“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.
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