SIR CHARLES FRASER, KCVO

He argued that the land had undergone repeated cycles of decay and renewal and concluded that the Earth showed no vestige of a beginning and no prospect an end. He considered that Earth was a self-regulating super-organism, capable of maintaining plant and animal life during indefinite successions of ages.

What would James Hutton have made of the concept of sustainable development? How would the explosion in the world’s population in the Twentieth Century have altered his thinking?

On the 1st April this year I retired as the Chairman of the Secretary of State’s Advisory Group on Sustainable Development. Three years ago the task of the committee seemed a daunting one and the mood of the committee was not optimistic. Much has changed during these three years. There is now a most influential Sustainable Development Team in The Scottish Office; Ministers regularly make reference to the subject in their speeches and it is clearly and firmly at the heart of all policy making.

"Each one of us, be it in Government, local government, education or in business or perhaps just as importantly as individuals, has a meaningful part to play in the practice of sustainable development."

Three years ago business lacked awareness of sustainable development and a few companies tholed their conscience by making token reference to the environment to evidence their green credentials. Now from giants like Shell and ScottishPower down to the small and medium sized businesses, there is evidence of an awareness that sustainable development policies are good business. Where electric cars were once but milk floats they are now seen as the cars of tomorrow and the major car manufacturers, with perhaps General Motors and Toyota in the lead, race towards production of the final efficient vehicle.

A few recent headlines taken at random from the press show the new attitudes of industry. "Shell breaks ranks in global warming rift from Global Climate Coalition" (a lobby group which campaigns against measures aimed at global warming) "Eco Taxes will cut costs and create jobs". "Tesco signs first carbon storage contract". "I see Green Energy....". "Guess who’s investing over £600 million to get cars off London’s roads? -B. A.A". These headlines surely evidence the change which I am attempting to describe.

James Hutton was not only a man of ideas, he was a practical farmer in Berwickshire and he wrote a thesis on the circulation of blood. He started the commercial production of Salammoniac and he was an active Director of The Forth and Clyde Canal Company. He gazed up at the Salisbury Crags and he wondered, but he did so much than just wonder.

Hutton lived in a century when the world’s population had not exploded in numbers as is the case today. We still believe that the world is a self-regulating super-organism, but as we approach the millennium we now accept, (as Hutton would surely have recognised) that, in our over-populated planet, mankind, if it is to survive, has a vital role to play in the self-regulation that Hutton saw so clearly. So I leave office as Chairman of the Advisory Group much more optimistic than when we started work three years ago.

From the New Parliament Building at Holyrood or from the exciting new Dynamic Earth building of which I am presently Chairman, we will be able, like Hutton, to gaze up at The Salisbury Crags and, like him, we will wonder about the origins of the Earth and its future. But like that great polymath, we must do more that just wonder. Each one of us, be it in Government, local government, education or in business or perhaps just as importantly as individuals, has a meaningful part to play in the practice of sustainable development. This is indeed No Small Change, but will be recognised by our grandchildren as the beginning of the programme which will ensure, in Hutton’s words, that the Earth will have no prospect of an end.

Sir Charles Fraser was Chairman of the Secretary of State’s Advisory Group on Sustainable Development 1995-1998.