The Future of Sustainability: Have Your Say!

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

Lili-Ann Wolff, Åbo Akademi University, Finland

Moderating team: Lili-Ann Wolff argues that science alone is not enough to solve the problems facing the world. Education also has an essential role to play, and we need to engage with hearts as well as minds. The future of human life on the earth starts from a serious consideration of what is a good life and what is equality, but also what the role of humans is in the whole global ecological system.

Lili-Ann Wolfff argumenta que la ciencia por sí sola no es suficiente para resolver los problemas del mundo. La educación tiene un rol esencial y necesitamos comprometernos con el corazón y con las mentes. El futuro de la vida humana en la tierra parte de una reflexión sobre la “buena vida” y la equidad, pero también sobre el rol de los seres humanos en un sistema ecológico global.

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Many important issues regarding sustainability are addressed in this discussion. As an educator with one foot in science and the other in philosophy I cannot see science built on facts and rationality as the salvation for the world. We need rationality, but science is not enough to solve the huge problems humankind faces.

Education has an essential role to play, as already stated by others. We cannot, however, throw over to others the task of building a sustainability future by giving them some kind of tools, if we as educators do not have these tools ourselves and are willing to live sustainable today. Why believe that we could teach them to do better tomorrow than we do now. The creation of a sustainable life has to start by everybody today.

What makes it so complicated is that it has to start inside every person as it regards her or his beliefs and values. I do also believe that it has to do with conscious racing among both rich and poor inhabitants on the planet, young and old, urban citizens as well as rural.

Both education and science have to give a realistic picture of the state of the world, but also show positive features. A possible future for humans on the earth is not only a matter of facts, people do also have feelings and all kinds of personal needs. But the future of human life on the earth is first and foremost dependent on human responsibility and eqality. I would like to phrase it shortly the following way:

Every person on this earth has the same right to a good life to a degree that will not deprive anybody else from a good life as well.

That means that what is a good life is not similar for everyone, not fixed and always limited. And the limit is not only dependent on other humans, but all our biological systems.

Creating a sustainable future seen in this way, therefore, starts from a serious consideration of what is a good life and what is equality, but also what the role of humans is in the whole global ecological system.