Growth vs. Sustainability: Is there only room for one?
Growth and Sustainability. Is there only room for one? Picture published by Carsten Tolkmit on Flickr under a CC BY-SA 2.0 license.
It’s safe to say that most people would agree: Alleviating poverty, delivering more opportunity, and providing a higher standard of living to people who need it most is good. Most people would also agree that learning to “live within our means” – learning to live in a way that is sustainable for the long term – is a good thing, too. But can these two goals coexist? Is it truly possible to deliver a higher living standard to the billions of people currently living in or near poverty without using our available resources – be it water, oil, space, arable land, or something else – at a greater rate than we can manage for the long term?
This is definitely one of the world’s most fundamental challenges, and it will not be an easy one to solve. Is it a problem that will be solved by better technology? Is it a problem that will be solved by changing our perspective on what is “enough” and how we can expect to live? Will it be solved by some combination of these two? Or will it not resolve itself at all?
What examples of successes or failures at the local or personal can we turn to? Where are perspectives or lifestyles changing to achieve this balance? Where are new technologies and ideas helping to make this balance possible? Tell us your stories.
Future Challenges authors are in 65 countries in the developed and the developing world. Take your pick from the Local Views below, and explore the ways in which writers from around the world think about this critical issue.
Tom Fries
Most recent Local Views on ‘Growth vs. Sustainability’
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on May 12, 2014. It wouldn’t start straight away. My colleague Amanda and I would begin our introductions with a traditional Fijian kava ceremony, being welcomed in to the community officially by the highest-ranking male of the village. All seated on the floor, we were placed at the front with our local project partners, […]
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Urban Growth and Poverty: The Texas Experience
Written by Samuel Chapman
on December 30, 2013. Today in the United States there are more poor people living in metro areas outside big cities than within them. From New York to California and Texas where I currently live, poverty is on the rise even in metropolitan areas experiencing steady economic growth and urban development. 50 years ago […]
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Economía plural como plan alternativo de desarrollo en Bolivia
Written by Lucia Querejazu
on November 15, 2013. Abstract: Bolivia is in need of economic growth and the presente governmet is very aware of it so they have thought of a new way to create economic growth by maintaining traditional production systems and making a stand in regards to sustainability and the protection of mother earth. However, seven […]
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The Day of the Dead – a shot of new life for the Mexican economy
Written by arzaba
on November 13, 2013. Every year in early November, the “Day of the Dead” is celebrated in Mexico. It’s a public holiday that reflects a mixture of pre-Hispanic festivities from the Aztecs, combined with the Catholic influence of All Souls’ Day brought in by the Spanish conquest. This day is one of Mexico’s most […]
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Is Norway and its Oil Fund a sustainable “resource blessing”?
Written by Anikó Mészáros
on November 9, 2013. The Norwegian Oil Fund reinvests state revenues from the country’s petroleum sector to preserve today’s wealth for future generations. This system brings together growth and sustainability – but does it in reality? Norway is known as one of the richest countries in the world. Its fortune is based on its […]
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Growth and Sustainability: The Pacific Way
Written by Morioka
on November 7, 2013. The traditional lifestyles of the Pacific Islanders are an epitome of how growth can go hand in hand with sustainability. Growth for them is not about economic acceleration. Growth is more intangible in nature; personal growth, cultural growth, spiritual growth and collective growth. Growth happens within the natural limits of […]
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The Global Implications of Geoengineering
Written by Samuel Chapman
on October 30, 2013. ~If the earth must lose that great portion of its pleasantness which it owes to things that the unlimited increase of wealth and population would extirpate from it, for the mere purpose of enabling it to support a larger, but not a better or a happier population, I sincerely hope, […]
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It’s not that easy being green
Written by Josh Grundleger
on October 29, 2013. “It’s not that easy being green.” America’s favorite frog first made this profound statement in 1970, right as the green movement got its first legs. Although Kermit may have recanted somewhat for a recent Ford Escape Hybrid commercial (some say sold out), the wisdom behind his oft-repeated observation still remains […]
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Educating its way to growth: Fiji invests in sustainability
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on October 18, 2013. Once a prosperous industry, drawing many to Fiji’s shores and an erstwhile key contributor to Fiji’s economic success, the agricultural industry is now in threat of collapse. Agriculture alone accounts for nearly 20% of Fiji’s gross domestic product and sugar exports were equal to 187 million Fiji dollars in 2009. […]
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El agronegocio soyero: ¿a quién alimenta?
Written by Lucia Querejazu
on October 7, 2013. Abstract: The Bolivian government is planning to expand the agricultural border from 3 million hectares to 13 million in twelve years. This raises two big questions: Where will these extra ten hectares be located? And what will be grown in them? If it is soy, as in the 37% of […]
