The Future of Sustainability: Have Your Say!

Week One - “Global Challenges to Sustainability in the Twenty-First Century”
Comment / Comentario / Commentaire

Sohail Mahmood, Preston University, Pakistan

Moderating team: Sohail Mahmood agrees that the bleak state of the planet should be stated forcefully, but that we need to rekindle hope as well as find some workable solutions that we can communicate to the public in meaningful ways.

Sohail Mahmood concuerda en la importancia de advertir sobre el estado deplorable del planeta. Sin embargo, necesitamos repensar la esperanza y encontrar soluciones prácticas que puedan comunicarse al público de manera significativa.

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The discussion is on ways to move forward with hope that we can turn things around. But my colleagues have also mentioned the bleak state of affairs on our planet. The situation is bad and not every one is convinced about the fact. Therefore, there is nothing wrong in stating the obvious in forceful language like that used by Jeff. The point has to be made and forcefully. Having convinced the general public on the seriousness of the problem, we indeed have to rekindle hope, as suggested by Gillian. He is certainly right in suggesting that we should celebrate what we have achieved no matter how small and also talk about what works. Yes, we do need to sound more optimistic but only after the grave reality of the environmental problem has been set in the public mind. It is not necessary that this be done by the same scientists who convinced the public that the crisis existed. Others, like Gillian can and should step in at this point in the debate. The point is that pessimism on the problem- the actual state of affairs - must be spelt out clearly, and then the debate on the solutions will acquire some urgency and due attention.

Anyway, let us all resolve to convince the world that something must be done fast before things go real bad in our only world.

This brings us to the action phase. Gayle is right in emphasizing that a plan of action in a carefully worked out strategy in a given framework. A lot of talk of environmental solutions in numerous conferences is hardly doable, at least in our part of the world. There is a real challenge to come up with the right kind of solutions that can be actually implemented. Maybe, we have to look into Gayle's ideas of workable action in all seriousness. But here also the challenge is to simplify the message so that the public can understand easily. At least, this should be done from the platform of the IUCN. Remember a lot of people, like myself, are not really interested in the technical nitty gritty of the environmental problem but are only looking at the general plan of action and strategies to sole global-level environmental problems. In other words, let us produce some literature that is both positive in tone, as suggested by Gillian, and also some workable solutions, as suggested by Gayle in language easily grasped by non-scientists like me. Given our pre-occupations, many people are not willing to read a lot of technical stuff given in endless accounts. Simplify the strategies, plans of actions, and next steps in a language that we can all share. The whole debate should be out of the closed community of scientists and professionals and should now reach the wider public. Through public pressure we can change the priorities of the governments in power. The focus is to start a movement aimed at the ruling elites through the pressure of the people from below. We can and should join forces to turn things around. After all, we are the most educated generation in the history of the world.

This change of direction is surely expected from us and can indeed happen.