The World is Running Out of Room And Action Must Be Taken

“Earth provides enough to satisfy every man’s need, but not every man’s
greed.”

-Mahatma Gandhi

We have run out of resources and space, and we are all in denial about it. The UN released a report recently detailing our lack of attention to the matter.

This isn’t some hippy bull shit. This is real and action is needed. If you give a shit about anything, read this and think about the life you live. I’m at fault in many peoples eyes, just as you are, for contributing to problems with the world. We all have our own code of morals and ways to rationalize the decisions we have made. In my opinion, pennies make the dollar and if we don’t all make a little right in the world then there will be a lot of wrong to deal with. Lets start small but think big.

The 99 page report from the United Nations, which the exert below is from, can be  read here.

 

The vision: a future worth choosing 

A quarter of a century ago, the Brundtland report introduced the concept of

sustainable development to the international community as a new paradigm for

economic growth, social equality and environmental sustainability. It argued that

sustainable development could be achieved by an integrated policy framework

embracing all three of those pillars. Since then, the world has gained a deeper

understanding of the interconnected challenges we face, and the realization that

sustainable development provides the best opportunity for people to choose their

future. The High-level Panel on Global Sustainability argues that by making

transparent both the cost of action and the cost of inaction, political processes can

summon both the arguments and the political will necessary to act for a sustainable

future. The long-term vision of the Panel is to eradicate poverty, reduce inequality

and make growth inclusive, and production and consumption more sustainable, while

combating climate change and respecting a range of other planetary boundaries. In

light of this, the report makes a range of recommendations to take forward the

Panel’s vision for a sustainable planet, a just society and a growing economy.

 

The state of sustainable development 

Sustainable development is not a destination, but a dynamic process of

adaptation, learning and action. It is about recognizing, understanding and acting on

interconnections — above all those between the economy, society and the natural

environment. The world is not yet on this path. Progress has been made, but it has

been neither fast nor deep enough, and the need for further-reaching action is

growing ever more urgent. At the same time, we face increasingly powerful drivers

of change, including the impacts of current production and consumption patterns and

resource scarcity, innovation, demographic change, changes in the global economy,

green growth, growing inequality, changing political dynamics and urbanization.

 

Empowering people to make sustainable choices 

The more influence we have in society, the greater our potential impact on the

planet and the greater our responsibility to behave sustainably. This is more true than

ever today, when globalization and the pressures on our natural resources mean that

individual choices can have global consequences. For too many of us, however, the

problem is not unsustainable choices, but a lack of choices in the first place. Real

choice is only possible once human rights, basic needs, human security and human

resilience are assured. Priority areas for action include:

• Delivering on the fundamentals of development: international commitments to

eradicate poverty, promote human rights and human security and advance

gender equality

• Advancing education for sustainable development, including secondary and

vocational education, and building of skills to help ensure that all of society can

contribute to solutions that address today’s challenges and capitalize on

opportunities

• Creating employment opportunities, especially for women and youth, to drive

green and sustainable growth

• Enabling consumers to make sustainable choices and advance responsible

behaviour individually and collectively

• Managing resources and enabling a twenty-first-century green revolution:

agriculture, oceans and coastal systems, energy and technology, international

cooperation

• Building resilience through sound safety nets, disaster risk reduction and

adaptation planning

 

Working towards a sustainable economy

Achieving sustainability requires us to transform the global economy.

Tinkering on the margins will not do the job. The current global economic crisis,

which has led many to question the performance of existing global economic

governance, offers an opportunity for significant reforms. It gives us a chance to

shift more decisively towards green growth — not just in the financial system, but in

the real economy. Policy action is needed in a number of key areas, including:

• Incorporating social and environmental costs in regulating and pricing of goods

and services, as well as addressing market failures

• Creating an incentive road map that increasingly values long-term sustainable

development in investment and financial transactions

• Increasing finance for sustainable development, including public and private

funding and partnerships to mobilize large volumes of new financing

• Expanding how we measure progress in sustainable development by creating a

sustainable development index or set of indicators

 

Strengthening institutional governance 

To achieve sustainable development, we need to build an effective framework

of institutions and decision-making processes at the local, national, regional and

global levels. We must overcome the legacy of fragmented institutions established

around single-issue “silos”; deficits of both leadership and political space; lack of

flexibility in adapting to new kinds of challenges and crises; and a frequent failure to

anticipate and plan for both challenges and opportunities — all of which undermine

both policymaking and delivery on the ground. To build better governance,

coherence and accountability for sustainable development at the national and global

levels, priority areas for action include:

• Improving coherence at the subnational, national and international levels

• Creating a set of sustainable development goals

• Establishing a periodic global sustainable development outlook report that

brings together information and assessments currently dispersed across

institutions and analyses them in an integrated way

• Making a new commitment to revitalize and reform the international

institutional framework, including considering the creation of a global

sustainable development council

 

Conclusion: a call for action

Active follow-up is now crucial. The Panel looks to the Secretary-General to

implement the recommendations that fall within his authority and to take the full set

of recommendations to the United Nations family as a whole. The Panel also looks to

the Secretary-General and the United Nations to use the convening power of the

Organization to advance the recommendations with other stakeholders in the wider

international community, including governments at all levels, international

organizations, civil society, the scientific community and the private sector.

 

Further reading on the GSP Report here and here.