[EQ] Common Wealth - Economics for a Crowded Planet

Common Wealth    - Economics for a Crowded Planet

Jeffrey D. Sachs – ISBN 9781594201271 - 18 Mar 2008 - The Penguin Press

   

Common Wealth Forum: http://www.sachs.earth.columbia.edu/commonwealth/reviews.php

 

"……The global economic system now faces a sustainability crisis, Jeffrey Sachs argues, that will overturn many of our basic assumptions about economic life. The changes will be deeper than a rebalancing of economics and politics among different parts of the world; the very idea of competing nation-states scrambling for power, resources, and markets will, in some crucial respects, become passŽ. The only question is how bad it will have to get before we face the unavoidable. We will have to learn on a global scale some of the hard lessons that successful societies have gradually and grudgingly learned within national borders: that there must be common ground between rich and poor, among competing ethnic groups, and between society and nature.

 

The central theme of Jeffrey Sachs's new book is that we need a new economic paradigm-global, inclusive, cooperative, environmentally aware, science based-because we are running up against the realities of a crowded planet. The alternative is a worldwide economic collapse of unprecedented severity. Prosperity will have to be sustained through more cooperative processes, relying as much on public policy as on market forces to spread technology, address the needs of the poor, and to husband threatened resources of water, air, energy, land, and biodiversity.

The "soft issues" of the environment, public health, and population will become the hard issues of geopolitics. New forms of global politics will in important ways replace capital-city-dominated national diplomacy and intrigue. National governments, even the United States, will become much weaker actors as scientific networks and socially responsible investors and foundations become the more powerful actors.

 

If we do the right things, there is room for all on the planet. We can achieve the four key goals of a global society: prosperity for all, the end of extreme poverty, stabilization of the global population, and environmental sustainability. These are not utopian goals or pipe dreams, yet they are far from automatic. Indeed, we are not on a successful trajectory now to achieve these goals. Common Wealth points the way to the course correction we must embrace for the sake of our common future…."

 

 

Conference: State of the Planet 08

March 27-28, 2008

 

Website: http://www.earth.columbia.edu/sop2008/

The Earth Institute -  Columbia University

Registration to watch live online: http://www.earth.columbia.edu/sop2008/

 

Agenda Thursday, March 27, 2008
9:30 a.m.	Welcome: John C. Mutter, State of the Planet Steering Committee
9:45 a.m.	Opening Remarks Lee C. Bollinger, Columbia University
10:00 a.m.	Keynote Kofi A. Annan, Former Secretary-General of the United Nations President, Global Humanitarian Forum
10:20 a.m.	Session 1: Eradicating Poverty as the Poor Population Expands Moderator: Matthew Bishop, The Economist
	Session Keynote Asha-Rose Migiro, Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations
	Panel Gregory Clark, University of California-Davis John McArthur, The Earth Institute at Columbia University Erik S. Reinert, The Other Canon Foundation, Norway Carl-Henric Svanberg, President and CEO, Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson Laurence Tubiana, Sciences Po Paris
1:45 p.m.	Global Health and the Foreign Policy Agenda Jonas Gahr Støre, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Norway
2:15 p.m.	Session 2: Addressing Areas of Conflict in Our Changing World Moderator: Jonathan Ledgard, The Economist
	Session Keynote Jan Egeland, Norwegian Institute of International Affairs Panel Kathryn McPhail, International Council on Mining & Metals (ICMM) Andrew Morton, United Nations Environment Programme Jill Shankleman, J. Shankleman Limited David Victor, Stanford University
4:15 p.m.	Improving Health for Sustainable Development Alice Dautry, President, Institut Pasteur
4:45 p.m.	Closing Remarks
	Jeffrey D. Sachs, The Earth Institute at Columbia University
6:30 p.m.	Special Evening Event
	The Economist Debates: The United States and Climate Change Proposition: "The United States  will solve the climate change problem."
	Host: Vijay V. Vaitheeswaran, The Economist
Friday, March 28, 2008
9:30 a.m.	Special Lecture: The Challenge of Sustainable Development in the Next Administration Jeffrey D. Sachs
10:00 a.m.	Keynote Barbara Thomas Judge, Chairman, UK Atomic Energy Authority
10:30 a.m.	Session 3: Identifying Energy Solutions for Sustainable Development Sponsored by the    Columbia Business School Energy Club and    School of International and Public Affairs Energy Association Moderator: Edward Mcbride, The Economist
	Session Keynote
	Paula DiPerna, Chicago Climate Exchange
	Panel
	Eron Bloomgarden, EcoSecurities
	Michael Grubb, UK Carbon Trust
	Klaus S. Lackner, The Earth Institute at Columbia University
	Roberto Rodrigues, Superior Agriculture Council of São Paulo's Federation of Industries
2:00 p.m.	Session 4: Responding to Accelerated Environmental Change in the Arctic Sponsored by the    Royal Norwegian Consulate General Moderator: Geoffrey Carr, The Economist
	Panel
	Ken Drinkwater, University of Bergen, Norway
	Grete K. Hovelsrud, Center for International Climate and Environmental Research
	Eystein Jansen, University of Bergen, Norway
	Peter Schlosser, The Earth Institute at Columbia University
	Daniel M. White, Institute of Northern Engineering
4:10 p.m.	Closing Remarks: Jeffrey D. Sachs

 

 

 

 

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