Chapter 0 Our Common Journey Executive Summary

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Chapter 0Our Common JourneyExecutive Summary
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Chapters Contents

• Our Common Journey
• Trends and Transitions
• Exploring the Future
• Environmental Threats and Opportunities
• Reporting on the Transition
• Integrating Knowledge and Action

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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
• 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
• 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.

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2. Trends and Transitions
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3. Exploring the Future
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4. Environmental Threats and Opportunities
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5. Reporting on the Transition
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6. Integrating Knowledge and Action
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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
• 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

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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.

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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, .. and 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

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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."