Publications
Breakthroughs for the twenty-first century
| Date: | 01/07/2009 |
|---|---|
| Classification: | Breakthroughs |
| Document type: | SDC Reports & Papers |
| Rating: |  (6 reviews) |
| Download: |  SDC_Breakthroughs.pdf - 4256 KB |
| Summary: | The nineteen 'Breakthrough Ideas' set out in this document are spread across the spectrum of sustainable development, with solutions ranging from policy change to grassroots action to technological innovation. They encompass varying levels, from individuals, to communities, cities, and things that need to be done at national or international level. Indeed, many of the ideas are driven from the grassroots, but require government to act as the enabler. |
Your comments
 | Oh dear! Outdoor experiences for all children? Hardly a 'breakthrough' is it? Credit for this "dynamic and hard-hitting" idea actually goes to Everest hero Sir Jack Longland, who established the first outdoor centre in 1950 and was the first Chair of the Council for Environmental Education in 1968. The SDC displays both its ignorance and naivety in offering nothing but vague hopes for what happens next. |
 | An excellent collection of stimulating and forward looking ideas,especially around banks and paying for energy investment. I'd recommend looking beyond the carping about the online readability! |
| Good that the SDC have caught on, after 9 years, to the need for breakthroughs in sustainability. Pity then that this report entirely misses the opportunity for the radical systemic changes that are both necessary and available to implement. Instead we are offered a rehashed menu of environmentalism-as-usual. Most of the 'breakthroughs' are charming but tokenistic single-issue initiatives that would happen automatically with any big system change (but not really without it). Why call one green bank or bond a breakthrough when obviously what's needed is to build sustainability throughout finance and economics? The selection of emissions capping initiatives reinforces the delusion that environmentalism is about constraining a system that doesn't work rather than designing one that does. Biochar could be a real global breakthrough, given economics that works but the SDC still needs to realise that what's important is how it's done, not where it's done. Please don't let the SDC's timid and futile vision of 'breakthroughs' stop anyone from trying to get genuinely radical, fast, global breakthroughs. My own suggestions are given here, in a paper for NATO: |
| Agree with first comment. I found this potentially useful document unreadable online. |
 | Content very useful but please change the format of the document so that it can be read online. |
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