What does it take to create a sustainable future?
Here are the major issues: Global warming, environmental problems and poverty issues must be solved.
Climate Issues
The super-short version: Due to unprecedented greenhouse gas emission levels have soared (CO2 and others). The increased greenhouse gases in the atmosphere prevent infrared radiation from escaping to the same extent as before. This causes the temperature of the globe to rise and it will change the climate dramatically if the temperature rise does not come under control.
Solutions must be found in answer to the question: How do we get this man-made global warming slowed down by greatly reducing greenhouse gas emissions?
Environmental problems
The super-short version: There are limits to how much impacts of human activity that each global environmental process on Earth can withstand. By "limit" is meant a point on a scale that researchers have estimated that cannot be exceeded without damage. This means damage that cannot be rectified.
Source: https://www.stockholmresilience.org/research/planetary-boundaries/planetary-boundaries/about-the-research/the-nine-planetary-boundaries.html
Two planetary boundaries have already been exceeded: biosphere integrity (diversity in nature) and the field of biogeochemical flows (especially nitrogen cycle) (Source: Rockström J, et al. (2009): A Safe Operating Space for Humanity. Nature's Journal)
The other planetary boundaries are becoming increasingly threatened.
Solutions must be found in answer to the question: How do we rearrange production, consumption and living so we stay within these limits and restore the conditions where they are severely threatened or already exceeded?
Poverty Problems
The super-short version: The problems can be described by the numbers "1", "1.5", "2" and "2.5".
- Right now there are 1 billion people on this planet that belong to the middle class or higher.
- There are 1.5 billion people in the middle class. They came to towns around 15 years ago and are now taking part in economic development. They have established themselves with fairly stable income, but they feel threatened by globalization and technological change.
- There are 2 billion people who have recently moved to cities. They do not own anything.
- The last 2.5 billion people on this planet are the poor in the countrysides who live from hand to mouth of agriculture and other professions that are almost not part of the global economy. If climate change exacerbates their conditions, they must migrate or die. (T. Friedman (2016): Thank you for being late: An Optimist´s Guide to Thriving in the Age of Accelerations)
Solutions must be found in answer to the question: How can we create growth, stability and social inclusion for the billions of people who are in an uncertain economic situation or at the bottom of the economic pyramid?
In the book “Doughnut Economics”, Kate Raworth states that growth must serve specific purposes: production is a means, not a goal. Her doughnut model focuses on an inner circle and an outer circle where the inner circle is the social foundation of existence, which is the purpose of the economic activity: water, food, housing, education and the like. The outer circle is the physical limits of our economic activity: climate change, pollution, loss of biodiversity, etc.
The outer circle is the limits that must not be exceeded because they form a kind of organic ceiling. The green area in the model is the area where our human activities and economic development can take place safely.
The problems are very complex, but there are also worldwide efforts to do something. The climate agreement in Paris and United Nation's 2030 Goals, called the Sustainable Development Goals, are the international community's attempt to solve these problems by efforts from governments, businesses, and all of us in civil society.
As we find that ice glaciers melt without us being able to recover the loss, then it is a fact that we cannot avoid all the consequences. But we can - as global citizens - try to limit the damages and eradicate the worst poverty.
A doughnut solves nothing, but the doughnut model helps us to keep focus on the interconnected problems, and (consequently) the interconnected problem solving!
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The solutions are in Focus in UN`s sustainable Development Goals.
No 1 is: No Poverty. No. 13 is: Climate Action. No 15 & 16 have focus on life below water & life on land … but all the other goals focus on interconnected problems and problem-solving.
Recommended reading and resources:
The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG 2030) see overview at
Blog and weekly newsletter: United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG 2030)
This blog gives you a lot of knowledge and resources to take in use to engage yourself.
See these topics at the bottom of the first page:
Why should I care?& Ready to get started on an SDG project in your community
What on Earth is the Doughnut?…Article with links to texts and videos by Kate Raworth at her website ”Exploring Doughnut Economics”
The Nine Planetary Boundaries.
A 3-page description by Stockholm Resilience Center
Promise and problems in planetary boundaries.
A critical article in the Guardian 2012: The collision is: “ Ecologicaland social problems are often not actually conscious or deliberate choices but the side effects of other (consumption) actions. It is the side effects, which stand to threaten the continuing operations of global capitalism, not the natural individual intentions of citizens to buy and use things that they want or need. … Recognizing the breaking points of environmental systems should spur human ingenuity and creativity; stimulating science and technologies that push at the limits of what is possible, not at the limits of what is sustainable.”
Extra: Can you beat Bill Gates on this Climate Change Quiz? https://www.gatesnotes.com/Energy/Climate-change-quiz
Teach GLOBAL CITIZENSHIP Newsletter no. 31
Everyone, who is engaged in developing global citizenship, is welcome to receive these thematic introductions & curated learning possibilities.
December 2018, Copenhagen, Denmark
Egon Hedegaard
Blog In English:
Teach GLOBAL CITIZENSHIP
Blogs på dansk:
Uddannelsesreformer verden rundt
Der er brug for medborgerskabs-engagement i FN´s verdensmål
Everyone, who is engaged in developing global citizenship, is welcome to receive these thematic introductions & curated learning possibilities.
December 2018, Copenhagen, Denmark
Egon Hedegaard
Blog In English:
Teach GLOBAL CITIZENSHIP
Blogs på dansk:
Uddannelsesreformer verden rundt
Der er brug for medborgerskabs-engagement i FN´s verdensmål
