里约成绩单

Jun 18, 2012 Jeffrey D. Sachs

纽约——全世界优秀的科学出版物之一《自然》刚刚赶在下周举行的里约+20可持续发展首脑会议前公布了措辞严厉的成绩单。1992年首届里约地球峰会签署的三项伟大条约执行成绩如下：气候变化－F，生物多样性－F，防治荒漠化－F。人类究竟还能否避免被开除球籍的厄运？

整整一代人早已明白世界需要改变发展道路。我们需要更多地利用风能、太阳能和地热发电等低碳替代能源，而不能继续依靠化石燃料来推动世界经济。我们需要调整农业及渔业生产以适应环境的承载能力，而不能在毫不顾忌对其他物种影响的情况下狩猎、捕鱼和砍伐树木。我们需要结束极端贫困并降低世界最贫困地区快速增长的生育率，而不能坐视全球最弱势群体得不到计划生育，教育和基本医疗保健等服务。

简言之，我们需要认识到今天的70亿人口在本世纪中叶可能达到90亿，所有人在高科技驱使的能源密集型全球经济中都拥有非常密切的联系，因此我们作为整体掌握着前所未有的毁坏地球生命支持系统的能力。但通常个人行为的后果离我们的日常生活如此遥远，以致于我们可能在浑然不觉中跌下悬崖摔得粉身碎骨。

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Jeffrey D. Sachs

Writing for PS since 1995
353 Commentaries

Jeffrey D. Sachs, University Professor at Columbia University, is Director of the Center for Sustainable Development at Columbia University and President of the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network. He has served as adviser to three UN Secretaries-General, and currently serves as an SDG Advocate under Secretary-General António Guterres. His books include The End of Poverty, Common Wealth, The Age of Sustainable Development, Building the New American Economy, A New Foreign Policy: Beyond American Exceptionalism, and, most recently, The Ages of Globalization.

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Kariuki Kiragu Feb 28, 2013

Having groped my way into the triple-bottom line world in the last 10 years, I find that, to the economic, environmental and social pillars, a spiritual one should be added.
It comes with the currencies of goodwill, appreciation and inner peace so necessary to harmonizing the other 3 pillars.
Working in the slums and among the poor in Nairobi, the feeling has been the need to first engender trust and a sense of responsibility to the larger community, say, Africa. Thus, discourse invariably commences on an ideological plane, inherently spiritual.
The bank yonder is misty, the river is wide, silent…let’s make the leaps of faith, from one stepping stone to another.
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Tom McGivan Jun 26, 2012

I sense that the important point to take from this is the idea of technology at the forefront of responding to climate change. Politicians from both developed and developing countries have worked tirelessly to implement treaties, policies and other forms of motivation but the reality is that we have not done enough. The role of politics should now be to provide real economic incentives for investment in change, given the way our society functions, genuine economic reform trumps a motivational speech every time.
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jallo jallo Jun 24, 2012

The reality is that anything that would resemble sustainable development is not going to be called for public opinion either, and thisis where Prof. Sachs expectations are doomed to be unfulfilled. And why is that? Because achieving anything that would remotely resemble sustainable development would imply making hard choices, and giving up things that most people in the West value, (or they think thatbthey value) namely individualism and freedom of choice (as consumers), materialism and opulent lifestyles, environmentally insensitive technologies that make our life easier, high expectations of comfort, etc. Anything different to these would be greenwahing. What we need to make people understand is that these priviledges have been achieved as a result of centuries of unsustainable economic growth and they will dissapear anyway as ecological limits to growth
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james durante Jun 20, 2012

There are two fundamental barriers to the kind of "course correction" Sachs is talking about: capitalism and the nation state. Look at almost all the articles on this site: the mantra is growth. It is difficult to imagine that in the real political world there will be any real aspirations for the goals Sachs mentions. Each one is contradicted by individual and national interests, at least in the broad context of the twin pillars of modernity. Consider the current presidential election in the US. As far as I can tell neither candidate will have any interest or motivation in discussing Sachs' worthy goals.

The precipice is here. Look over the edge.
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Frank O'Callaghan Jun 19, 2012

Professor Sachs is a breath of fresh air. He does not deny the problems or lessen their daunting scale. Yet he suggests that Humanity can deal with the threat off global climate change. I am not sure that I agree with him. We can certainly influence the rate of change and perhaps the nature of that change, e.g. in anti-desertification and reforestation schemes.

I hope that he is right. It is probably right to hope. It may even have an effect on the outcomes by improving motivations of the actors. My fear is that we have passed a tipping point and that the juggernaut of climate change is in irrevocable motion.
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