Posted By John Elkington
on 28 December, 2009
A reflection by Niall Ferguson in today’s Financial Times on the historical significance of the past decade struck me as particularly apt and insightful. He explores the reasons behind the astonishing – and accelerating – shift to the east in the world’s economic (and, ultimately, political) centre of gravity. In the process, he asks what it was that gave the West its “ascendancy”, through the Renaissance, the Reformation, the Enlightenment and the ensuing race around the world, as far as the Antipodes?
His answer is that the West benefited from six “killer apps”. These were: “the capitalist enterprise, the scientific …
Posted By Halina Ward
on 22 December, 2009
I’m back in London after a week in Copenhagen at various climate events. Almost everything climate-related that happened in and around Copenhagen over the past two weeks offers rich pickings for reflection on the changing relationship between democracy and climate change.
As we start work on our project here at the Foundation for Democracy and Sustainable Development on ‘the future of democracy in the face of climate change‘, we’ll be reflecting on the big question: what next?
We’ll be looking, not just at the critically important coming twelve months, but beyond, to 2050 and 2100.
So in this …
Posted By Halina Ward
on 18 December, 2009
In a new paper published on this website, sustainability campaigner Charles Secrett sets out a possible pathway for achieving revolutionary change towards democracy, environmental justice and sustainable development.
As Charles explains: “Currently, we have no visionary text explaining the intersect between (those heavy but crucial concepts) democracy, environmental justice and sustainable development. The task now upon us, as chaos increasingly bites the world over, is to find a development path that can sustain and improve life, without chasing the chimera of perfect answers to all problems.
With no convenient scripture to hand, is there another way to bring about …
Posted By Halina Ward
on 15 December, 2009
Week two of the COP15 climate summit. The outcome remains uncertain. We now post a piece by FDSD Vice-Chair Ian Christie which cautiously welcomes the debate over ‘climategate’.
Meanwhile so-called ‘climate sceptics’ continue to publicise what they suggest amounts to muzzling of their legitimate questions inside the COP15 meeting space, and just one week has passed since Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Vice-Chair Jean-Pascale van Ypersele complained that “[w]e are spending a lot of useless time discussing this rather than spending time preparing information for the negotiators”.
Climategate, Ian argues, teaches us that
1) climate science is not a ‘done …
Posted By Halina Ward
on 4 December, 2009
FDSD has been awarded a ‘Future of Humanity’ grant by US-based Foundation for the Future for a research project on ‘the future of democracy in the face of climate change’.
Future of Humanity grants are awarded following an annual competition for proposals from scholars undertaking research at a macro level that is directly related to better understanding the factors affecting the long-term future of humanity.
The 12-month FDSD project will develop scenarios around the question: “how might democracy and participatory decision-making have evolved to cope with the challenges of climate change by the years 2050 and 2100?”…
Posted By Halina Ward
on 2 December, 2009
[Cross-posted from www.thesamosa.co.uk]
This is a post about terrorism, sustainable development, and the power of diaspora. And it’s a post that asks whether we might find ourselves in a different place now had Osama Bin Laden been poor.
There was a moment, back in September 2001 (but only the days that followed the 11th of the month), when people active in the environment and development movements thought we might, just possibly, be about to have our day.
The common ground for proponents of ‘sustainable development’, which links environment to development concerns, is that as nations and societies we …
