Bet the planet

[bwh]

A thought-provoking essay from WorldChanging: Winning the Great Wager.

We don't say it in public, but we've placed a giant wager here on the future of the human race. The terms of the bet are this: we can move to a new model, a model based on a standard of sustainability higher even than that which we'd need today to fit within our 1.9 hectares per person, but which provides prosperity to billions more, a prosperity equal to or greater than what today costs 10 hectares per person. And we need to do it in 25 years.

Comments

[gridlockjoe.livejournal.com]

A very intriguing article.

Especially this bit:

...and beatles we're never heard of because they remain undiscovered by science...

Stuart Sutcliffe, Pete Best or George Martin?

[sir-quirky-k.livejournal.com]

I need to share this with every deluded optimist I know. To prove they're wrong.

[womble2.livejournal.com]

I wouldn't want people to assume that human civilisation is going to collapse catastrophically and give up trying to make it last. We should all be doing what we can to work towards sustainability - whether that's making more efficient use of resources in the home, or developing replacements for wasteful technology at work - and to convince governments and corporations to do the same. There is some reason to be hopeful, and in fact most of what WorldChanging posts is "good news". For example, a group of insurance companies, who have several trillion dollars to invest, and who stand to lose a lot from environmental disasters resulting from global warming, now runs a survey of the largest corporations asking what they are doing about their greenhouse gas emissions. There's a real possibility here that the stock market will reward environmental good behaviour and punish short-termism, contrary to what often seems to be the case.

The point of the article is, I think, is not that we're surely doomed, but that we're going to have move fast, and work hard, to avoid disaster. Pessismistically speaking, maybe those amount to the same thing. Optimistically speaking, we still have some kind of a chance, right?

[sir-quirky-k.livejournal.com]

At least the first prerequisite for change - being aware of its need - is being met.

My fear is that the process won't get any further.

Of course we should try. My fear is that whatever we do will only delay the inevitable.