 |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Editor's note: This address was delivered at GOI PEACE FOUNDATION FORUM 2005 AND WORLD WISDOM COUNCIL "CREATING A NEW CIVILIZATION" Tokyo, Japan, November 12, 2005 Greetings! My thanks for the honor of addressing this important conference. Our 6 billion member human family is clearly the most successful species on planet Earth. We have colonized oceans, the moon and have set our sights on Mars: But our technological methods are clearly unsustainable. We are consuming 40% of our planet's photosynthesis, the primary production of green plants on which we rely for survival! So we face new tasks for the 21st century. We must understand ourselves and reevaluate our experience and history. We must face up to our failures, most notably, the persistence of poverty amid abundance. Conflicts and wars still haunt humanity - 60 years after the founding of the United Nations. Yet, we humans are not totally "flawed" but rather we are "evolving"! We are growing in awareness as planetary citizens. Let us look at the record of our cooperative achievements. These include the United Nations, the formation of the European Union, global corporations and great cities, Tokyo, Shanghai and New York. Today, scholars are re-evaluating the writings of Charles Darwin and discovering that he was mis-interpreted. Darwin only wrote briefly about competition and the "survival of the fittest" and focused much more on humanity's genius for bonding, cooperation and the evolution of altruism. But economics focused on competition and led to their harsh theories of "social Darwinism." Yet, the full repertoire of human behavior ranges from conflicts/competition to cooperation/ sharing. All other social sciences study this full range of human behavior: game theory, psychology, sociology, anthropology, information/decision/theory, systems theory. Only market economics - now driving globalization - focuses on competition. Humanity reached a new stage of cooperation and global visioning in 2000, with the signing by all member countries of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals. They pledged by 2015 to: * Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger * Achieve universal primary education * Promote gender equality and empower women * Reduce child mortality * Improve maternal health * Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases Now the UN Human Development Report 2005 is monitoring progress - or lack of progress toward these Goals. Concerning child mortality, human cost of missed targets over the next 10 years, for example 34.8 million child deaths could be prevented if MDGs are achieved. Yet, child deaths since January 1, 2005 were 7,032,706. The lives saved if MDG target is met: 1,165,948. So let us look at the Human Development Record of the 1990s. There has been much progress: 130 million people lifted out of extreme poverty, 2 million fewer child deaths a year, 30 million more children in school, 1.2 billion people gained access to clean water. But the downside: 2.5 billion still live on less than $2 a day: poverty reduction slowed in the 1990s, 10 million preventable child deaths every year, 115 million children still out of school, More than one billion people still have no access to safe water; 2.6 billion lack access to sanitation. So, we still have many negative trends: poverty gaps, global epidemics, HIV/AIDS, loss of biodiversity (fish stocks), C02 rising - climate disruption, terrorist attacks, civil conflicts, proliferation of nuclear weapons and arms sales. These are all consequences of out-moded thinking! We need to embrace a post-Cartesian scientific worldview. These new principles are based on the reality of interconnectedness at every system level:
There are also important positive trends, including the progress toward Millennium Development Goals, just mentioned, the spread of democracies, global NGOs & global Media, now growing into a new "Superpower"! The new Age of Light with cleaner technologies, which I'll discuss further. The trend toward global corporate citizenship, including the UN Global Compact - which has now been joined by over 2000 companies. The new accounting: "Triple Bottom Line": People, planet and profit. The growth of socially-responsible investing, which reached $2.1 trillion the USA alone. The spread of sustainability models of development and the mainstreaming of New Indicators of Progress and Quality of Life. All these post-Cartesian scientific worldviews are taking hold! The rise of grass-roots globalism, the new "Superpower" is the most creative, energetic force addressing planetary problems today. Citizens are addressing poverty, social inequities, pollution, resource-depletion, violence, and wars. Hundreds of thousands of civic leaders now organize