Sustainable development can be defined as progress that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. This definition was developed in the World Commission on Environment and Development (The Brundtland Commission, 1987), based on three pillars: economic growth, social inclusion and environmental balance. Over the past decade, voices from different parts of society began to question the validity of the current definition of sustainable development. They argue that the three pillars no longer reflect all the dimensions of our global societies and propose the addition of the cultural dimension to be included in sustainable development.
Building on the longstanding work of the UCLG Committee on Culture and UNESCO’s Universal Declaration on Cultural Diversity (2001) and Convention on the Diversity of Cultural Expressions (2005), the Executive Bureau of United Cities and Local Governments agreed at its meeting in Chicago to mandate the Committee on Culture to develop a Policy Statement on “Culture as the Fourth Pillar of Sustainable Development” for adoption following consultations at the Mexico meetings.
In my opinion, the maintenance of linguistic diversity plays the most significant role in the protection of cultural diversity. Language is not only the carrier of human culture but also the important part of that. Stories, myths, legends, fables, poetry, song lyrics, riddles, drama and other types of literary works rely on language to express. Language also accumulates the national culture and rich history. The knowledge and experience for thousands of years of a nation or a group are stored in their own languages. Relay on oral transmission and written records from generation to generation, finally are able to transcend time and space to spread. Therefore, the language as a carrier represents more than a simple cultural phenomenon, but the history of the people and the reality of the sum of all knowledge. Thereby, the decline of the language is an irreparable damage to the group or nation.
According to a research made by UNESCO recently, with the development of globalization in depth, many of the world's 2,500 languages are now facing extinction. This number exceeds one third of the total number of the world’s languages, also has increased several times comparing that released in 2001. In the world today, there are about 200 languages which have users fewer than 12 people. Over the past 90 years, 200 languages have disappeared. A rating scale published by UNESCO shows that 538 kinds of language facing extreme danger of extinction, 502 kinds facing serious risk of extinction, 632 kinds have precise risk of extinction, 607 kinds have possible existence of extinction. Shocking by these numbers, since 1980s, more and more people devote to rescue the world's endangered languages. UNESCO also initiated the setting of the "International Mother Language Day", which is designed to help people to understand the status quo of the world’s culture, and promote language and cultural diversity. However, nowadays, the actuality of the protection of endangered languages around the world is also not optimistic.
In this era of globalization, the world is becoming a "global village." we not only see a picture of a cross-border co-operation of science and technology, a picture of communication beyond the national boundaries and more opportunities for cultural exchange in the international community, but also should be noticed that the diversity of political and cultural nationalization is facing a growing threat: the strong civilization suppress other civilizations.The diversity of civilizations increasingly weakened, leading to irretrievably lost of mankind's political, cultural resources. The earliest and the fastest impact of that is the loss of the languages of disadvantaged groups. In order to integrate into the globalization, it is necessary for the backward areas to communicate with the outside world. Language is the most convenient and the most important tool. Therefore, learn and master the common language has become their most pressing needs. Moreover, the highly demand of the common languages in new way of communication such as radio, television, Internet and mobile communications strengthen further the role it plays. The indigenous language of communication functions will gradually diminish, or even in the same ethnic group emerged in the lingua franca of the results of alternative language, which accelerated the demise of their mother tongue.
Someone argues that, with the common language, it offers a series of advantages to the future development of the world. However, linguistic diversity, also culture diversity, with the same importance of the biological species diversity, is a valuable asset of human civilization and the ecology. Thanks to diversification, human civilization has shown both varied and vitality. Greece to study in Egypt, Rome from Greece, the Arab reference to the Roman Empire, medieval Europe, they imitate the Arab, and Renaissance Europe, to follow the Byzantine Empire. The exchange between different cultures in the past has been repeatedly proven to be a milestone in the development of human civilization.
photo by Maro Hass/istockphoto.com
To know more
Linkages Between Biodiversity and Cultural Diversity
Atlas of Languages In Danger
Measuring Linguistic Diversity on Internet
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