There’s a new kid on the climate block: a sustainability news blog/portal called Planet 3.0. Prime mover behind the initiative is long-time Only In It For The Gold blogger Michael Tobis, and he sets out the stall for the site in an introductory post titled (quoting Sartre) The Future Is Not Yet Written:
It is time for us to start writing it [the future]. We cannot do so if we limit the discussion by imposing the interests of any particular culture or interest or institution. We need to take the discussions that the cleverest of us occasionally manage to have over beer at midnight, and put them front and center, into the public sphere. A cold, hard look at the present and the future can be frightening, but it also can be exhilarating. It is time for us to be willing to say what mustn’t be said, and consider doing what mustn’t be done. This is no time for an excess of propriety. But the time for blame and recriminations is over. We can’t afford them anymore. Let’s move on.
Let’s look reality in the face and decide what needs to be done.
The tag line for Planet 3.0 is Beyond Sustainability. That can be taken two ways: as a statement of the fact that we are living well beyond the planet’s means, eating natural capital; and as a pointer to where we need to go – -beyond traditional ideas of sustainability to design ourselves a system that will enable the survival of our civilisation.
The conversation Tobis wants to spark is vital. Go and have a poke around Planet 3.0, and contribute to the discussion. We’ve only got the one planet to play with. Time to start treating it right. The current paradigm is getting us into trouble. What might a new paradigm for benign development look like?
Hot Topic is very pleased to support Planet 3.0. You can find a full list of the supporting blogs here. It’s an honour to be in such distinguished company. Good luck to all who sail in her…
For want of a better place to put this link:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-15216875
This is a must view trailer of a presentation called Rivers of Ice: Vanishing Glaciers of the Greater Himalaya, which can be seen at the RGS in London. The beauty of the images in the trailer linked below is fascinating, the message utterly grim.
What will the added millions of people in the Indian subcontinent drink in 2060?? Sustainability means simply a chance of survival for so many people alive today….!
Why not concentrate on the overpopulation of this planet? That is the real problem. To attempt to lower the standard of living to accomodate an ever increasing number is a recipe for war. Reduce the population and there can be an improved standard of living for all and space for the wildlife.
Exactly. Either we reduce our numbers voluntarily and peacefully or we will face famine and war.