Inner Power

How Nations Can Tackle Environmental Crises By Shifting Priorities To Sustainable Development


Listen Later

Written by Kai Chan


In May 2019, a United Nations report on biodiversity made headlines for the bad news it contained: A million species at risk of extinction. The biosphere’s many contributions to people are being degraded by a variety of industrial activities and resource use. Freshwater, soils and a stable climate are all under threat and giving way to droughts, floods, zoonotic diseases and more.


Amid all the bad news, however, were bright lights. I was one of the authors of that report, and we found a way out of the mess, with the seeds of solutions sprouting all over the world. While the report delivered a jarring message that only transformative change could address the climate and ecological crises, it also laid out a pathway to sustainability.


After days of negotiations with 132 nations over the wording of the report’s summary, the other authors and I left Paris full of hope. Yet 14 months later, many nations already seem to have lost their way, focusing on restoring pre-COVID-19 economies rather than building resilient social and ecological systems for thriving sustainability.


Continue Reading At InnerSelf.com


Read by Marie T Russell. Publisher InnerSelf

Music By Caffeine Creek Band, Pixabay


About The Author

Kai Chan is a professor at the Institute for Resources, Environment and Sustainability at the University of British Columbia. Kai is an interdisciplinary, problem-oriented sustainability scientist, trained in ecology, policy, and ethics from Princeton and Stanford Universities. He strives to understand how social-ecological systems can be transformed to be both better and wilder. Kai leads CHANS lab (Connecting Human and Natural Systems), and is co-founder of CoSphere (a Community of Small-Planet Heroes).He is also the lead editor of the British Ecological Society's journal, People and Nature.


This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

...more
View all episodesView all episodes
Download on the App Store

Inner PowerBy InnerSelfcom


More shows like Inner Power

View all
Sigma Nutrition Radio by Danny Lennon

Sigma Nutrition Radio

387 Listeners

Nutrition Facts with Dr. Greger by Michael Greger, M.D. FACLM

Nutrition Facts with Dr. Greger

3,438 Listeners

The Liz Earle Wellbeing Show by Liz Earle

The Liz Earle Wellbeing Show

233 Listeners

The Exam Room by the Physicians Committee by Physicians Committee

The Exam Room by the Physicians Committee

3,366 Listeners

The Doctor's Kitchen Podcast by Dr Rupy Aujla

The Doctor's Kitchen Podcast

582 Listeners

Feel Better, Live More with Dr Rangan Chatterjee by Dr Rangan Chatterjee: GP & Author

Feel Better, Live More with Dr Rangan Chatterjee

3,894 Listeners

The Proof with Simon Hill by Live better for longer

The Proof with Simon Hill

2,603 Listeners

The Wellness Scoop by The Wellness Scoop

The Wellness Scoop

1,309 Listeners

ZOE Science & Nutrition by ZOE

ZOE Science & Nutrition

2,039 Listeners