Ten Essential Ideas for Sustainability Leaders in the 2020s

Ten Essential Ideas for Sustainability Leaders in the 2020s

The full Essay has been published in Cadmus Journal Vol. 3, Issue 6 and is available here: Sustainable Leadership in the 2020s, May 2019

Abstract

This Discussion Outline was prepared for the WAAS-organized March 17, 2019, Special Meeting on Global Leadership for the 21st Century—Ideas That Can Lead to Action, which followed the VII Global Baku Forum, March 14-16. Its statements are derived from or supported by the contents of The Security & Sustainability Guide (www.securesustain.org; in development) and include current and emerging ideas deserving more attention from leaders: 1) we cannot have security without sustainability, and vice versa; 2) security is worsening worldwide, making sustainability more vulnerable; 3) still, an under-appreciated transformation to sustainability is underway; 4) but fragmentation within the transformation is widespread; 5) the intensifying global information explosion is out of control; 6) global population in 2050 will likely grow by 30% to 10 billion people; 7) a new political continuum is needed to supplement traditional “left-right” thinking; 8) a new economics for the 21stcentury is needed to supplement and eventually replace industrial-era economics; 9) new sources of non-polluting energy and new foods and food production methods are emerging; 10) the climate change problem is understated, but climate is only part of a wider set of urgent environmental problems.

 

Authors:

Michael Marien (mmarien@twcny.rr.com)
Senior Principal of the SSG and a Fellow of the World Academy of Art & Science, publisher of Cadmus and Eruditio. He founded and edited Future Survey, a monthly publication of the World Future Society (1979-2008). He wrote more than 20,000 abstracts of futures-relevant books, reports, and articles and has published more than a hundred articles in futures publications.

David Harries (jdsharries@bell.net) Principal of the SSG. He holds a Ph.D. in nuclear engineering from the University of London. He served in the Canadian military for several decades, was Director of Curriculum Planning and Deputy Commandant at the National Defence College of Canada, and has directed a MA program at the Royal Military College. Affiliate of the Pugwash Conference on Science and Global Affairs, Associate Director of Foresight Canada, and security foresight facilitator at Carleton University in Ottawa. Until recently, he was Chair of the Canadian Pugwash Group.

 

 

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