on the Internet as the World Social Forum. Grass-roots globalism is about thinking and acting, globally and locally. Its approach to problem-solving is pragmatic. It is on-the-ground and best expressed in compassionate action. We see the growth of these international organizations from the union of International Associations, based in Brussels. Let us look again at the Age of Light: the emerging light-wave technologies (photonics): fiber optics, optical scanners, lasers, holography, solar technologies, optical computers, multi-processor, parallel computers and neural net computers, imaging technologies. The most powerful and potentially-destructive re the new biotechnologies: genetically modified organism, DNA sequences, Tagging and tracking chemicals and genes, as well as nano technologies. All required deeper moral understanding and human responsibility. We should remember that natures photons (sunlight) falling on the Earth supply enough energy in 10 minutes to put our entire six billion population in orbit! Let us now look at some of the new global initiatives for transition to sustainability: from the UN Millennium Development Goals, already mentioned, the Monterrey Consensus on finance for development - pledged by UN member countries in 2002, the International Criminal Court, which I regret that my country has not joined, to the Global Fund for AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. The Kyoto Protocol on Climate Change, which has at least begun to address limits to carbon emissions. The Global Marshall Plan for a global "eco-social" economy based on the UN Global Compact, mentioned earlier, with its 10 Principles of Good Corporate Citizenship. The UNSIA (United Nations Security Insurance Agency proposal) I made 10 years ago to help nations follow Costa Rica in abolishing their military forces and instead purchasing insurance from the UN for peace-keepers in a common security system. The Global Transition Initiative, an Internet group exploring solutions. The World Social Forum meets in many locations in January. Even business leaders know competition is always within frameworks of: cooperation, international law, shipping, airlines, as well as global and national infrastructure. Yet, business schools teach mostly competition! NEW BUSINESS SCHOOL CURRICULA, including Cornell University's Johnson Graduate School's program on Sustainable Global Enterprise, the University of North Carolina's Center for Sustainable Enterprise, Amana-Key Management Institute in Sao Paulo, Brasil, Case Western University - Center for Business As Agent of World Benefit, Presidio World College, MBA in Sustainable Business, as well as Ethical Markets Financial TV "Reforming International Finance" All this New Business School curricula is invalidating economic theory of human rationality: "maximizing self-interest in competition with all others". These more holistic programs are also re-thinking the "Washington Consensus," that obsolete economic formula that has misguided so many development policies. Gross National Product's conceptual problems from 1900-2000 let to much waste and human disruption. These failed policies result in huge Social and Environmental Costs, so these must be deducted to arrive at a real net GNP. GNP only measures prices of those goods and services traded in the market - in cash - and ignores all other valuable production services and amenities. GNP adds in all social costs as if they were desirable, valuable product! We see worldwide, examples of the bankruptcy of economic models of growth: poverty gaps, debt, the digital divide, financial crisis and excessive competition, ignoring the role of cooperation as the context of all human development. Today, critiques of economics are arising from many other disciplines: historians of science, e.g., Robert Nadeau, from physicists, e.g., Hans Peter Durr, Fritjof Capra, from thermodynamicists, e.g., Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen, from mathematics, e.g., Ralph Abraham, from neuroscience, e.g., Paul Zak, Paul Glimcher, from behavior/psychology, e.g., David Loye, Riane Eisler, and my own systems perspective. Even economists and accountants have created new principles: CERES GLOBAL REPORTING INITIATIVE, accounting for broader dimensions and criteria, measuring company performance, economic, social and environmental areas. We are reminded of the total productive system of an industrial society ( like a 3-layer cake with icing!). Layer 1 is the private sector, the icing. Layer 2 is the public sector which includes infrastructure and public services paid by taxes. Layer 3 is the Love Economy of unpaid loving services in the family and community. Layer 4 is Mother Nature and natural productivity. Economists only count the 2 top layers conducted in money and ignore