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Chapter 0
Our Common Journey
Executive Summary
Chapters: Contents
1. Our Common Journey
2. Trends and Transitions
3. Exploring the Future
4. Environmental Threats and Opportunities
5. Reporting on the Transition
6. Integrating Knowledge and Action
1. Our Common Journey
•
"Sustainable development"—the reconciliation of
society's developmental goals with its
environmental limits over the long term
•
SD attempts to reconcile the real conflicts
between economy and environment and between
the present and the future
•
However, key differences in the specific issues:
1. what is to be sustained
2. what is to be developed
3. how should sustained and developed entities be
linked
4. what is the extent of the future envisioned
•
The approach to managing SD is partly captured
in the metaphor of Compass and Gyroscope.
Science can provide compass direction, while the
gyroscope of politics can maintain some
steadiness of course across often-uncharted seas.
2. Trends and Transitions
3. Exploring the Future
4. Environmental Threats and Opportunities
5. Reporting on the Transition
6. Integrating Knowledge and Action
Key Goals and Questions
•
"Sustainable development"—the reconciliation of society's developmental
goals with its environmental limits over the long term
•
SD attempts to reconcile the real conflicts between economy and
environment and between the present and the future
•
There is agreement that SD is "to ensure that it meets the needs of the
present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet
their own needs.“
•
However, key differences in the specific issues:
1.
2.
3.
4.
what is to be sustained
what is to be developed
how should sustained and developed entities be linked
what is the extent of the future envisioned
Development-Sustainability
Consumption-Environment
•
While Population growth rates continue to decline,
the number of people living in poverty has
increased.
•
While
globalization
has
presented
new
opportunities for sustainable development, the
income inequality between the richest and
poorest countries have all increased.
•
While some countries have significantly reduced
pollution and slowed resource depletion, the state
of the global environment has continued to
deteriorate.
Goals for a Sustainability Transition
•
The approach to managing SD is partly captured in the metaphor of Compass
and Gyroscope.
•
Science can provide compass direction, while the gyroscope of politics can
maintain some steadiness of course across often-uncharted seas.
•
In light of the trends of population growth, consumption, ..
environmental stress, a sustainability transition (ST) appears necessary.
•
‘The goals of ST over the next two generations should be to meet the needs
of a much larger but stabilizing human population, to sustain the life support
systems of the planet, and to substantially reduce hunger and poverty’.
Preserving life support system will include
•
–
–
–
–
Ensuring the Quality and Supply of Fresh Water
Controlling Emissions into the Atmosphere
Protecting the Oceans
Maintaining Species and Ecosystems
and
Learning, Knowledge and Know-how
•
Successfully navigating the transition lies in conceptualizing
sustainable development as a process of social learning and adaptive
response amid turbulence and surprise.
•
There is little guidance on how to identify and create the knowledge
and know-how for SD.
•
* Knowledge [Webster's Dict.].. the fact or condition of knowing
something
with
familiarity
gained
through
experience
or
association...or the acquaintance with or understanding of a science,
art, or technique."
•
** Know-how here refers to the Webster's Ninth New Collegiate
Dictionary definition, "knowledge [conveyed by expertise] of how to
do something smoothly and efficiently."