GOLDEN JUBILEE CONCLAVE
Prof. M.M. Pant
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.


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.

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
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.

Initial slow linear

Rapid acceleration

Leveling off : plateau

Stable or maybe decline
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.


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

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.
"Hey, the elephant is a pillar,”
— said the first man who touched his leg.
"Oh, no! it is like a rope”
—said the second man who touched the tail.
"Oh, no! it is like a thick branch of a tree”
—said the third man who touched the trunk of the
elephant.
"It is like a big hand fan"
—said the fourth man who touched the ear of the
elephant.

"It is like a huge wall," said the fifth man who
touched the belly of the elephant.
"It is like a solid pipe"
—said the sixth man who touched the tusk of the
elephant.
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
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

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.

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.

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”

Gaining Knowledge

Becoming Employable

Responsible Citizen

Making the world a better place
“ Education at all levels can shape the world of
tomorrow” — UNESCO
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
Halve
Extreme Poverty
Reduce <5
Mortality by 2/3
Reverse spread
of diseases, esp.
HIV/AIDS, Malaria
Universal
Primary
Education
Millennium
Development
Goals by 2015
Ensure
Environmental
Sustainability
Reduce maternal
mortality
by 3/4
Form a
Global Development
Partnership
Empowerment of
Women/ gender
equality
for aid, trade, debt relief
27% coral reefs
Seriously threatened
(up from 10%)
2.8 billion living
on < $2/day)
Extinctions
on the rise
1.1 billion lack
clean water
10 years after Rio
Declining indicators
Greenhouse gas
emissions up 9%
6 million children
died from hunger
In 10 years
Growing gap
between rich & poor
Approved by UN
Gen. Assy. 2002
UNESCO: appointed
lead UN agency
“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
1. Promotion and
improvement of
basic education;
2. Reorienting existing
education at all levels to
address sustainable
development;
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.
Sustainable Production
& Consumption
Fresh Water
Management
Biodiversity
Conservation &
Protection
Health
Promotion
Peace & Int’l
Understanding
Gender
Equality
Human
Rights
Imp. of Info . &
Comm. Technology
for ESD
Poverty
Alleviation
US Partnership
for the DESD
Japan Council on
the DESD
German National
Committee for
the DESD
Others forming:
Portugal, Greece, Sweden, the Philippines, India, etc.
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.

…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
“Business Innovation
for Sustainability”
(October ’04)
Living Institutions –
“Today, Tomorrow, Forever:
The Role Living Institutions
Can Play in the DESD”
(November ’04)
Conferences
Sustainability and Higher
Education Conference “Defining the Vision”
(October ’04)
Nat’l Assn. of
Independent Schools –
“Education for Sustainability:
How Far Will You Go?”
(February ’05)
Education for Sustainable
Development
Economic
Social
Environmental
Elimination of
extremes of wealth
and poverty
Equality of women
and men
Interdependence of
all life
Work as worship
Elimination of all
forms of prejudice
Nature a reflection of
the Divine
Moderation
Unity in diversity
Be content w/little
Universal compulsory
education
Humility – Earth
source of all our
wealth
Voluntary giving
Profit sharing
Trustworthiness
Unity in diversity
Cleanliness
Kindness to animals
Soloist
Can identify one part of a
system
Whole Systems Thinker
OR
sees no connection
between the
parts of the system
Makes choices and
decisions and takes actions
that maximize the health
of the whole system upon
which the specific parts
depend.
OR
lives life through a “zoom
lens”
Without benefit of a “wide
angle” lens
Able to work well in diverse
groups which enable them
to recognize
interdependencies in
systems
Adapted from material from the Sustainability Education Center, New York www.sustainabilityed.org
Personal
• Consumption patterns
• Water & Energy use
• Clothing purchases
• Recreation/hobbies
Business
•
•
•
•
•
Production methods
Energy and water use
Waste disposal
Employee benefits
Stockholder relations
• Yard care, landscaping
• Household Cleaning
products
Community
• Home purchase
•
•
•
•
•
• Vacation planning
• Family planning
• Transportation choices
Building a Bahá’í center
Organizing a Bahá’í Feast
Running a Bahá’í summer school
Conference planning
Devotional program
Save $ in the
Long run
Use less gas
Walk/Bike rather
than drive
Less carbon
emission
Reduce air
pollution
Get exercise
Physically
healthier
Slow global
warming
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.


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”.

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.

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
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.

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.

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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.

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

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.

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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.



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.

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.
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


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
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?

Learning moments

Epiphanic moment

Eureka moment

Jaw-dropping moment

The moment of truth

The Sputnik moment

The ‘aha’ moment

Excite me about what I am
going to learn, and describe it
in clear terms, and then tell
me about it.

Videos

Demos

Animations

Pictures

Images

Diagrams

Mindmaps

Give me tasks to provide evidence of my learning

Give me feedback for me to improve my learning

Extensions and Applications

Let me find out more on my own and also reflect
upon my learning

Information Seeking (Search Skills)

Information Organizing Skills

Information Presentation Skills

Reflecting on one’s learning.
Modern Classroom
Virtual
Classroom
New Age Teacher
Classroom
anywhere
Access Device
Social Media
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.


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.

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.”

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


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.

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.
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.


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.

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.

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.
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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".



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-ahunger crises in places you never think about.

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.


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.
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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.

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 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.





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”.

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
http://mmpant.wordpress.com/