Patchwork Earth: navigating pathways to just, thriving, and sustainable futures
Author(s): Elena M. Bennett, Reinette Biggs, Garry D. Peterson, and Line J. GordonLink to CST author(s): Prof. Reinette (Oonsie) Biggs
Publication: One Earth
Year: 2021
Full reference: Bennett, E.M., Biggs, R., Peterson, G. & Gordon, L.J. 2021. Patchwork Earth: navigating pathways to just, thriving, and sustainable futures. One Earth 4, February 19, 2021
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Summary
Creating a sustainable and just future will require a major shift in how humans live in, and interact with, the Earth system and one another. But how this shift could take place, the pathways it could follow, and its ultimate outcomes remain vague. Further, visions of sustainable futures differ widely. For example, some Millennium Ecosystem Assessment scenarios suggested that we should first concentrate on building strong, community based stewardship to move toward a more sustainable future. Other scenarios implied that the pathway to sustainability could best be found through attempts to achieve a technologically driven, eco-efficient planet. In fact, many different combinations of specific changes in diet, social values, trade policy, energy technology, and ecological practices are possible parts of a pathway to sustainability. And although these pathways (or others) or even combinations of intermingled visions and pathways might equally achieve the globally agreed-upon Sustainable Development Goals, each alternative future implies different outcomes for other social values, such as racial justice, gender relationships, and societal equitability, as well as different sets of winners and losers.