Sharing
the Planet: Population
- Consumption - Species
Science
and Ethics for a Sustainable and Equitable World
(Eburon
Academic Publishers)
Look for the book at Chicago University Press
or
Amazon
Summary
Some major environmental and development problems - such as the loss
of species, climate change and human poverty - have significantly worsened
over the last decade of the 20th century. The outcomes of the World
Summit on Sustainable Development, held in Johannesburg in 2002, make
many pessimistic about our capacity to solve these problems. The internationally
renowned scholars contributing to this volume conclude that immense
endeavours by the international community are required over the first
decades of the new millennium to effectively deal with the challenge
ahead of establishing sustainable development. They also conclude that
a renewed public awareness is needed of the inescapable limits of our
planet's resources. The complexity of the interconnections between the
many issues and various dimensions of the sustainability conundrum makes
that some have lost grip of overseeing the entirety of the problematique.
There is therefore continuing need for clear expositions of the totality
of the challenge. One of the essential elements of this challenge is
to imminently address the rapid, human-induced, loss of species. This
book aims to fill an often-existing gap: it assesses various specific
biodiversity-related features in detail, while attempting not to lose
track of the sustainability problem at large. Moreover, the purpose
is to formulate realistic strategies that can contribute to bringing
about changes in the international policy arena necessary for reaching
a sustainable and equitable world. The book is intended for scientists,
policy-makers, and interested and concerned world citizens alike.
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Contributors
|
Bas de Gaay
Fortman
Anne Ehrlich
Jane Goodall
Radha Holla
Roefie Hueting
Dwijen Mallick
Arthur Petersen
Atiq Rahman
Lucas Reijnders |
Friedrich Schmidt-Bleek
Vandana Shiva
Koo van der Wal
Bob van der Zwaan
Jan van Hooff
Johan van Klinken
Ernst von Weizsäcker
Jan Pronk (preface) |
(Left to right)
Arthur Petersen, Jan Pronk and
Bas de Gaay Fortman.
|
(Front row,
from left to right) Phil Smith, Lucas Reijnders and Bas de Gaay
Fortman; (back row, from left to right) Bob van der Zwaan, Arthur
Petersen and Jan Pronk. |
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About the Editors
Bob van der Zwaan, physicist, economist
and international affairs specialist, is researcher at the Energy research
Centre of the Netherlands and Harvard University, where his major specialisations
are in energy innovation and climate change.
Arthur Petersen, physicist, philosopher
and atmospheric scientist, is senior policy analyst at the Netherlands
Environmental Assessment Agency, where he leads the agency's efforts
in uncertainty assessment and communication.
About Pugwash and Sharing
the Planet
The purpose of the Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs
(in short 'Pugwash') is to bring together, from around the world, influential
scholars and public figures concerned with reducing the danger of armed
conflict and seeking cooperative solutions for global problems such
as those related to poverty alleviation and protection of the environment.
Meeting in private as individuals, rather than as representatives of
national governments or home institutions, Pugwash participants exchange
views and explore alternative approaches to problems at the intersection
between the natural sciences and international affairs. Pugwash and
one of its founders, Sir Joseph Rotblat, received the Nobel Peace Prize
for 1995.
Pugwash is called after the village where the first meeting was held,
in 1957, in Nova Scotia, Canada - birthplace of the host, philantropist
Cyrus Eaton. The stimulus for the gathering was the Manifesto issued
in 1955 by Bertrand Russell and Albert Einstein, which called upon scientists
of all political persuasions to assemble and discuss the threat posed
to human civilisation by the advent of thermonuclear weapons. The 1957
meeting was attended by 22 eminent scientists from 10 different countries
belonging to both sides of the two opposed Western and Eastern blocks
of power.
From 12 through 14 June 2002, the Netherlands chapter of Pugwash organised
the Symposium Sharing the Planet: Population - Consumption - Species,
in Groningen, the Netherlands. The participants of the Symposium adopted
the Groningen Manifesto, addressed to the representatives of
the World Summit on Sustainable Development, held in Johannesburg later
that year. The current volume presents some of the written and elaborated
contributions to the Symposium, constituting the scientific and ethical
basis of the Groningen Manifesto.
www.pugwash.org
www.pugwash.nl
