Prof. M.M. Pant

GOLDEN JUBILEE CONCLAVE

Education and Sustainable

Development

Malthus ( 1798) re-surrected The Limits to Growth is a 1972

book modeling the consequences of a rapidly growing world population and finite resource supplies, commissioned by the Club of Rome.

Its authors were Donella H. Meadows, Dennis L. Meadows, Jørgen Randers, and William W. Behrens III. The book used the World3 model to simulate the consequence of interactions between the Earth's and human systems.

Modelling the world ?

Five variables were examined in the original model, on the assumptions that exponential growth accurately described their patterns of increase, and that the ability of technology to increase the availability of resources grows only linearly.

These variables are: world population, industrialization , pollution, food production and resource depletion.

The authors intended to explore the possibility of a sustainable feedback pattern that would be achieved by altering growth trends among the five variables.

The Updates

The most recent updated version was published on June 1, 2004 by Chelsea Green Publishing Company and Earthscan under the name Limits to Growth: The 30-Year Update.

Donnella Meadows, Jørgen Randers, and Dennis Meadows have updated and expanded the original version.

They had previously published Beyond the Limits in 1993 as a 20 year update on the original material.

Stages of Growth

Initial slow linear Rapid acceleration Leveling off : plateau Stable or maybe decline

Gompertz Curve

A Gompertz curve or Gompertz function, named after Benjamin Gompertz, is a sigmoid function.

It is a type of mathematical model , where growth is slowest at the start and end of a time period.

The right-hand or future value asymptote of the function is approached much more gradually by the curve than the left-hand or lower valued asymptote.

This is in contrast to the logistic function in which both asymptotes are approached by the curve symmetrically.

The Theme Today is Technology for Sustainable Development

So, how does education figure?

Education is the key to sustainable development.

And it is not about knowledge alone

But about behavioral change: changing mindsets

Six Blind Man and Elephant

Introduction

Once upon a time, there lived six blind men in a village. One day the villagers told them, "Hey, there is an elephant in the village today."

They had no idea what an elephant is. They decided, "Even though we would not be able to see it, let us go and feel it anyway." All of them went where the elephant was. Everyone of them touched the elephant.

1st Man

"Hey, the elephant is a pillar,”

— said the first man who touched his leg.

2nd Man

"Oh, no! it is like a rope”

—said the second man who touched the tail.

3rd Man

"Oh, no! it is like a thick branch of a tree”

—said the third man who touched the trunk of the elephant.

4th Man

"It is like a big hand fan"

—said the fourth man who touched the ear of the elephant.

5th Man

"It is like a huge wall," said the fifth man who touched the belly of the elephant.

6th Man

"It is like a solid pipe"

—said the sixth man who touched the tusk of the elephant.

Everyone insisted he was right A wise man passing by saw this and enquired. They said, "We cannot agree to what the elephant is

like." Each one of them told what he thought the elephant was like.

The wise man calmly explained to them, "All of you are right. The reason every one of you is telling it differently because each one of you touched the different part of the elephant. So, actually the elephant has all those features what you all said."

And more……. "Oh!" everyone said. There was no more fight. They

felt happy that they were all right.

Multiple Perspectives:

So, rather than arguing like the blind men, we should say, "Maybe you have your reasons."

This way we don’t get in arguments. Truth can be stated in seven different

ways. We have to be tolerant towards other

viewpoints.

So, what is education?

Is it a Technology? Is it infra-structure? Is it a Philosophy? Eco-pedagogy ? Eco-literacy ?

“Education is the indispensable foundation of all human excellence”

And what is the purpose of Education?

Gaining Knowledge Becoming Employable Responsible Citizen Making the world a better place

“ Education at all levels can shape the world of tomorrow” — UNESCO

Background/ History…

1987 The Brundtland Commission…

Sustainable Development = Development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs.

