Joined: Mar 04, 2005 Posts: 2570 Location: New Zealand
Posted: Sat Jan 12, 2008 8:00 pm Post subject: State of the world: Shifting to sustainability?
State of the world: Shifting to sustainability?
Quote:
Innovations from around the globe have environmentalists optimistic that we’re on the path to sustainability. A sustainable global economy would create both wealth and well being for rich and poor alike, while maintaining the global ecosystem that underlies (and makes possible) the global economy.
That was the message from the experts at The Worldwatch Institute, an environmental and sustainability think tank that unveiled its ‘State of the World 2008: Innovations for a Sustainable Economy’report January 9 at a press conference at the National Press Club in Washington.
The report, which is a 269-page book written by 19 authors from around the world, says two contradictory trends define the state of the world this year: Environmental degradation threatens the global economy, while a rising wave of innovation promises to create a sustainable global economy that will benefit both man and planet.
earthsky _________________ Human history becomes more and more a race between education and catastrophe. H. G. Wells.
Fatih Birol's motto: leave oil before it leaves us.
Posted: Sun Jan 13, 2008 7:01 am Post subject: Re: State of the world: Shifting to sustainability?
I'd love to share their optimism but I'm a realist.
I think we're miles from sustainability, collectively we haven't even begun to rethink how we can live at a sustainable level and we're already pretty much out of time. We will invite massive warming whether we clean up or not, I don't like it but there it is.
This juggernaut is going over the edge of the energy\climate cliff.
Joined: Jul 12, 2006 Posts: 84 Location: Auckland, New Zealand
Posted: Sun Jan 13, 2008 8:36 pm Post subject: Re: State of the world: Shifting to sustainability?
There would not appear to be any evidence to support the notion that humanity is moving toward sustainability. Quite the opposite.
We have oil, coal, and natural gas being consumed at far greater rates than they are being formed. We have fish stocks depleting so rapidly that species which once seemed bountiful are now faced with possibly even extinction - consider, for example, warnings over some varieties of tuna. We are chopping and burning down forests at an alarming rate. Some nations are increasingly turning to nuclear power, with the nuclear waste issue having still not been fully resolved. Water resources are being depleted, polluted, and mismanaged, and are projected to be unable to continue to support a growing human population. Food prices have been rising dramatically lately due to supply struggling to keep up with demand, with warnings that the situation may well worsen - particularly as the decreasing supplies of oil and gas impact upon our ability to produce sufficient quantities of fertilisers and other agrichemicals.
Joy over moves toward sustainability would seem to be, at best, misplaced and mistimed.
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