Resources from the forum on Sustainability: By whom, for whom?

A collection of quotes, definitions and questions on Sustainability

A PDF file of the 2009 CID/PMC Sustainability Forum Report can be downloaded by clicking here.

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The UK Sustainable Development Commission have published a big report on ‘Prosperity without Growth'

Press release:
http://www.sd-commission.org.uk/presslist.php/94/recession-must-make-us-question-relentless-pursuit-of-growth

"It may seem inopportune to be questioning growth while we are faced with daily news of the effects of recession, but allegiance to growth is the most dominant feature of an economic and political system that has led us to the brink of disaster. Not to stand back now and question what has happened would be to compound failure with failure: failure of vision with failure of responsibility. Figuring out how to deliver prosperity without growth is more essential now than ever."

Full report:
http://www.sd-commission.org.uk/publications/downloads/prosperity_without_growth_report.pdf

"Every society clings to a myth by which it lives. Ours is the myth of economic growth. For the last five decades the pursuit of growth has been the single most important policy goal across the world. The global economy is almost five times the size it was half a century ago. If it continues to grow at the same rate the economy will be 80 times that size by the year 2100.

This extraordinary ramping up of global economic activity has no historical precedent. It's totally at odds with our scientific knowledge of the finite resource base and the fragile ecology on which we depend for survival. And it has already been accompanied by the degradation of an estimated 60% of the world's ecosystems.

For the most part, we avoid the stark reality of these numbers. The default assumption is that - financial crises aside - growth will continue indefinitely. Not just for the poorest countries, where a better quality of life is undeniably needed, but even for the richest nations where the cornucopia of material wealth adds little to happiness and is beginning to threaten the foundations of our wellbeing."