1992 The Rio Earth Summit…

Agenda 21 - Action Plan/ “Blueprint for Sustainable Development” (40 chapters, 300 pages)

Chapter 36: Promoting Education, Public Awareness and Training

2000 UN Millenium SummitHalve Extreme Poverty

UniversalPrimaryEducation

Empowerment ofWomen/ genderequality

Reduce <5Mortality by 2/3

Reduce maternalmortality by 3/4

Reverse spread of diseases, esp. HIV/AIDS, Malaria

EnsureEnvironmentalSustainability

Form a Global DevelopmentPartnership for aid, trade, debt relief

Millennium Development Goals by 2015

2002 The World Summit on Sustainable Development…

Growing gap between rich & poor

6 million children died from hungerIn 10 years

1.1 billion lack clean water

27% coral reefsSeriously threatened (up from 10%)

Greenhouse gasemissions up 9%

Extinctionson the rise

2.8 billion livingon < $2/day)

10 years after RioDeclining indicators

The Decade of Education for Sustainable Development 2005-2014

“Our biggest challenge in this new century is to take an idea that seems abstract -- sustainable development -- and turn it into a reality for all the world's people.”

— Kofi Annan, UNSG, 2001

UNESCO: appointed lead UN agency

Approved by UN Gen. Assy. 2002

Action Areas

3. Developing public understanding and awareness of sustainability;

4. Training the workforce with knowledge and skills to perform their work in a sustainable manner.

2. Reorienting existing education at all levels to address sustainable development;

1. Promotion and improvement of basic education;

Action Areas

Key Themes

Conservation & Protection

Fresh Water Management

Biodiversity

Sustainable Production

& Consumption

Key Themes (cont…)

Gender Equality

Poverty Alleviati

on

Peace & Int’l Understanding

Imp. of Info . & Comm.

Technology for ESD

Human

Rights

Health Promotion

Some Initiatives

Others forming:

Portugal, Greece, Sweden, the Philippines, India, etc.

US Partnership for the DESD

Japan Council on the DESD

German National

Committee for the DESD

US Partnership for the Decade

VISION:

Education for Sustainable Development integrated into education and learning in the U.S.

MISSION:

Leverage the UN Decade to foster Education for Sustainable Development in the U.S.

US Partnership for the Decade …all sectors – higher education, K-12,

business, faith communities, non-profits, government

…a community-builder, convener, catalyst and communicator for the Decade in the United States

www.uspartnership.org

US Partnership for the Decade

Living Institutions – “Today, Tomorrow, Forever: The Role Living Institutions Can Play in the DESD”(November ’04)

“Business Innovation for Sustainability” (October ’04)

Nat’l Assn. of Independent Schools – “Education for Sustainability: How Far Will You Go?”(February ’05)

Sustainability and Higher Education Conference - “Defining the Vision” (October ’04)

Conferences

The Sustainability “Stool”

Education for Sustainable

Development

Environmental Principles

Social

Princip

les

EconomicPrinciples

Examples of Spiritual Principles related to sustainability

Economic

Social EnvironmentalElimination of

extremes of wealth and poverty

Work as worship

Moderation

Be content w/little

Voluntary giving

Profit sharing

Equality of women and men

Elimination of all forms of prejudice

Unity in diversity

Universal compulsory education

Trustworthiness

Interdependence of all life

Nature a reflection of the Divine

Humility – Earth source of all our wealth

Unity in diversity

Cleanliness

Kindness to animals

Soloist vs. Whole Systems Thinker

Whole Systems Thinker

Makes choices and decisions and takes actions that maximize the health of the whole system upon which the specific parts depend.

Able to work well in diverse groups which enable them to recognize interdependencies insystems

Soloist

Can identify one part of a system

ORsees no connection between theparts of the system

OR lives life through a “zoom lens”Without benefit of a “wide angle” lens

Adapted from material from the Sustainability Education Center, New York www.sustainabilityed.org

Some areas for combining principles of sustainable development and systems thinking

Personal

• Consumption patterns

• Water & Energy use

• Clothing purchases

• Recreation/hobbies

• Yard care, landscaping

• Household Cleaning products

• Home purchase

• Vacation planning

• Family planning

• Transportation choices

Business

Community

• Production methods• Energy and water use• Waste disposal• Employee benefits• Stockholder relations

• Building a Bahá’í center• Organizing a Bahá’í Feast • Running a Bahá’í summer school• Conference planning• Devotional program

Simple Systems Map (Example)

Walk/Bike rather than drive

Use less gas

Get exercise

Physically healthier

Less carbon emission

Reduce air pollution

Slow global warming

Save $ in the Long run

From Planned Obsolescence to Sustainability…….

The case for sustainability is widely accepted.

Yet, we see only a few products and services actually making a mark because of their sustainability.

This is because the initial step is often the hardest and the untried solution is always put off to another day.

