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Experts hammer home importance of sharing knowledge on sustainable development, at Planet Under Pressure conference in London
By Samuel Nota
Climate change experts came together at the Planet Under Pressure conference this past week in London with a new mindset: the time for research into sustainable development has expired. We are now at a point in history that we need profound solutions to these issues, and fast.
The BRAVE collaboration, a non-governmental organisation seeking “big radical approaches toward a vision for the Earth,” showed a short film and led an expert panel discussion at the conference about how to get more people involved.
The panel stressed participation and communication as the “key components” necessary for bringing forward new ideas and solutions:
“We need to listen to the community, and without participation we can’t get anywhere,” said one panel expert. “The diversity of solutions can only help us.”
Another key component agreed upon was sharing:
“One of the most important things we can share is knowledge. It is essential to give people the knowledge of the true value of goods and services,” a panel member said.
“Europe uses three planets’ worth of resources, North America uses five planets' worth, and that is not sharing.”
The short film described our lack of sharing as a problem of greed.
“Human beings are capable of solving any problem. Greed is our problem,” Tatek Kebede, from Ethiopia, said in the film. “We don’t share our knowledge, we don’t give out our technologies, unless we are paid for that.”
Also in the film, Syed Isaz Rahman, from India, said: “’If you have a car then why don’t I have a car? If he owns a house, then why don’t I own a house? He’s expanding his business, why don’t I expand mine?’ That is the greed.”
But even if we share knowledge, there is then the challenge of actually acting on that knowledge.
As one of the experts put it, “we are wedded to the present. We may have knowledge of solutions, but many times we do not act.”
Even though the environmental risks of industrialisation are widely known, for example, it is very difficult to get developing countries to avoid the path to industrialisation that many Western nations have followed.
In the short film Isasaid Khonjee, from India, expressed concern for humanity:
“The trees, they grow in their own way. The birds follow their way since the beginning of the universe. Rivers keep on flowing…they follow their own wave. We humans…” – after a pause of frustration, he continues – “… we never follow our own ways.”
Awareness is the first step towards action.
Samuel Nota is an AlertNet Climate intern.
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