You are here

Sustainable Development

Climate Change, Disaster Risk, and the Urban Poor - Cities Building Resilience for a Changing World

scribd.com/WorldBankPublications - April 2012

Poor people living in slums are at particularly high risk from the impacts of climate change and natural hazards. They live on the most vulnerable lands within cities, typically areas that are deemed undesirable by others and are thus affordable. Residents are exposed to the impacts of landslides, sea-level rise, flooding, and other hazards.

Exposure to risk is exacerbated by overcrowded living conditions, lack of adequate infrastructure and services, unsafe housing, inadequate nutrition, and poor health. These conditions can turn a natural hazard or change in climate into a disaster, and result in the loss of basic services, damage or destruction to homes, loss of livelihoods, malnutrition, disease, disability, and loss of life.

This study analyzes the key challenges facing the urban poor given the risks associated with climate change and disasters, particularly with regard to the delivery of basic services, and identifies strategies and financing opportunities for addressing these risks.

Several key findings emerge from the study and provide guidance for addressing risk:

Country / Region Tags: 
Problem, Solution, SitRep, or ?: 

Looking Back on the Limits of Growth

      

Chart Sources: Meadows, D.H., Meadows, D.L., Randers, J. and Behrens III, W.W. (1972) /  Linda Eckstein

by Mark Strauss - Smithsonian Magazine - April 2012

Recent research supports the conclusions of a controversial environmental study released 40 years ago: The world is on track for disaster. So says Australian physicist Graham Turner, who revisited perhaps the most groundbreaking academic work of the 1970s,The Limits to Growth.

Written by MIT researchers for an international think tank, the Club of Rome, the study used computers to model several possible future scenarios. The business-as-usual scenario estimated that if human beings continued to consume more than nature was capable of providing, global economic collapse and precipitous population decline could occur by 2030.

(GO TO THE SMITHSONIAN MAGAZINE ARTICLE)

Limits to Growth: The 30-Year Update

The Club of Rome

Country / Region Tags: 
Problem, Solution, SitRep, or ?: 

New Range Power

Problem, Solution, SitRep, or ?: 

New Range Power is a global Engineering, Procurement and Construction firm committed to bringing cost effective renewable energy to the world.  Our engineers collaborate with the brightest minds on the planet to constantly push the envelope of renewable technology.  Opening our minds to future technologies while remembering the lessons of the past, we create robust affordable solutions giving you the competitive edge.

Report - Resilient People, Resilient Planet: A Future Worth Choosing

submitted by Albert Gomez

un.org - January 30, 2012

Report

The High-level Panel on Global Sustainability presents its report to the Secretary-General on 30 January 2012 in Addis Ababa.

The 22-member Panel, established by the Secretary-General in August 2010 to formulate a new blueprint for sustainable development and low-carbon prosperity, was co-chaired by Finnish President Tarja Halonen and South African President Jacob Zuma. The Panel's final report, "Resilient People, Resilient Planet: A Future Worth Choosing", contains 56 recommendations to put sustainable development into practice and to mainstream it into economic policy as quickly as possible.

Country / Region Tags: 
Problem, Solution, SitRep, or ?: 

UN Documents Propose Mandatory Sustainability Reporting

submitted by Albert Gomez

environmentalleader.com - January 31, 2012

Two influential documents – the Rio+20 negotiating text and the recommendations of the U.N. secretary general’s High Level Panel on Global Sustainability – both propose tighter sustainability reporting requirements for businesses, according to Chatham House fellow Paul Hohnen, writing in the Guardian.

In “Resilient People, Resilient Planet – A Future Worth Choosing,” published yesterday, the U.N. panel said one idea to consider is mandatory reporting by companies with market caps over $100 million. The paper also said that business groups should work with governments and international agencies to come up with a framework covering sustainable development reporting.

Country / Region Tags: 
Problem, Solution, SitRep, or ?: 

Conference - Planet Under Pressure - March 26-29, 2012 - London - New Knowledge Towards Solutions

       

     A major international conference focusing on solutions to the global sustainability challenge.

Planet under Pressure Registration deadline extension

The Planet Under Pressure management team is extending the oral presenters registration deadline to Friday 9 December and poster author registration deadline to 20 January 2012. This is in response to feedback from some delegates who require more time to identify funding opportunities.

Registration Fees

£275 + UK VAT @ 20% = £330.00 Earlybird Delegates
(delegates registering up to and including 20 January 2012)

£375 + UK VAT @ 20% = £450.00 Standard Delegates
(delegates registering after 20 January 2012)

£250 + UK VAT @ 20% = £300.00 Students

All above fees are subject to a £35 per person carbon offset contribution. This additional fee will be included on registration.

Country / Region Tags: 
Problem, Solution, SitRep, or ?: 

Resilience Alliance

There are many definitions of resilience from simple deterministic views of resilience anchored in Newtonian mechanics to far more dynamic views of resilience from a systems perspective, including insights from quantum mechanics and the sciences of complexity.  One baseline perspective of resilience sees it in terms of the viability of socio-ecological systems as the foundation for sustainability.  For those that are ready to look beyond resilience as the ability to return to the "normal state" before a disaster, take a look at:

http://www.resalliance.org/

Country / Region Tags: 
Problem, Solution, SitRep, or ?: 

Mesh Cities

 

What does it take to become a smart city?  Why are mesh cities important to sustainability?

 

For more information:

<http://www.meshcities.com/>

Country / Region Tags: 
Problem, Solution, SitRep, or ?: 

With Work Scarce in Athens, Greeks Go Back to the Land

by Rachel Donadio - The New York Times - January 8, 2012

       

Vassilis Ballas and his wife, Roula Boura, extracted the gum from a mastic tree on their 400-tree farm in Chios, Greece.  Eirini Vourloumis for The New York Times

CHIOS, Greece — Nikos Gavalas and Alexandra Tricha, both 31 and trained as agriculturalists, were frustrated working on poorly paying, short-term contracts in Athens, where jobs are scarce and the cost of living is high. So last year, they decided to start a new project: growing edible snails for export.

As Greece’s blighted economy plunges further into the abyss, the couple are joining with an exodus of Greeks who are fleeing to the countryside and looking to the nation’s rich rural past as a guide to the future.

(READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

Country / Region Tags: 
Problem, Solution, SitRep, or ?: 

Pages

Subscribe to Sustainable Development
howdy folks