Beyond these, there arise far deeper questions that need to be addressed seriously
even before answering the above two questions. In terms of the proliferating think-tanks,
that shape the management of climate change and economic growth agenda, the last
25 years have seen lots of global initiatives, the United Nations Millennium Ecosystem
Assessment (MEA: www.maweb.org, www.ecosystemvaluation.org, www.
ecosystemservicesproject.org,
www.ecosystemmarketplace.com,
www.
naturalcapitalproject.org), launched in 2000, being one of them (MEA Report 2006).
I think that in order to sail through the twenty-first century, what the world needs
most urgently are rethink-tanks, if I may use this term. The rethink-tanks are
imperative for taking a fresh and critical look at the global challenges that remain
largely unarticulated and unresolved at the vastly deeper levels of their complexity
and dynamics, the proliferating international initiatives notwithstanding. Since the
finiteness of the planet’s natural resources puts stringent limits to expansion of
economic activity, i.e. economic growth and societal prosperity, the rethink-tanks
will have to rethink, first of all, prosperity and freedom themselves. Second, the
rethink-tanks will have to rethink the strategic management of finite natural
resources in terms of promoting trade-offs between different ecosystem services,
between prosperity and green growth or between prosperity and freedom (Pandit
2015b). Third, the research communities interested in building and testing the
models of sustainable development will have to rethink growth and development
scenarios of the future by giving up some of the cherished assumptions regarding
the nature of economic activity and economic growth themselves. We must rethink
the very nature of interaction between development and natural environment within
a KBCE. Fourth, and finally, it is imperative to rethink climate change mitigation
strategies not only in terms of drastic reductions in economic activities causing
anthropogenic GHGs emissions, such as the burning of fossil fuels, but in terms of
investments in enhancing the carbon-sink-capacity of the planet’s ecosystems such
as the forests and Oceans (Pandit 2015b).
But how do we go about this task of Earth stewardship? In a world that is going
to be populated with over nine billion people in the next fifty years, demography is,
evidently, a most crucial subject for deliberation not only for the educationists,
educational institutions and educational systems but for economists and ecologists
as well. We must keep in mind that overpopulation and overconsumption are the
top two drivers of the current global biodiversity crisis. Yet demography remains a
most neglected subject in the discussions that focus on the humanity’s future in the
context of the global challenges like global warming driven climate change. In
particular, world’s overpopulated democracies are faced with the following formidable problem: For any number of reasons, they cannot feed everybody well. The
number of children born every single minute or every single day far exceeds their
capacity to assure them heath care, nourishment, quality of life and well-being,
from birth to the cradle and from the cradle to the school (Pandit 2014b, 2015a).
And that has the adverse consequence that the state and society must reduce
‘freedom’ of large numbers of the population. That, in its turn, has the further
consequence that there will be much less democracy left against what is being
Knowledge-Based Climate Economy …
137
even before answering the above two questions. In terms of the proliferating think-tanks,
that shape the management of climate change and economic growth agenda, the last
25 years have seen lots of global initiatives, the United Nations Millennium Ecosystem
Assessment (MEA: www.maweb.org, www.ecosystemvaluation.org, www.
ecosystemservicesproject.org,
www.ecosystemmarketplace.com,
www.
naturalcapitalproject.org), launched in 2000, being one of them (MEA Report 2006).
I think that in order to sail through the twenty-first century, what the world needs
most urgently are rethink-tanks, if I may use this term. The rethink-tanks are
imperative for taking a fresh and critical look at the global challenges that remain
largely unarticulated and unresolved at the vastly deeper levels of their complexity
and dynamics, the proliferating international initiatives notwithstanding. Since the
finiteness of the planet’s natural resources puts stringent limits to expansion of
economic activity, i.e. economic growth and societal prosperity, the rethink-tanks
will have to rethink, first of all, prosperity and freedom themselves. Second, the
rethink-tanks will have to rethink the strategic management of finite natural
resources in terms of promoting trade-offs between different ecosystem services,
between prosperity and green growth or between prosperity and freedom (Pandit
2015b). Third, the research communities interested in building and testing the
models of sustainable development will have to rethink growth and development
scenarios of the future by giving up some of the cherished assumptions regarding
the nature of economic activity and economic growth themselves. We must rethink
the very nature of interaction between development and natural environment within
a KBCE. Fourth, and finally, it is imperative to rethink climate change mitigation
strategies not only in terms of drastic reductions in economic activities causing
anthropogenic GHGs emissions, such as the burning of fossil fuels, but in terms of
investments in enhancing the carbon-sink-capacity of the planet’s ecosystems such
as the forests and Oceans (Pandit 2015b).
But how do we go about this task of Earth stewardship? In a world that is going
to be populated with over nine billion people in the next fifty years, demography is,
evidently, a most crucial subject for deliberation not only for the educationists,
educational institutions and educational systems but for economists and ecologists
as well. We must keep in mind that overpopulation and overconsumption are the
top two drivers of the current global biodiversity crisis. Yet demography remains a
most neglected subject in the discussions that focus on the humanity’s future in the
context of the global challenges like global warming driven climate change. In
particular, world’s overpopulated democracies are faced with the following formidable problem: For any number of reasons, they cannot feed everybody well. The
number of children born every single minute or every single day far exceeds their
capacity to assure them heath care, nourishment, quality of life and well-being,
from birth to the cradle and from the cradle to the school (Pandit 2014b, 2015a).
And that has the adverse consequence that the state and society must reduce
‘freedom’ of large numbers of the population. That, in its turn, has the further
consequence that there will be much less democracy left against what is being
Knowledge-Based Climate Economy …
137