Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Illia State University March 21, 2013 Tbilisi, Georgia Dr. Rob Melnick, Executive Dean and Presidential Professor Global Institute of Sustainability/School of Sustainability Arizona State University, U.S.A.
The power of population is indefinitely greater than the power in the earth to produce subsistence for man.
overshoot and collapse of the global system by the mid to latter part of the 21st century.
Technology will dissipate the threat of an energy crisis, reduce pollution, feed the world, and vastly improve the quality of life.
Our current model of economic success is flawed. For the advanced economies prosperity without growth is a financial and ecological necessity.
1941
2004
It took the United States 300 years to reach 300 billion square feet of real estate. China will add 300 billion square feet of real estate in the next 20 years.
Population growth
2 Earths?
Premier Wen Jiabao has been widely quoted as saying the Chinese economy is unbalanced, uncoordinated and unsustainable. Growth will be necessary to create jobs, opportunities, and wealth. What must happen is a redefinition of growthas Wen has pointed outensuring and improving peoples wellbeing as the starting point and goal
Can China Get Beyond Growth? Pamela Mar, Fung Global Institute, March, 2013
Assumption of infinite, linear economic growth must evolve to new models of joint, interactive, non-linear social-economic-ecological systems.
Aggarwal 2012
Tier 3
Tier 2
Eco-efficiency
Tier 1
Minimal, if any
Whats at stake?
Consequences of climate change Extreme poverty Energy supply Public health Security Civil society
Food security
Water supply
How do we bring about positive social and economic transformations while respecting critical planetary boundaries?
Development: A process of evolution, from a lower to a higher state. Underdeveloped: Not yet fully actualized. Not on the same path of modernization as Western countries. Sustainable development: Trajectory where allocation of resources (natural, financial, human) indefinitely improves the quality of life without doing damage.
Spans boundaries
Anticipates the future Engages stakeholders Values-driven Analyzes tradeoffs
design healthy cities? secure affordable energy for a growing population? make the best use of natural resources? ensure access to clean water? adapt to climate change?
create sustainable global development? understand social transformation? balance prosperity with social and environmental justice? determine which tradeoffs to make?
Sustainable development is just a preference for the natural over the artificial
Economic dynamism can be combined with environmental and social responsibility. High financial returns can go hand in hand with respect for human rights, and the preservation of the planets natural resources.
David Miliband, former UK Foreign Minister
(*Logo from the IESE Doing Good and Doing Well Conference)
Global Institute of Sustainability/School of Sustainability/Arizona State University
Sustainability Science a field defined by the problems it addresses rather than by the disciplines it employs, it advances both knowledge and action by creating a dynamic bridge between the two.
Adapted from Clark, Harvard University, 2007
Dire Predictions Incorrect Expend lots of money and political capital for no reason
We Dont Act
Things turn out okay and save lots of money and political capital
Meeting the needs of present generations, while not compromising the needs of future generations to meet their own needs.
United Nations Brundtland Commission
Need to redefine what we mean by development. It is no longer relevant only for poor countries.
Indicators of development: poverty/income, equality, liberty, condition of the environment, literacy, consumption, others.
Redesign Commerce
Culture/History
Values/Norms
Political System
Demographics
Geography
We are seeing the birth of a new perspective of the world, where ecology and economics are two sides of the same coin.
Leif Johansson, Swedish CEO
Sustainability Science
Sustainable Development?
Focuses on humantechnology-environment interactions Focuses on utilization of knowledge Placed-based scale and global scale Core aim that cuts across all challenges: sustainability is the outcome
Culture can be a the source of unsustainable practices. An unrestrained culture of consumption Culture can lead to sustainable development. A new culture of conservation Applying sustainabilty principles confronts issues of culture and values.
(Adapted from Cardenas, Golub, Hirt, McGregor 2012)
Sustain what?
Why? For whos benefit?