Keynes, policy and environmental crisis

CALL FOR EMERGENCY ACTION TO LIMIT GLOBAL TEMPERATURE INCREASES, RESTORE BIODIVERSITY, AND PROTECT HEALTH

Call for emergency action to limit global temperature increases, restore biodiversity, and protect health.

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Call for emergency action to limit global temperature increases, restore biodiversity, and protect health

Call for emergency action to limit global temperature increases, restore biodiversity, and protect health

During August 2021, a wildfire outbreak in Evia, Greece’s second largest island, resulted in a major environmental and economic crisis. Apart from biodiversity and habitat loss, the disaster triggered a financial crisis because it wiped out wood-productive forests and outdoor areas that attract visitors. This crisis highlighted the need for a new governance model in order to respond to environmental crises more effectively. The aim of this study was to investigate the acceptance and attitudes of relevant stakeholders towards establishing a Hub—a proposed governance model responsible for monitoring and restoring the natural capital and biodiversity after environmental crises. Results based on quantitative data collected via questionnaires showed that most respondents were positive to the Hub and perceived that its main functions should be to recommend measures after environmental crises and to facilitate cooperation among involved stakeholders. Moreover, results pointed to preferred funding sources, stakeholder groups that should participate in the Hub and key performance indicators (KPIs) for monitoring Hub’s performance. The applied methodology could guide the establishment of governance models both in the study area and other countries facing environmental crises.

Sustainability means perpetuating the living conditions on our planet. All living conditions, no one excluded, are produced by ecosystem services, including the environmental stability and the physiological equilibrium that protect our health. Nature perpetuates these ecosystem services by spontaneously regenerating the biosphere. A corollary of these enunciations is that there cannot be sustainability without regeneration or, in other words, that sustainability is just regeneration. It is, therefore, urgent to address and quantify the regenerative capacity of the planet, which is the difference between the net primary production and human extraction of resources. Natural capital depletion is also a cause of poverty and inequality, due to its impacts on food security and on the economy in general. A second corollary of our diagnosis is that, due to its multisystem complexity—economic, social and environmental—sustainability must be managed with a systemic approach; in other words, it cannot be managed from a reductionist angle. The paper is structured in sections that address the transition from Holocene to Anthropocene and its implications, i.e. the fact that a clear-cut distinction between nature and culture no longer holds, while humans need to support the regeneration of lost natural capital. Then a section follows that addresses the close links between the social crisis (increasing inequalities) and the environmental crisis, and explains why any attempt to regenerate lost ecosystem services requires also action to fight inequalities and improve well-being of all. An analysis of the deep drivers of the environmental and social crisis is followed by a conceptual discussion of regeneration and its relationships with sustainability. This leads to the formulation of some proposals for a regenerative commitment of society, including in particular entrepreneurs and scientists, in the form of a Manifesto with five policy recommendations.

This chapter considers how the citizens of the planet might imagine a more equitable future and also work to minimise future carbon pollution and other damaging, irreversible changes to global systems, both physical and cultural. New ideas of the global emerge when the discourse of the environmental humanities begins from off-centre, in extreme environments like Sweden and Australia. The chapter discusses how a planetary vision demands negotiation with geological time, not just the short time frames of human economies, and then point to the value of peripheral vision in understanding the global scales of the Anthropocene. In 2001, the Australian National University hosted a new initiative in the ecological humanities, an interdisciplinary rapprochement between nature and culture, and between science and the humanities, at a time of 'environmental crisis'. The National strategy explicitly included protection of biodiversity and ecosystem processes, which has since been widely enshrined in Australian environmental law.

Nowadays, Pakistan faces sever environmental problems in spite of existing laws willing to defend the sustainable environment. In today’s environmental crisis, print media has a unique role to play among various stakeholders which consists of policy makers, Government, NGO’s and the public at large level. No one can deny from the role of print media as a source of information about education for millions of readers. There are many newspapers such as national Urdu, English and regional published daily in Pakistan. In Pakistan, media is also divided language with series of media in vernacular languages including Sindhi, Punjabi and Pashto. In this research, the content analysis of three newspapers Daily Dawn, Daily Jang and Daily Kawish was done of 2016, year to check the Length and Frequency of five major environmental issues Water Crisis, Agriculture Crisis, Pollution, Climate change and Deforestation. The data of following issues were analyzed by using tabulations month wise and finally year wise. English newspaper Dawn has given more coverage to these concerned issues, while secondly Urdu Jang newspaper has given coverage and Kawish has covered less number of stories regarding five major environmental issues.