As a result, the market continues to be fed with what we know will be accepted and consumed.

Sustainability should not be perceived as additional cost…

One of the biggest challenges in embedding issues of sustainability into the core of business is the mindset that apportions a cost to such endeavours - a cost that is loaded on top of the existing costs, and one that is not similarly borne by other competitors.

So the thinking most likely to be encountered is: "I can design for sustainability but will incur a cost which competition will not”.

Sustainability before extinction? It is this approach that makes driving

sustainability a challenge in business operations today.

Sustainable solutions are not something that we can negotiate; they are inevitable in a world starved of natural resources.

The only question is how soon we embrace them. We needn't be prisoners to the dominant logic that sees sustainability through the limited prism of costs.

An example from Hindustan Lever

Across South East Asia, Lever launched Comfort One Rinse fabric conditioner which needs only one bucket of water for rinsing instead of three. This saves 30 litres of water per wash for the average household.

If we could convert all our laundry product users in Asia and South Africa to Comfort One Rinse, we would save more than 500 billion litres of water a year.

Now this is clearly great for the environment but importantly is also a great value proposition for consumers in large parts of the world who are struggling to cope with the acute shortage of water.

Another Example of Water Purifier

Similarly, Pureit, the water purifier was designed with the consumer insight that a majority of the people in India do not have access to either electricity or flowing water.

So it had to work with no electricity, with no flowing water and deliver clean and safe drinking water at a very low cost.

When that was done, there was a product that is as sustainable as it is successful.

ESD: Education for Sustainable Development ESD is the term most used internationally and

by the United Nations to describe the practice of teaching for sustainability.

Agenda 21 was the first international document that identified education as an essential tool for achieving sustainable development and highlighted areas of action for education.

A focus on literacies and skills, standards that support interdisciplinary thinking, and the role of systems thinking have all increased the visibility of the movement.

Background

Groundwork has been laid for sustainability education worldwide.

Various approaches to ESD encourage people to understand the complexities of, and synergies between, the issues threatening planetary sustainability and understand and assess their own values and those of the society in which they live in the context of sustainability.

ESD seeks to engage people in negotiating a sustainable future, making decisions and acting on them. While it is generally agreed on that sustainability education must be customized for individual learners

Skills Essential to ESD

Envisioning – being able to imagine a better future. The premise is that if we know where we want to go, we will be better able to work out how to get there.

Critical thinking and reflection – learning to question our current belief systems and to recognize the assumptions underlying our knowledge, perspective and opinions. Critical thinking skills help people learn to examine economic, environmental, social and cultural structures in the context of sustainable development.

Systemic thinking – acknowledging complexities and looking for links and synergies when trying to find solutions to problems.

Some initiatives:

Building partnerships – promoting dialogue and negotiation, learning to work together.

Participation in decision-making – empowering people.

The Green Education Foundation (GEF) promotes sustainability education with a K-12 curriculum.

GEF's National Green Week encourages students to become environmental stewards within the context of their own lives.

GEF offers the Green Energy Challenge, Green Thumb Challenge and Green Building Program as part of its sustainability education efforts.

The United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (DESD)

In recognition of the importance of ESD, the United Nations General Assembly declared 2005-2014 the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (DESD).

UNESCO leads the Decade and has developed an International Implementation Scheme for the Decade.

The goals of the decade are to provide an opportunity for refining and promoting the vision of, and transition to, sustainable development – through all forms of education, public awareness and training; and to give an enhanced profile to the important role of education and learning in sustainable development.

Objectives of the DESD (cont…) Facilitate networking linkages, exchange

and interaction among stakeholders in ESD; Foster increased quality of teaching and

learning in ESD; Help countries make progress towards and

attain the Millennium Development Goals through ESD efforts;

Provide countries with new opportunities to incorporate ESD into education reform efforts.

Educational Institutions

Cloud Institute for Sustainability Education Ramapo College St Francis Xavier College (Canberra) Prescott College, with a PhD program in Sustainability

Education Ithaca College Göncöl Foundation Hermit Park State School Centre for Sustainability Creative Change Educational Solutions Learning for a Sustainable Future Green Education Foundation

Challenges to Education for Sustainability ? Inclusive education: imparting quality

education to increasing numbers…developing learning metrics

Moving from the art of teaching to the science of learning

Building in the students the capacity ‘to learn how to learn’

Adopting 21st century communication tools for enhanced learning experience

Three Questions for this age?What does it mean to know (something)?

