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What are the roads to sustainability?

I am currently preparing for an education programme on education for sustainable development that will start in 2 weeks.

I just finished reading the first chapter of a book series on spreading sustainability awareness in Germany. It was quite often quoted in the sustainability scene in Germany in 2007: http://www.forum-fuer-verantwortung.de/nachhaltigkeit_b_e.htm

The first book asks the reader “With how much can the earth cope?” In the introduction, 10 questions are being raised that I would simply like to share with you:

  1. What future do we want?
  2. What does global change mean?
  3. Is the situation really that dramatic or do we have time to act?
  4. What are the driving forces behind environmental changes?
  5. Why do industrial countries have to reduce the consumption of resources?
  6. Are technological innovations enough to reduce resource consumption?
  7. Do we have to keep growing economically in order to maintain our living standards?
  8. What is sustainable development?
  9. Isn’t it up to politicians to implement sustainable development?
  10. What can we do?

posted by Frauke Godat on 1/ 6/2008 8:38 pm | COMMENTS (4)
Comments (4)

While I can appreciate all of the research to come up with technological advances to deal with global warming and the perfect storm of events leading to the destruction of the planet as we know it. In fact, reading ODE magazine, and listening to the wonderful talks at www.Ted.com gives me some hope. However, the gorilla in the room is still and always will be OVERpopulation. There are twice the number on the planet that there were when I was born in 1951 - and despite tsunamis, wars, earthquakes, aids, starvation - all terrible ways that limit population growth, there are too many people and too many people reproducing!

Until we address the fact that all of these new people will need to eat: and many will strive for the western ways of life with limited resources being left on the planet; including polluted water, loss of topsoil, human greed and unwillingness to share resources. Most approaches to deal with sustainability will be like putting a bandaid on a metastatic cancer!

That being said, each one of us must make a personal effort to lower our carbon footprint, and educate others. In the first world countries, our vote is with our money - for the things that we will and will not buy: informing manufacturers of the reasons why we refuse to encourage wasteful, polluting and irresponsible purchases.

posted by GreenScribe on 6/13/2008 2:15 pm

Fueling Over Population There are several discussions on over population at www.earthsayers.tv as it relates spefically to sustainability. Having reviewed these discussions for inclusion as content on our Website (we will be updating the site by July 4th), I was heavily influenced by Ishmael author Daniel Quinn's perspective.

He discusses the misconceptions about agriculture and our odd notions that it all belongs to "us." We can do what we want and no one else can touch it: a totalitarian mindset and a disaster primarily because it has fueled this tremendous population growth which is catching up with our food production, not the opposite. A food race of sorts that we need to quit.

Root Problem A second, equally challenging discussion is by Dr. John H. Tanton who after years of conservation work in his local community, came to the conclusion that his focus had to change to the problem of "ever expanding populution." This led to his and his wife's work with Planned Parenthood. He references the PopulationResource Bureau (www.prb.org) as a resource that heavily influenced his thinking.

Both of these videos are available (July 4th) at www.Earthsayers.tv and may be found by searching on over-population or the names of the EarthSayers, Quinn and Tanton.

posted by mokiethecat on 6/29/2008 7:38 pm

posted by mokiethecat on 7/23/2008 2:49 pm

Working with what (who) is here: The median age of affluent boomers is 47. The largest bulge of boomers are turning 50 this year. And, from Advertising Age, "The average U.S. head of household is now nearly 50 years old (49.5, to be precise). More than 80% of the growth in the number of households in the next five years will be among those headed by people 55 and older."

posted by mokiethecat on 7/23/2008 2:51 pm

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