Read at : Google Alert – desertification
http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2012/04/16/rio20-and-post-2015-development-framework.html
Rio+20 and the post-2015 development framework
Desra Percaya, New York
“…we shall require a substantially new manner of thinking if humanity is to survive”. (Albert Einstein, 1954)
In a period when unprecedented achievements have been made, is it necessary to have a new manner of thinking?
People are living longer. We are more educated. There is more prosperity. Poverty has begun to decline.
Yet, continuing to thrive on the same system that has fueled growth for decades could further ignite existing social dilemmas, creating new ones, caused by the unrelenting gap between the haves and have-nots. Many previous crises gave a very clear picture of the social discontent that governments had to face. Furthermore, the limits of nature’s threshold to sustain the current patterns of consumption and production are showing signs of wear. One of these signs is climate change.
It is evident that a new manner of thinking is necessary.
The wisest choice for humanity, as the most significant driver of change, is to focus on new pathways. Pathways premised on a multigeneration vision of growth; eradicating poverty; and aiming for equitable, prosperous, and inclusive societies.
The time is right. We have reached a fork in the road in our search for answers to the repeated problems typical of the current growth path. No country looks forward to losing its development gains due to crisis. However, living prosperously in social harmony is something that we all look forward to, for many generations to come.
It is crystal clear that humankind has to set itself on a trajectory that satisfies the imperatives of economic and social progress in an equitable manner, but do it in such a way that we do not liquidate our resources now and leave little or nothing for future generations.
The good news is there are pathways to help us get on the right trajectory.
(continued)
