How to plan for a sustainable future

As a species we have had to face the fact that our actions impact the planet. This probably was not so much the case when there were a couple of million of us and we spent our time dodging megafauna and using flint to dig up roots. However, now that there are upwards of seven billion of us, we don’t dodge but squash, and we don’t dig but excavate, the equation between us and the planet has changed. For most of us, especially in wealthy countries like Australia, the realisation has dawned that we don’t need to worry about the next meal anymore but we do need to worry about the next century.

The new paper reports that governments are grappling with consequences of climate change like crop failure, air quality, and water pollution.

The new paper reports that governments are grappling with consequences of climate change like crop failure, air quality, and water pollution. Most often climate change initiates centre around something measurable like carbon emissions but as this report indicates, other factors need to be considered if we are to avoid multi-dimensional disaster.

The new report comes from researchers who are social scientists at Lancaster University, the University of Northumbria, and the University of Washington. The researchers identified seven key social concepts that must be central to meeting sustainability goals and those concepts are: wellbeing, culture, values, inequality, justice, power, and agency (a sense of self-determination).

As the researchers conclude, lasting sustainability will depend on arriving at fair and just solutions.