Chapter 1 Our Common Journey

Ch 1. Contents Sustainable Development: Common Concerns, Differing Emphases –What Is To Be Sustained –What Is To Be Developed –The Links Between –For How Long? Sustainable Development: The First Decade –Environment and Development –Funds and Financing –The View from Below –Knowledge* and Know-How** Goals for a Sustainability Transition –Meeting Human Needs Providing Food and Nutrition Nurturing Children Finding Shelter Providing an Education Finding Employment –Targets for Meeting Human Needs –Preserving Life Support Systems Ensuring the Quality and Supply of Fresh Water Controlling Emissions into the Atmosphere Protecting the Oceans Maintaining Species and Ecosystems –Targets for Preserving Life Support Systems –Reducing Hunger and Poverty –Targets for Reducing Hunger and Poverty The Transition to Sustainability as Social Learning

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: 1.what is to be sustained 2.what is to be developed 3.how should sustained and developed entities be linked 4.what is the extent of the future envisioned

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.

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

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."