How does a learner know that he has learnt (what he set out to learn)?

What are the attributes of ‘an educated person’ in the 2nd half of the 21st Century?

When the Learner is Ready, the Teacher will Appear

Learning moments Epiphanic moment Eureka moment Jaw-dropping

moment The moment of truth The Sputnik moment The ‘aha’ moment

Tell me

Excite me about what I am going to learn, and describe it in clear terms, and then tell me about it.

Show me

Videos Demos Animations Pictures Images Diagrams Mindmaps

Let me

Give me tasks to provide evidence of my learning

Tell me more

Give me feedback for me to improve my learning

Show me more

Extensions and Applications

Let me explore

Let me find out more on my own and also reflect upon my learning

Learning to Learn?

Information Seeking (Search Skills)

Information Organizing Skills

Information Presentation Skills

Reflecting on one’s learning.

Teacher & Learner Support System

Virtual Classroom

Modern Classroom

New Age Teacher

Access Device

Social Media

Classroom anywhere

Awareness of Products ?

You just bought a cellphone some months ago, but already, you can’t wait for the next updated version.

Not surprising when you’re surrounded by glitzy adverts that keep announcing the latest smart phone to hit the rack every few months.

But did you know that the phone you carry has sustained a civil war that’s called the worst conflict since World War II by human rights organisations, has caused more than 5 million deaths and 200,000 rapes in the last 15 years? Most do not.

Mobile Fuel Human Right Violations

Everyone heard of blood diamonds, even though most of us might not own one.

But each one of us, in our cellphone, might carry a part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s dirty war.

The DRC is a major supplier of minerals used to manufacture mobile phones, laptops, and other electronics.

Would we buy them if we knew ? Most mines in the country are illegal, controlled

by armed groups, warring factions, and even the army, who sell the ‘conflict minerals‘ – tin, tantalum, tungsten, gold - to finance war, human rights abuses and mass rape as a tactic of war.

The fact was addressed by the UN years ago, and has again been brought to light by Danish director Frank Poulsen’s recent documentary, ”Blood In The Mobile.” Poulsen travelled to the Bisie mine, one of the largest and most notorious illegal mines in the DRC, where children as young as 12 work under “hellish conditions.”

Does this awareness help ? The minerals, after being sold dirt cheap, are

transported to neighbouring countries like Rwanda, Uganda, Burundi and Kenya.

According to the film’s website, armed groups made USD 180 million from the mineral trade last year.

After being refined in East Asia, the conflict minerals are smelted with minerals from other parts of the world, making this dirty supply chain impossible to trace.

And from there, they are sold to companies that we know - Nokia, Intel, Apple, Hewlett Packard, Nintendo, etc.

But these companies do not have a system to trace where their raw material comes from.

What Electronics Companies Say According to a report, Nokia a self

proclaimed leader in corporate social responsibility, admitted that for the last past decade, it has been aware of the connection between its minerals and the civil war in the DRC.

Even though Nokia maintains that most of its supplies come from legal Congolese, Australian and Brazilian mines, it, as can no other mobile company, guarantee that their product is free of conflict minerals.

Profits or Human rights ? When Poulsen tried to approach Nokia, he

was told on email that they ”didn’t have the resources” to help him, and all attempts by him to get in touch with senior management were thwarted for almost a year.

“Nokia had the chance of being the hero of this film, if they had opened up to me.

It is a mystery why they didn’t being solved – people are turning a blind eye,” Poulsen was quoted by a British newspaper as saying.

What’s been done?

Last year, the US passed financial reform legislation that requires companies doing business that involve minerals to disclose whether conflict minerals from the DRC region made their way into their products.

Similar legislation is now being sought in the EU.

Blood Diamonds

You never know which of the rocks - whose demand is kept at a high by tightly controlling supply and through emotional advertising - might be 'dirty stones' that feed civil war and thousands of deaths in Africa, most of whose people have never seen a diamond.

Jeans that Kill

Your acid wash jeans are manufactured by sandblasting, in which sand is forced at denim under pressure to get that worn out look.

Banned by labels like Versace, Levis, Benetton and Gucci, because it causes silicosis that's killed thousands of labourers across the world, it's still employed by brands like D&G, Armani and Roberto Cavalli.

