Personal Profile

My name is Ton Bührs. Born and raised in the Netherlands, a small country, I have had a keen interest in global affairs for as long as I can remember. I developed that interest by studying Political and Social Sciences at the University of Amsterdam. At the time, this was a new and unique degree, as it took a broad, multidisciplinary approach encompassing political studies, political philosophy, economics, sociology, international relations, history, and social science research methods. I greatly enjoyed it, and crossing disciplinary boundaries became a cornerstone of my formation and way of seeing the world. I brought this outlook and approach to my teaching of social studies at a secondary school (for three years) and social issues at a tertiary institution for social workers (for seven years), both in the Netherlands. For various reasons, in 1984, I moved with my family (wife and two young children) to New Zealand. In 1985, I embarked on a PhD at the University of Auckland in the area of environmental politics and policy, with a particular focus on the role of New Zealand’s Commission for the Environment (Working within Limits), the predecessor of the Ministry for the Environment. My motivation for choosing this topic was inspired by the environmental mess that had been created in the Netherlands, as well as by the Dutch government’s ambitious approach to cleaning up that mess. I was keen to find out whether or to what extent New Zealand (through the Commission for the Environment) was learning from such overseas experiences, and was putting in place institutions and policies that would prevent the country from getting into a similar environmental mess.

The significant institutional and policy changes that the New Zealand (Fourth Labour) government introduced from 1984, notwithstanding the neoliberal ideology and principles on which the reforms were based, seemed to hold some promise on this front that I explored in a book co-written with Robert (Bob) Bartlett (New Zealand’s Environmental Policy – the Politics of Clean and Green?). It did not take long for this hope to be dashed, and much of my subsequent writing on New Zealand’s environmental policy efforts has focused on analysing their limitations and shortcomings.

This focus was also central to my lecturing at Lincoln University, where I served as a staff member from 1991 to 2014. Again, I was motivated by the idea (and hope) that it would be possible to influence and improve the ways New Zealand governments approached the environmental challenge, notably through the efforts of well-equipped graduates (of the MSc Resource Management degree, which was later changed into a Master of Environmental Policy) who gained positions as environmental policy analysts at all levels of government. Call it a naive belief in the idea that policies can be significantly improved from within the system (by a “march through the institutions”). Still, at the time, it was hard to believe that there was a more viable and effective alternative. One of the main insights I sought to convey to my students and in my writing was the need for a more comprehensive and integrated approach to environmental issues. However, it appears that my efforts on this front have been fruitless, despite the no doubt good work undertaken by many of these graduates. In my book Environmental Integration: Our Common Challenge, I analysed a broad spectrum of means that governments around the world have used to integrate environmental concerns into their policies and systems. Regrettably, I had to conclude that by far most of these efforts had been ineffective, mainly due to how they were (and still are) designed not to threaten powerful interests.

The ongoing failures of governments to seriously address the environmental challenge led me to delve deeper into the politics of environmental integration and the systemic causes of these failures. My focus shifted from the realm of (environmental) policy towards the political, economic, and socio-cultural obstacles that stand in the way of meaningful (transformative or systemic) changes that are required to halt the global slide towards the environmental abyss. The results of this exploration can be found in  A Planetary Tragedy. Why Humanity Fails the Environmental Challenge. In this book, I conclude that the primary reasons why governments’ environmental policy efforts have failed are indeed systemic. The dominant economic systems generate an ongoing flood of environmental pressures, while (most) political systems are incapable of adopting the comprehensive, integrated and long-term approach that is needed to address environmental problems effectively. All existing political-economic systems contain strongly intertwined obstacles to the required fundamental changes. It is very difficult to see how these obstacles can be overcome, barring the collapse of these systems, which may be triggered by worsening environmental conditions. In the book, I propose an idea aimed at making it possible to introduce systemic changes through democratic and peaceful means. But I realise that this is a long shot.

Contacting me

Comments and/or questions about this website, particular pages, or topics are welcome. Please email buhrs2050@gmail.com, and I will respond as soon as I can.