‘renegade economist’ and proponent of Doughnut Economic theory, Kate Raworth. A Doughnut Economy is an analytical concept illustrated by one large circle within which there is a smaller circle. The large circle represents the extent to which a given environment can withstand pressures imposed by industry, and the inner circle represents society’s minimum required standards of living. The space between the two circles represents the place where society and environment can live compatibly. Oram shares Raworth’s vision of a doughnut model as a potential planning tool with which a society’s economic needs and environmental values, relative to each other, can be identified, charted, and discussed to find commonalities, differences, and opportunities for compromise and success (p. 51). Some examples of Doughnut Economics in practice relative to the UK capital might have made clearer its relevance to Oram’s postcard from London. Are the city’s planners using Doughnut Economics theory? Is this something that can be managed realistically at local government level (given London’s role in the global economy) or is it a matter for national planning? Or an amalgam of both?
Still in London, Oram meets scholars and industrialists who are trying to strike balance between economic and environmental needs. Economist Tim Jackson argues that the global financial crisis of 2008 is a clear indicator that western models of economic success are fundamentally flawed and need to be more sustainable (p. 54). And John Elkington, chair of a strategic advisory firm, advocates for more environmentally sustainable goods and services (p. 63). Each of Oram’s London subjects shares visions for more sustainable futures. Although lacking in examples of where their theories have been tested and proven, Oram’s postcard from London is one of optimism.
As Oram waits at Heathrow Airport for his flight from London to city number three, Chicago, he is reminded of how distant these environmental goals may be. Here, Oram learns that one of the world’s supposedly most environmentally conscious car manufacturers, Volkswagen, has been cheating vehicle emissions tests on a multi-billion euro scale (p. 73). A reminder that, for every thought forward in one place, there may be many steps backward in others.
Oram’s foray into Chicago strikes a balance between the overwhelmingly thick facts of Beijing, and the abstraction of London. He explores how the environmental movement in the United States led to the establishment of the Environmental Protection Agency. He also considers the conflicts of interest among university and research agency boards, where benefactors include those whose capital is derived from the extraction of non-renewable resources and polluting industries.
An important, repeated, and grounding angle adopted by Oram is his geographic reflexivity. He frequently considers the implications for, and possible responses by, New Zealand in response to practices and policies in Beijing, London, and Chicago. Oram (p. 41) expresses concerns about Chinese foreign direct investment in New Zealand’s dairy and housing industries, as well as the ‘brain drain’ as his country’s intellectual capital relocates to more lucrative markets in the United States (pp. 87–9).
Ultimately, this is a collection of short essays – or postcards – based on Oram’s informed perspective and reflections. It is not difficult to imagine them being published as separate opinion articles in a broadsheet newspaper. Each of the cities is treated very differently, which may reflect subjective bias or perhaps it is an honest representation of data as Oram found it in each city on this journey. Oram’s work is not a critical scholarly contribution to the literature on society, environment and economy, but nor is that his aim (p. 13). However, it makes for an excellent read on a long-haul flight – or maybe not, if one is moved to consider the carbon footprint of air travel.