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Sustainable Progress: The Essential Role of Boundaries

Sustainable Progress: The Essential Role of Boundaries. Gary Gardner Worldwatch Institute October, 2010. The Plan for Today. Progress and Debts The Value of Boundaries Progress Re-Rooted Progress Re-Imagined. Progress: The Common View. From Latin pro gredi , to step forward

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Sustainable Progress: The Essential Role of Boundaries

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  1. Sustainable Progress: The Essential Role of Boundaries Gary Gardner Worldwatch Institute October, 2010

  2. The Plan for Today • Progress and Debts • The Value of Boundaries • Progress Re-Rooted • Progress Re-Imagined

  3. Progress: The Common View • From Latin pro gredi, to step forward • We might think of it as energy for forward movement

  4. 20th Century: Many Steps Forward… • Technological—telephones, computers, airplanes, etc. • Social—women’s rights, minority rights, child labor laws • Health—long lives, eradicated diseases, effective treatments of all kinds • Political—advance of democracy and individual freedom

  5. But I will argue today… • …that Progress is forward energy within boundaries, within a set of restraints or constraints So Progress is a balancing act: the right combination of energy and restraint

  6. Energy and Restraint Big Bang • Energy as Creativity • Gravity as Restraint

  7. …but lack of Boundaries allowed Debts to mushroom • Moral Debts • Ecological Debts • Economic Debts

  8. Moral Debt: War-Related Deaths, 0-2000 Century War Deaths Deaths (millions) per 1000 People 1st to 15th 3.7 n.a. 16th 1.6 3.2 17th 6.1 11.2 18th 7.0 9.7 19th 19.4 16.2 20th 136.0 35.0

  9. Moral Debt: Poverty (1)

  10. Moral Debt: Poverty (2)

  11. Ecological Debt: Raiding the Planet’s Resource Base

  12. Ecological Debt: Who’s Who?

  13. Ecological Debt: Forgotten Victims

  14. Economic Debt: The U.S. as Object Lesson • US Dollar Becomes a Fiat Currency--1971, we went off of tying dollar to gold • US Transition to a Net Importer--1975 • US Transition to a Net Debtor Nation--1981 • US Net Asset Depletion--1985, last year in which U.S. Ownership of foreign assets exceeded foreign ownership of U.S. assets • Declining US Real Median Family Income--peaked in 2000

  15. Progress as Bounded Energy: Not a New Idea… • “All things in moderation”– Terence • “The Middle Way”—Buddhism and Bahá’í Faith • “Excess and deficiency are equally at fault” --Confucianism • “He who knows he has enough is rich”--Daoism

  16. … but we’ve needed reminders from modern wisdom figures Gandhi’s “Seven Deadly Sins” • Wealth without work • Pleasure without conscience • Science without humanity • Knowledge without character • Politics without principle • Commerce without morality • Worship without sacrifice

  17. Boundaries Stimulate Creativity

  18. Boundaries for Re-Ethicizing Progress • Abolition of weapons of mass destruction • Well-being, not just wealth creation, as economic goal • Investing for the common good • SRI, especially “via positiva” • Microfinance • Giving Direction to markets

  19. Boundaries for Re-Rooting Progress • Design for environment • Carbon Markets • Car-sharing (services rather than goods) • Product take-back laws • Factories co-located for waste use • Zero waste cities • Equality of rights to pollute

  20. Boundaries for Re-Valuing Progress

  21. Giving Direction to Markets One World Shop Fair trade Goods

  22. Giving Direction to Markets One World Shop Fair trade Goods Charity Bank Oikocredit Shared Interest

  23. For More Information www.worldwatch.org

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