2007 What has tipped the social/ political/ economic environment in the USA so that things “green” and “sustainable” have come to the top of the public agenda, raising genuine issues along with corresponding bandwagon effects?
A little recent history:
1972 Limits to Growth by Donella Meadows et al. modeled the consequences of a rapidly growing world population and finite resource supplies, commissioned by the Club of Rome.
1972 A Blueprint for Survival by Edward Goldsmith et al. published as The Ecologist Vol. 2 No.1, in advance of the UN Conference on the Human Environment
1972 United Nations Conference on the Human Environment, in Stockholm.
1979 Gaia by James Lovelock: understanding planetary ecological systems as a single resilient, adaptive system.
1980 World Conservation Strategy published by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature. Coined the term "sustainable development" recognizing the link between environment and development.
1987 Our Common Future, the report of the Brundtland Commission, formally the World Commission on Environment and Development, convened by the United Nations in 1983. Provided a definition of “Sustainable development”:
"Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs."
1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), better known as the Earth Summit, Rio de Janeiro: at which various approaches to implementing the Brundtland Commission’s report were presented.
Also published in 1992 was the City of Ottawa’s (the Canadian Capital city) Official Plan – whose Mission Statement and Environmental Management Strategy I wrote, based on the above. See draft pages here.
