development - Blog - SCOCO Network2024-03-29T06:12:30Zhttps://sustainablecoco.ning.com/profiles/blogs/feed/tag/development“One web site. One action plan. One planet” - Vision by Willi Paul, CommunityAlchemy.comhttps://sustainablecoco.ning.com/profiles/blogs/one-web-site-one-action-plan-one-planet-vision-by-willi-paul2014-10-11T15:30:00.000Z2014-10-11T15:30:00.000ZWilli Paulhttps://sustainablecoco.ning.com/members/WilliPaul<div><div class="field field-type-image field-field-image"><div class="field-label"></div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item odd"><a href="http://www.planetshifter.com/node/2219" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.planetshifter.com/uploads/imagecache/standard/centerspace_113.png" class="align-center" alt="centerspace_113.png" /></a></div></div></div><p></p><p style="text-align:center;"><span class="font-size-4"><strong>“One web site. One action plan. One planet” - Vision by Willi Paul, <a href="http://www.planetshifter.com/node/2219">CommunityAlchemy.com</a></strong></span></p><p></p><p>One big dream that has recently meandered up my stained whiteboard laments a “super nova-global-local” re-alignment of people and resources. A kind of “last dance” campaign, with a hoped for “Beatles coming to America” cultural impact and vision!</p><p></p><p>* * * * * * *</p><p>The zillion web masters, their CEO’s and followers banking on today’s electronic frontier must give up server control and join the One Web Site platform. Everything commercial is juried, rated and ranked. Many sales sites decline and drop from the pressure of the sustainability filters. Not-for-profit causes are also scrutinized through critical real Earth parameters like their impact on climate change and species extinction. Putting the planet into one web site (and one global marketplace) will have many untold synergies, energy savings and human-Nature benefits, not yet realized today.</p><p></p><p>I recently asked my Transition-flavored listserv based in Palo Alto if the group had an action plan. Days past: pure silence. Now I realize my hypocrisy! <strong>I have no action plan</strong>. Interests, posts, reads and memories do not bundle into a robust schedule with goals. There are too many disparate movements, like permaculture, with loads of egos, heart and event pages but no long range strategic plans. Why is this?</p><p></p><p>The one web site plan is a great way to distill the issues, generate transparency across countries and reduce the politics and competition between the haves and have not’s - and plan for a just and unified global future.</p><p></p><p>In <a href="http://wwf.panda.org/about_our_earth/all_publications/living_planet_report/">World Wildlife Federation’s <em>Living Planet Report 2014</em></a>, they state: “We are using nature’s gifts as if we <strong>had more than just one Earth</strong> at our disposal. By taking more from our ecosystems and natural processes than can be replenished, we are jeopardizing our very future. Nature conservation and sustainable development go hand-in-hand. They are not only about preserving biodiversity and wild places, but just as much about safeguarding the future of humanity – our well-being, economy, food security and social stability – indeed, our very survival.”</p><p></p><p>We have one planet. Let’s risk attending a few more community workshops before the music stops and our beloved Amazon returns Error 404.</p><p></p><p><strong>This is my mythology and action plan. </strong></p><p></p><p></p></div>The Right Path for People and the Planet: Putting Population and Consumption Back on the Agendahttps://sustainablecoco.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-right-path-for-people-and-the-planet-putting-population-and2012-05-14T21:54:42.000Z2012-05-14T21:54:42.000ZHowMany.orghttps://sustainablecoco.ning.com/members/HowManyorg<div><p align="center"><span style="font-family:Arial, sans-serif;font-size:medium;" class="font-size-3">By Suzanne York, <a href="http://www.howmany.org/" target="_blank">HowMany.org</a>, May 14, 2012</span></p><p></p><p><span class="font-size-3"><font face="Arial, sans-serif"><i><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}8095725079,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img src="{{#staticFileLink}}8095725079,original{{/staticFileLink}}" width="260" class="align-right" alt="8095725079?profile=original" /></a>People and the Planet</i> a report by the U.K.'s Royal Society, does not break any new ground, but it does a good job of putting some important and overlooked issues back on the international agenda.</font></span></p><p></p><p><span class="font-size-3"><font face="Arial, sans-serif">Paul Nurse, president of the Royal Society, says in the foreword that the hope is for the report to be “a springboard for further discussion and action by national and international Governments, scientific bodies, non-governmental organizations, the media and many others.”