The Global Community has had work on previous sustainable cities aspects and issues ever since 1985. A short list of our previous work on the sustainable cities aspects and issues.
For more recent work on sustainable cities aspects and issues read the following table.
Month/year |
Theme and Author |
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November 11, 2007 |
Deal climate injustice at home: Greenpeace India
by ASHOK B SHARMA
published by Indian Society For Sustainable Agriculture and by Indian Express Newspapers (Mumbai) Ltd.
More than 800 million poor people in India are bearing the burnt of climate change. This is partly due to the emissions caused by
the few privileged rich people in the country, said a report released by Greenpeace India Society. The report on climate injustice entitled `Hiding Behind the Poor’
urged the government to apply the principle of “common but differentiated responsibilities” in the country to deal with the situation arising out of climate change.
The study authored by G Ananathpadmanabhan, K Srinivas and Vinuta Gopal, however advocated India’s right to seek common but differentiated responsibilities at the global level.
Referring to the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities, it said that India claims its right to development and thus its right to consume more energy from
fossil fuels, asking developed nations to create the carbon space. Implicit in this is the notion that the developed countries need to decrease their carbon dioxide emissions
drastically so that developing countries can still increase theirs without pushing the planet in the direction of climate change.”
However, the study pointed out that over the last few decades, emissions of rapidly developing countries like India and China have surged. In fact, rankings by the WRI of
top GHG emitters has US on top and developing countries such as China and India are ranked at No 2 and 5 respectively, making them amongst the world’s biggest emitters.
The Greepeace India made an urgent plea to the government to consider the situation especially when the next round of negotiations for the second phase of Kyoto Protocol
is scheduled to take place in Bali in Indonesia in December, this year.
The Greenpeace India report further said that India was faced with two sharply contradictory realities. On the one hand there was a rapidly growing rich consumer class
which has made the country the 12.
The largest luxury market in the world and on the other hand India has become the home to more than 800 million poor people on the planet who are extremely vulnerable to
the impacts of climate change. India’s per capita carbon dioxide emission has averaged to 1.67 tonne.
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November 2, 2007 |
Eco-Humanism and Popular System Dynamics as Preconditions for Sustainable Development
( A review of VISION OF SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT SOCIETY – FUTURE OF THE WORLD FROM CYBERNETICIST PERSPECTIVE )
by Leslaw Michnowski
Manage the Sustainable Development Global Information Society website.
http://www.psl.org.pl/kte
kte@psl.org.pl
elmamba@poczta.onet.pl
leslaw.michnowski@neostrada.pl
Committee for Futures Studies "Poland 2000 Plus", Polish Academy of Sciences
Luis T. Gutierrez, Editor of the Solidarity & Sustainability, Non-Violence homepage says the following about the book. The invited article this month is contributed by Leslaw Michnowski, a member of the Committee for
Futures Studies "Poland 2000 Plus," Polish Academy of Sciences. In this paper, which is a synopsis of his recently
published book on his vision for a sustainable development process "with a human face," he identifies the ingredients
that will be required to assure a future for humanity and the human habitat. The reader is warned that this paper is not
intended for casual, easy reading. Michnowski's intent is to define the information/knowledge infrastructure that will
be required, the technologies to be used, and the principles of solidarity and social justice to be adhered to, in order to
face the inevitable global crises now emerging as a consequence of the pervasive human misbehavior, socially and
environmentally, triggered by (most recently) the industrial revolution. The reader will notice the congruence between
this article and some of the issues and concerns discussed in page 1. The vision presented here is one that shows the
need for a global transition toward a new order of things, one in which technology and other resources are used to
balance individual interests with the common good. It is shown that it is a feasible vision, one that can be achieved if
the humans who populate the planet make a decision to overcome obsolete mindsets that seek the accumulation of
wealth and power as the only path to "happiness." The impending global crisis may trigger a sequence of events that
forces making such decisions in the midst of turmoil and much suffering. Let us pray and work for a transition from
homo economicus to homo solidarius. It may be painful, but it can be peaceful. This is the path of truth, freedom, and
care; the path toward a better world for our children and grandchildren. This is the only path of sure hope.
This article is an overview of a book by the author: "VISION OF A SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT SOCIETY – THE
FUTURE OF THE WORLD FROM THE CYBERNETICIST PERSPECTIVE” (in Polish), published by Polish Academy of
Sciences, Committee for Futures Studies "Poland 2000 Plus", Warsaw, Poland, 2006. This book contains his
conclusions from many years of research on the current global crisis. This definitive work is based on the
author’s System of Life evidence-based model that couples the realities of globalization and information
technology with the urgent need to identify and analyze the conditions for transitioning the worldwide human
community toward a new worldwide civilization that uses information and knowledge for sustainable development
and, in particular, sustainable human development.
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