the 2 lower layers which undepin our survival. The Calvert-Henderson Quality of Life Indicators were developed by me and the Calvert Group of Socially Responsible mutual funds in the USA. WE take a systems approach and measure 12 aspects of quality of life - using a multi-disciplinary approach beyond economics. We are learning deeper lessons about the 3 modes of resource-use in national development: These are Information, Matter and Energy. The most important is Information: each society's "cultural DNA," its values, goals, system of governance, economic system, management of social, human and ecological assets, science and technology and communications. Mis-information and ignorance lead to stagnation and resource-depletion. Sustainable human development and knowledge, wisdom and measuring efficiency and effectiveness of resource-utilization How matter and energy are used, is determined by our levels of knowledge, awareness and wisdom. Nations are slowly adapting to the Age of Truth. Some progress in Shifting from Macroeconomics, toward Systemic, Multi-Disciplinary Models includes: * 1974-1996 US Office of Technology Assessment (first US approaches to futures/scenario - building non-linear systems models) * 1978 Science Council of Canada Report on the Conserver Society * 1990s, debates in statistical institutes - OECD, EUROSTAT, Statistics Canada, UNEP-Finance Initiative launched, etc. * World Business Council for Sustainable Development launched at the Earth Summit * 1992 Earth Summit, Rio de Janeiro, Agenda 21 signed by 170 countries agreed to overhaul macro-economic measures, GNP/GDP to take account of social and environmental costs and benefits * 2000, Calvert Henderson Quality of Life Indicators released Desk Reference Manual after seven years of research. Now regularly updates its 12 Indicators of Quality of Life at www.calvert-henderson.com. * 2003, ICONS, Curitiba, Brazil. 700 Statisticians of Quality of Life and Sustainability convened at the First International Conference on Implementing the new Indicators of Quality of Life and Sustainability, including Bhutan's Gross National Happiness Indicator. * "Ethical Markets" TV series on PBS stations covering 44 million households in the USA A new analysis of countries "Ecological Footprint" show ecological creditors and ecological debtors. More at www.footprintnetwork.org. A new analysis of countries "Ecological Footprint" show ecological creditors and ecological debtors. More at www.footprintnetwork.org. The World Trade Organization needs to adopt principles of sustainable world trade: adherence to all United Nations principles and treaties, a well-regulated transparent, democratic global financial architecture, ending corruption, ending relocation practices based on tax holidays, calculating all traded goods and negotiations in full-cost prices, truly level playing fields on subsidies, correcting GDP per capita based economic growth measures as agreed in Rio de Janeiro in Agenda 21 (1992) and correcting stock and bond markets evaluations. We can now observe several tipping points in our global economy, including in energy supply - peak oil disruptions, in climate change-driven disasters, in the rise of China, India and Brazil, the vulnerabilities of the USA, the G20 - Shaping Fairer Trade and financial crises - global imbalances. A new Global currency reserve system may be based on a "Basket:" Dollar, Euro, Renminbe/Yen "Mercosur Currency." UN Reform is still on the agenda - most urgent is the expansion of the Security Council. Regarding fossil energy, we see fuel consumption in the US & JAPAN, where the US is still consuming 25% with only 5% of the world's population. Industrial societies are moving to services and a New Attention Economy. As Information-based economies shift to services, Time and attention become as valuable as money. There are new trade-offs, as people seek new challenges, experiences. Many opt for less income and urban stress. Traditional material goods (even cars) become commodities. Services grow as % of GNP (opera, movie tickets, music). These economies are "de-materializing." We know from many surveys what the world wants and how to pay for it using military expenditures and the Earth Charter In Action: Toward a Sustainable world, A Fair Globalization and the Global Marshall Plan. All this positive progress can be expanded by all of us in our everyday lives. Another world is possible! ***** Beyond Globalization, Building a Win-Win World, Paradigms in Progress. Some are also translated into Japanese, including my dialogue with Diasaku Ikeda, (2003). (C) Hazel Henderson, October, 2005 GOI PEACE FOUNDATION
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| All Rights Reserved. Contact: office@peaceproposal.com | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
