An introduction to sustainability

Welcome to this first part of the course. In this part we will start to tell you a bit of historical information.

Did you know, the Club of Rome stimulated considerable public attention with the first report to the club,  ”The Limits to Growth”.  Published in 1972, its computer simulations suggested that economic growth could not continue indefinitely because of resource depletion. The 1973 oil crisis increased public concern about this problem. The report went on to a best-selling environmental book.

Even before The Limits to Growth was published, Eduard Pestel  and Mihaijlo Mesarovic of Case western Reserve University had begun work on a far more elaborate model (it distinguished ten world regions and involved 200,000 equations compared with 1,000 in the Meadows model). The research had the full support of the club and its final publication, Mankind at the Turning Point was accepted as the official “second report” to the Club of Rome in 1974. In addition to providing a more refined regional breakdown, Pestel and Mesarovic had succeeded in integrating social as well as technical data. The second report revised the scenarios of the original Limits to Growth and gave a more optimistic prognosis for the future of the environment, noting that many of the factors involved were within human control and therefore that environmental and economic catastrophe were preventable or avoidable. (source: wikipedia).

In 2000 the Earth Charter became the next document on sustainability, and responsibility for the world. In the next lessn we will go into the details of the document. The document became agreed by most world leaders.

Still the world is moving on towards a succesful economic growth, not taking into consideration a huge change is needed. 

It is 2015, the ”climate top” in Paris. The urge is seen and action is agreed! A wonderful moment. We still have 15 years to go.