- recognise limits of the carrying capacity of the Earth, and plan for "One Planet Living"
- design new cities to be sustainable from the ground up
- retrofit existing streets, neighbourhoods, districts and even entire cities for sustainability when opportunities arise and even sometimes when they don't, in extremis)
- redesign economic and financial systems to incentivise sustainability and penalise (eg tax) unsustainability
- craft welfare systems and income or wealth distribution systems (eg taxes and welfare benefits) so that the poorest and most vulnerable in our global society are provided with the bare necessities of life
- keep an eye on peak global population - will it breach carrying capacity of the Earth? Consider interventions if it looks likely that it will
- draw up a global balance sheet of global commons and all other assets that support life - review for adequacy compared with projected peak global population - intervene where the balance sheet is on a trajectory inconsistent with supporting peak population sustainably and One Planet Living in aggregate
I think part of the solution (to sustainability challenges) lies in taking a wider perspective. More than just European regional development - there are serious global problems that need addressing. If we don't take a global view, then countries like the UK will probably continue to export our unsustainable impacts to other parts of the world. Every region/country can continue exporting its unsustainability (eg externalities) until, finally, there will be nowhere else to export them to. That's when it's likely that 'Limits to Growth' will really start to kick in with a vengeance. Seeing these problems through the lens of sustainability and in a global context, I think we need to:
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About the BloggerI'm David Calver - an Accountant with a passion for sustainability. Categories
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