</font></span></p><p></p><p><span class="font-size-3"><font face="Arial, sans-serif">This is a clear overview of the impacts of human population and consumption on the planet – essentially that population needs to be stabilized, unsustainable consumption in the most developed countries must be reduced, and we must lift the 1.3 billion poorest people out of extreme poverty. In other words, initiatives the world should be undertaking anyway to improve lives.</font></span></p><p></p><p><span class="font-size-3"><font face="Arial, sans-serif">The timing of the report is crucial. The 23 scientists who contributed to <i>People and the Planet</i> urgently recommend putting the population-consumption-environment link on the agenda for the upcoming United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development in Rio de Janeiro this June. This connection was recognized in the 1992 Rio Earth Summit, but has been pushed off the international agenda ever since. Now it is needed more than ever before; human population numbers are still growing and the environment is increasingly plundered for resources to satisfy consumer appetites.</font></span></p><p></p><p><span class="font-size-3"><font face="Arial, sans-serif">So it is two steps forward, three steps back. The world had already agreed two decades ago on the urgency of curbing unsustainable consumption and stabilizing population. The 1992</font> <font face="Arial, sans-serif"><i>Rio Declaration on Environment and Development</i></font><font face="Arial, sans-serif">, Principle 8, acknowledged that</font> <font face="Arial, sans-serif"><font size="3">“</font></font><font face="Arial, sans-serif"><font size="3">To achieve sustainable development and a higher quality of life for all people, States should reduce and eliminate unsustainable patterns of production and consumption and promote appropriate demographic policies.”</font></font> <font face="Arial, sans-serif"><font size="3"><i>Agenda 21</i></font></font><font face="Arial, sans-serif"><font size="3">, the blueprint for sustainable development that also came out of Rio in 1992, <a href="http://www.un.org/esa/dsd/agenda21/res_agenda21_05.shtml">stated</a> “The growth of world population and production combined with unsustainable consumption patterns places increasingly severe stress on the life-supporting capacities of our planet.”</font></font></span></p><p></p><p><span class="font-size-3"><font face="Arial, sans-serif">The Royal Society scientists simply and forthrightly state that “The relationship between population, consumption and the environment is not straightforward, as the natural environment and human socio-economic systems are complex in their own right.”</font></span></p><p></p><p><span class="font-size-3"><font face="Arial, sans-serif">Writers with</font> <font face="Arial, sans-serif"><i>The Economist</i></font> <font face="Arial, sans-serif">and</font> <font face="Arial, sans-serif"><i>Forbes</i></font><font face="Arial, sans-serif">, supporters of continuing economic growth, unsurprisingly ridiculed much of the report. <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/blog/2012/apr/26/royal-society-report-consumption-population">Others</a> have said we should not worry, human ingenuity will save us from the deleterious effects of our population and consumption. No doubt, human prowess and innovation/technology will solve some of the problems facing the world. Yet the reality is that we live on one planet with finite resources and shouldn't place all our bets on technology and the market. The report's authors conclude that “The combined effects of market forces and new technologies are not able to overcome planetary boundaries on the scale necessary to avoid unsustainable pressure on the planet and much human suffering.”</font></span></p><p></p><p><span class="font-size-3"><font face="Arial, sans-serif">It comes down to supporting well-being for both people and the planet. Inclusive, holistic, grassroots, and democratic approaches are ways to improve lives, communities, and the ecosystem.</font></span></p><p></p><p><span class="font-size-3"><font face="Arial, sans-serif">Others have echoed similar positions. Babatunde Osotimehin, executive director of the United Nations Population Fund, in support of the report, <a href="http://www.un.org/News/briefings/docs//2012/120501_Population.doc.htm">said</a> that the solution required dramatic changes in behavior, as well as investment in sustainable resources, technologies and infrastructure. And, he emphasized, “It also required broad commitment to social justice and equity.”</font></span></p><p></p><p><span class="font-size-3"><font face="Arial, sans-serif">Some of this has fallen off the international radar, but there's still time and fortunately the will to bring it back into the light.</font></span></p><p></p><p><span class="font-size-3"><font face="Arial, sans-serif">In the words of Sir John Sulston, a Nobel Laureate and chair of the <i>People and the Planet</i> working group, "Humanity must now act collectively and constructively if we are to face the future with confidence."</font></span></p><p></p><p><span class="font-size-3"><font face="Arial, sans-serif"><font size="2"><i>Suzanne York is a Senior Writer with the Institute for Population Studies, <a href="http://www.howmany.org/" target="_blank">www.howmany.org</a></i></font></font></span></p></div>