The fallacies of central bank independence

Recent literature has drawn attention to the complex relationship between health care and the environmental crisis. Healthcare systems are significant contributors to climate change and environmental degradation, and the environmental crisis is making our health worse and thus putting more pressure on healthcare systems; our health and the environment are intricately linked. In light of this relationship, we might think that there are no trade-offs between health and the environment; that healthcare decision-makers have special responsibilities to the environment; and that environmental values should be included in healthcare resource-allocation decisions. However, we argue that these claims are mistaken. The environmental crisis involves a wider range of considerations than just health. There is a plurality of reasons to act on the environment; we might do so to protect the natural world, to prevent catastrophes in other parts of the world, or to avert climate war and displacement. Trading-off between health care and environmental sustainability is thus unavoidable and requires sensitivity to all these reasons. Healthcare decision-makers are not well placed to be sensitive to these reasons, nor do they have the democratic authority to make such value judgements. Therefore, decisions about environmental sustainability interventions should be made at a 'higher level' of resource allocation. Importantly, hospitals have environmental duties but not environmental responsibilities; their job is to provide the best healthcare possible within the constraints given to them, not to choose between health care and other goods.

Special Edition: Financial Crisis - Environmental Crisis: What is the Link?

The social and environmental crises are significant challenges faced by the world today, focusing on sustainable development. This research aims to identify social and environmental issues and the relationship between them, seeking solutions to these global challenges. The methods used include a literature review and data analysis from various relevant sources. The results indicate that social issues such as poverty, economic inequality, and discrimination are closely linked to environmental issues like climate change, pollution, and deforestation. Social problems often exacerbate environmental degradation, while environmental crises negatively impact social well-being. In conclusion, a holistic and collaborative approach involving multiple sectors and stakeholders is needed to find sustainable solutions. Technological innovation, wise public policies, increased social awareness, and changes in consumer behavior are crucial in addressing these challenges. Cultural transformation and active community participation are also required to create a balance between human needs and environmental sustainability.

This study aims to find out what narratives of sustainable development are dominant and what is limited to the presentation of the contents of elementary school textbooks in Indonesia. This study uses quantitative and descriptive content analysis with an instrument in an analysis sheet based on theory. The data sources are 51 elementary thematic textbooks from grades one to six. The study results show that the concept of sustainable development (SDGs) consists of 17 goals and education for sustainable development (ESD). These aspects include social, environmental, economic Sustainability, inclusive development, generally widely spread across all grade levels with varying portions in each grade. The distribution of material related to Social Sustainability (SS) and Environmental Sustainability (EnS) aspects is presented in a small and limited percentage. Meanwhile, materials about aspects of Economic Sustainability (ES) and Sustainability of Inclusive Development (SID) have the most significant portion. Materials on economic growth and activities and the use of natural resources as the mainstay of sustainable development are still dominant, while the roots of the environmental crisis and prevention of ecological damage are still missing.
 
 Keywords: Sustainable Development Goals, Education for Sustainable Development, Textbooks, Environmental Crisis

Thank God men cannot fly, and lay waste the sky as well as the earth. – Henry David Thoreau This chapter addresses the human dynamics of environmental protection and ecological sustainability. An ecologically sustainable future depends on a large-scale increase in environmentally responsible behavior (ERB) and a global decrease in environmentally harmful behavior (EHB). Some behaviors degrade the environment, while others protect our Mother Earth. Indeed, the sustainability of our planet is inextricably linked to human behavior. Consider the issues that confront and challenge environmental resources: overpopulation; climate change; loss of biodiversity; inadequate access to water; ocean acidification; pollution; ozone layer depletion; the extinction of many fish species; and deforestation. Applied behavioral science (ABS) can play a crucial role in addressing our environmental crises. Almost three decades ago, B. F. Skinner defined this crisis elegantly and succinctly: Most thoughtful people agree that the world is in serious trouble … fossil fuels will not last forever, and many other critical resources are nearing exhaustion; the earth grows steadily less habitable; and all this is exacerbated by a burgeoning population that resists control. The timetable may not be clear, but the threat is real. That many people have begun to find a recital of these dangers tiresome is perhaps an even greater threat. Some claim our environmental crisis has reached proportions beyond salvation; others maintain a relentless optimism regarding planetary concerns. A “business as usual” stance has been adopted in some quarters (as if environmental problems will correct themselves naturally); others believe high-technology engineering, physics, biology, and chemistry will rescue us. Today, organizations and individuals routinely incorporate “green” or pro-environment ideas into their language, but the rhetoric has not resulted in large-scale actively caring behaviors on behalf of Mother Earth. Or noticeably positive results. We have a problem of environmental sustainability and a problem of human denial, helplessness, and apathy. Current theories and intervention approaches need to be considered (which are reviewed in this chapter) if the three main sources of the earth's environmental threats are to be effectively addressed – human overpopulation, over consumption, and under conservation.