Bursting At The Seams

Jeff Sachs is an eloquent speaker, he makes a compelling case for the need for sustainable development. In my favourite book on sustainable development that I have yet read, Jonathon Porritt makes the case that Capitalism As If The World Matters is a possibility... In this series of lectures Sachs shows vividly that we have no choice.

The speaches bellow are taken from the bbc Reith Lecutures website where they are avilable for streaming.


Lecture 1: Bursting at the Seams (MP3)

The 21st century will be marked by severe natural resource limits, the rise of new economic powers and the threats of failed states. These are tectonic changes with the potential to unleash global-scale upheavals. Global cooperation of an unprecedented depth and scale will be needed but we are not yet prepared for such cooperation.


Lecture 2: Survival in the Anthropocene (MP3)

The biggest challenges that we face - climate change, alleviation of hunger, water stress, energy - are translated in the shadow of ignorance into "us versus them" problems, with only the weakest links to underlying scientific principles and technological options.


Lecture 3: The Great Convergence (MP3)

Power and America have seemed synonymous for the last fifty years. No longer. Power in the 21st Century is shifting to the East: to India and above all to China. Facing up to the end of centuries of North Atlantic dominance - first Europe then the U.S. - will pose huge challenges.

Lecture 4: Economic Solidarity for a Crowded Planet (MP3)

This lecture considers the challenges of extreme poverty and the extreme worry of the rest of the world which fears for its own prosperity. It spells out the limits of the free market to solve these problems and proposes a plan of action which presents choices to those listening.


Lecture 5: Global Politics in a Complex Age. (MP3)

The key political novelty of our age is mass political awareness and mobilization. Mass mobilization has brought the Age of Empire to an end, and accounts for the failures in Iraq. No society any longer tolerates being ruled by another. Social mobilization can be a dramatic force for positive change.

Home del.icio.us Digg This!

The European Happy Planet Index (New Economics Foundation)

The New Economics Foundation do valuable work on sustainability, in finding more accurate ways to define qaulity of life then GDP. There latest area of work is The Happy Planet Index, where they take a systematic look at wellbeing and how it corrolates (or dosent) to carbon emissions. They then look at how efficient the economy is at turning energy into wellbeing.

The most obvious thing that i noticed where the high scores for Norway and Sweden, countries that have traditionally done well in the qaulity of life studies. The UK, however, does poorly despite average GDP being the highest in Europe (correct me if i`m wrong).



Europe-wide research by nef (the new economics foundation), using a new measure of carbon efficiency and real economic progress reveals that Europe is less efficient today than it was 40 years ago. The European Happy Planet Index: An index of carbon efficiency and well-being in the EU reveals (overview) for the first time the carbon efficiency with which 30 European nations produce lives of different relative length and life satisfaction for their citizens. nef's analysis, (report) published in association with Friends of the Earth, also looks back over the last 40 years and comes worrying conclusions in an age of climate change, when it is more important than ever that we use our resources efficiently. nef's Index reveals that:

• Europe as a whole has become less efficient, not more, in translating fossil fuel use into measurable human well being. The Index reveals that Europe as a whole is less carbon efficient now than it was in 1961.
• Across Europe people report comparable levels of well-being whether their lifestyles imply the need for the resources of six and a half, or just one planet like Earth. The message is that people are just as likely to lead satisfied lives whether their levels of consumption are very low or high.
• Iceland tops the Index. Scandinavian countries are the most efficient – achieving the highest levels of well-being in Europe at relatively low environmental cost with Sweden and Norway joining Iceland at the top of the HPI table. Iceland’s combination of strong social policies and extensive use of renewable energy demonstrate that living within our environmental means doesn’t mean sacrificing human well-being – in fact, it could even make us happier
• The UK comes a poor 21st out of the 30 countries analysed, and nations that have most closely followed the Anglo-Saxon, strongly market-led economic model show up as the least efficient on the Index.

Home del.icio.us Digg This!

Vlog 4 Climate Change and Business: Leverage and Differentiation

I finish my series of 3 vlogs about sustainable development. This one is about a couple of important ideas for businesses 1. Leverage 2. Differentiation. These are a couple of important themes brought to my attention in a book called 'carbon down profits up'.

Home del.icio.us Digg This!

Vlog 2 and Vlog 3: Sustainability

I have two new Vlogs on YouTube, discussing sustainability and new business ideas. More on the books i speak about, here.

Vlog 2



Vlog 3

Home del.icio.us Digg This!