260
ozone convention of the climate convention. Save
that these rules should be kept by everyone.
Nowadays (around 2017 and 2018) the number
of countries grows the leaders of which care
about the common interest of humans less as they
emphasise the autonomy of their own countries,
see Box 6.1).
One of the most important new rules would be
in harmony with the currently existing economy
theory: combining our knowledge regarding the
market system with the control of “internalising
externalities”, so that the price of a product would
reflect the complete cost of its production, including all environmental and social side effects. This
would make a regulation that has been demanded
by every economy textbook for decades—with
no success for the time being.
Meadows et al. (2004) imagine the sustainable
society as a substantially decentralised world in
which local communities rely more on local
resources than on international trade. (The
authors of this book think that this concept of the
global society—although would be favourable—
is the exact opposite of the processes in our current world that can be characterised by the
dominance of supply chains and movement of
people constantly over large distances—trade,
tourism, migration—as described in Chap. 5.
From environmental point of view utilising local
resources would be more environmental friendly,
but for the time being, there are no signs of the
society changing globally in this direction.)
Limiting conditions have to be set in the above
described world the keeping of which ensure that
communities pose no threat on the capacity of
living of either others or Earth as a whole. In a
world like that cultural diversity, autonomy, freedom and self-determination can be only the more
extensive than today. To implement this, in the
opinion of Meadows et al. (2004), skills, foresight and ideas of billions of people will be
required keeping to the following principles.
Time horizon of planning has to be prolonged.
Current opportunities have to be decided on following long-term cost—return analysis and not
on current market profits. Processes unfolding
over long decades but known about already today
have to be considered.
The essence of welfare and well-being has to
be better understood just as the effects of human
activities on ecosystems on Earth. Governments
and the general public have to be informed on
environmental and social conditions continuously and right away as being the practice for different institutes regarding economic conditions.
Environmental and social costs have to be incorporated into economic prices. We must not mistake
Box 6.1 Earth First
Recently nationalist voices can be heard
increasingly louder in several counties.
Prime leaders declare that the home country comes first in his/her policy. This view
may bring benefits for the given country in
the short-term, but at the current level of
development of the human society, its
global use is doubtful. Global environmental problems of Earth cannot be solved with
the leaders of the more than 200 countries
all put the interest of their own countries
first as the Earth is a single very complex
system and the effects on it will not stay
confined, and they will roll over the entire
system (butterfly effect). In this case, global
environmental crisis cannot be avoided
resulting in the collapse of the human society. Even the most basic problems of
humanity (poverty, inequity, nescience,
etc.) cannot be solved with the view “we
are first”.
This book is aimed to illustrate the complexity of problems humanity has to face
regarding both the natural environment and
the operation of the global society. Isolated
“solutions” are simply impossible because
neither natural nor social processes recognise
no borders. The latter ones are only seemingly separated. Due to the complex system
of supply chains every country depends on
the rest to some degree. Isolated countries
have a sure way to collapse. Only openness
among countries and common thinking can
find the way to solve global problems.
6 Steps Towards Realising Global Sustainable Development
ozone convention of the climate convention. Save
that these rules should be kept by everyone.
Nowadays (around 2017 and 2018) the number
of countries grows the leaders of which care
about the common interest of humans less as they
emphasise the autonomy of their own countries,
see Box 6.1).
One of the most important new rules would be
in harmony with the currently existing economy
theory: combining our knowledge regarding the
market system with the control of “internalising
externalities”, so that the price of a product would
reflect the complete cost of its production, including all environmental and social side effects. This
would make a regulation that has been demanded
by every economy textbook for decades—with
no success for the time being.
Meadows et al. (2004) imagine the sustainable
society as a substantially decentralised world in
which local communities rely more on local
resources than on international trade. (The
authors of this book think that this concept of the
global society—although would be favourable—
is the exact opposite of the processes in our current world that can be characterised by the
dominance of supply chains and movement of
people constantly over large distances—trade,
tourism, migration—as described in Chap. 5.
From environmental point of view utilising local
resources would be more environmental friendly,
but for the time being, there are no signs of the
society changing globally in this direction.)
Limiting conditions have to be set in the above
described world the keeping of which ensure that
communities pose no threat on the capacity of
living of either others or Earth as a whole. In a
world like that cultural diversity, autonomy, freedom and self-determination can be only the more
extensive than today. To implement this, in the
opinion of Meadows et al. (2004), skills, foresight and ideas of billions of people will be
required keeping to the following principles.
Time horizon of planning has to be prolonged.
Current opportunities have to be decided on following long-term cost—return analysis and not
on current market profits. Processes unfolding
over long decades but known about already today
have to be considered.
The essence of welfare and well-being has to
be better understood just as the effects of human
activities on ecosystems on Earth. Governments
and the general public have to be informed on
environmental and social conditions continuously and right away as being the practice for different institutes regarding economic conditions.
Environmental and social costs have to be incorporated into economic prices. We must not mistake
Box 6.1 Earth First
Recently nationalist voices can be heard
increasingly louder in several counties.
Prime leaders declare that the home country comes first in his/her policy. This view
may bring benefits for the given country in
the short-term, but at the current level of
development of the human society, its
global use is doubtful. Global environmental problems of Earth cannot be solved with
the leaders of the more than 200 countries
all put the interest of their own countries
first as the Earth is a single very complex
system and the effects on it will not stay
confined, and they will roll over the entire
system (butterfly effect). In this case, global
environmental crisis cannot be avoided
resulting in the collapse of the human society. Even the most basic problems of
humanity (poverty, inequity, nescience,
etc.) cannot be solved with the view “we
are first”.
This book is aimed to illustrate the complexity of problems humanity has to face
regarding both the natural environment and
the operation of the global society. Isolated
“solutions” are simply impossible because
neither natural nor social processes recognise
no borders. The latter ones are only seemingly separated. Due to the complex system
of supply chains every country depends on
the rest to some degree. Isolated countries
have a sure way to collapse. Only openness
among countries and common thinking can
find the way to solve global problems.
6 Steps Towards Realising Global Sustainable Development