Black Coffee

You pay about Rs. 100 each time you buy a cup of coffee.

With its USD 80 billion industry, coffee is the most valuable trading commodity after oil.

But the millions who grow it are going bankrupt, as the price they are paid (less than 1% of what you paid for your expression), is so low that they are being forced to abandon their coffee fields.

Reason - multinational players who dominate coffee trade, as exposed by the 2006 documentary "Black Gold".

Yes, a lot can happen over a cup of coffee….. The film-makers say that commodity

traders, coffee exchanges and the WTO exploit the market, deciding coffee prices in conference room and stock exchange floors, impacting 25 million households and the economic sustainability in coffee producing nations of Latin America, Asia and Africa.

The situation is the worst in Ethiopia, the birthplace of coffee and where 15 million people directly depend on it, and which has see two massive famines in the last 20 years despite a globally booming coffee industry.

The next cup you buy might well be linked to many-a-hunger crises in places you never think about.

Sweaty Fashion

More than a decade after exploitation in sweatshops in Asia (including India) became a vocal issue, most high street brands like Nike, Puma, Marks and Spencer, GAP, DKNY, Converse, Banana Republic, Levi's etc., still exploit cheap labour for less-than-minimum wage, employ women and children for lower wages and force long working hours.

"Violence and abuse is common," reported a British daily.

Lurid Laptops

The global electronics assembly line employs, or rather, imprisons, millions of workers in china in degrading conditions, and which supplies to giants like Apple, Dell, HP, and Sony.

According one news report, the 400,000 'technoserfs' employed by Foxconn, which manufactures for Apple, houses its workers in dormitories and pays them a wage that can't sustain them. Most assembly lines violate every Chinese labour law - and they make the laptops we use in our homes and offices.

The Ethical Dimension of Sustainability The sustainability framework extends ethical concern to

future generations. Human society now consumes natural resources faster

than they can be replenished, and this is compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs.

Current and future generations are inheriting a world that is biologically impoverished, has fewer resources, and suffers from more pollution than ever before.

Sustainability challenges present day humans to consider the well-being of future generations, to view their needs as worthy of our moral concern.

Modern humans are not accustomed to considering future generations, but the power of our markets and technologies threaten their quality of life.

O! Mother Earth, who has the ocean as clothes and mountains and forests on her body, who is

the wife of Lord Vishnu, I bow to you. Please forgive me for touching

you with my feet.

What is visible is the infinite. What is invisible is also the infinite.

Out of the Infinite Being the finite has come, yet being infinite,

only infinite remains.

Asteya in Yoga:

Asteya - means to take nothing that does not belong to us.

This also means that if we are in a situation where someone entrusts something to us or confides in us, we do not take advantage of him or her.

Non-stealing includes not only taking what belongs to another without permission, but also using something for a different purpose to that intended, or beyond the time permitted .

Aparigraha : not hoarding wealth

Aparigraha means to take only what is necessary, and not to take advantage of a situation or act greedy. We should only take what we have earned; if we take more, we are exploiting someone else.

The yogi feels that the collection or hoarding of things implies a lack of faith in God and in himself to provide for his future.

Aparigraha also implies letting go of our attachments to things and an understanding that impermanence and change are the only constants.

Singularity of Ray Kurzweil Ray Kurzweil is one of the most prolific

inventors of the last century. Kurzweil has also made numerous accurate

predictions about the future. He anticipated events such as the collapse of

Soviet Union and Chess Champion Garry Kasparov’s defeat at the hand of a computer.

By his calculations, man will become one with machines by 2045.

This merger will be known as the “Singularity”.

When computers get smarter than humans? Ray Kurzweil tells us about his vision of

the Singuarlity-a point around 2045 when computers will acquire full-blown artificial intelligence and technology will infuse itself with biology.

We'll have supercomputers more powerful than every human brain on the planet combined within a few decades.

Kurzweil is the first to admit that this technology could very quickly bring an end to the world as we know it.

“Ray Kurzweil is the best person I know at predicting the future of artificial intelligence. His intriguing new book envisions a future in which information technologies have advanced so far and fast that they enable humanity to transcend it’s biological limitations – transforming our lives in ways we can’t yet imagine.”

— Bill Gates

Thank you !

Email: Professor@MMPant.in

Website: www.mmpant.net

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