Creating a Sustainable and Desirable Future Insights from 45 Global Thought Leaders

The major challenge for the current generation of mankind is to develop a shared vision of a future that is both desirable to the vast majority of humanity and ecologically sustainable. Creating a Sustainable and Desirable Future offers a broad, critical discussion on what such a future should or can be, with global perspectives written by some of the world's leading thinkers, including: Wendell Berry, Van Jones, Frances Moore Lappe, Peggy Liu, Hunter Lovins, Gus Speth, Bill McKibben, and many more. Contents:Introduction:Why We Need Visions of a Sustainable and Desirable World (Robert Costanza and Ida Kubiszewski)Envisioning a Sustainable World (Donella Meadows)Why Everyone Should Be a Futurist? (William S Becker)Think Like an Ecosystem, See Solutions (Frances Moore Lappé)Future Histories: Descriptions of a Sustainable and Desirable Future and How We Got There:What Would a Sustainable and Desirable Economy-in-Society-in-Nature Look Like? (Robert Costanza, Gar Alperovitz, Herman Daly, Joshua Farley, Carol Franco, Tim Jackson, Ida Kubiszewski, Juliet Schor, and Peter Victor)Vision Statement for the Planet in 2050 (Ajay Bhave, Silvia Ceausu, Anand Deshmukh, Jessica Jewell, Wayne Pan, and Jana Timm)Scenes from the Great Transition (Paul D Raskin)Environmental History Exam 2052: The Last Half-Century (Les W Kuzyk)A Virtual Visit to a Sustainable 2050 (Robert Costanza)Reflections on a Life Lived Well and Wisely (Joshua Farley)The Great Turnaround: How Natural Capital Entered the Economy? (Ronald Colman)How New Zealand Became a Green Leader? (John Peet)The New New York: 2050 (Barbara Elizabeth Stewart)Pieces of the Puzzle: Elements of the World We Want:Sustainability and Happiness: A Development Philosophy for Bhutan and the World (Jigmi Y Thinley)Flourishing as a Goal of International Policy (Martin Seligman)What Else? (Wendell Berry)Let Us Envision Gender Equality: Nothing Else is Working (Jane Roberts)Another World: Finally Her(e) (Kavita N Ramdas and Jamie Querubin)Policy Reform to 350 (Bill McKibben)The Great Transition to 350 (Dylan Walsh and Tess Croner)On Baselines That Need Shifting (Daniel Pauly)The Future of Roads: No Driving, No Emissions, Nature Reconnected (Richard T T Forman and Daniel Sperling)The New Security (Gary Hart)Green Accounting: Balancing Environment and Economy (Peter Bartelmus)A Vision of America the Possible (James Gustave Speth)Getting There:The Way Forward: Survival 2100 (William E Rees)An Integrating Story for a Sustainable Future (Mary Evelyn Tucker and Brian Thomas Swimme)It Is Time to Fight the Status Quo (Bill McKibben)Can We Avoid the Perfect Storm? (David W Orr)Sustainable Shrinkage: Envisioning a Smaller, Stronger Economy (Ernest Callenbach)How to Apply Resilience Thinking: In Australia and Beyond? (Brian Walker)Endangered Elements: Conserving the Building Blocks of Life (Penny D Sackett)Well-Being, Sufficiency, and Work-Time Reduction (Anders Hayden)Millennium Consumption Goals (MCGs) at Rio+20: A Practical Step Toward Global Sustainability (Mohan Munasinghe)Happiness and Psychological Well-Being: Building Human Capital to Benefit Individuals and Society (George W Burns)Time for a Bold Vision: A New, Green Economy (Van Jones)A World That Works for All (L Hunter Lovins)Fighting Poverty by Healing the Environment (Christine Loh)Re-Engineering the Planet: Three Steps to a Sustainable Free-Market Economy (Eckart Wintzen)Raising Gross National Happiness through Agroforestry (Pahuna Sharma-Laden and Croix Thompson)Building Bridges between Science and Policy to Achieve Sustainability (Katherine Richardson and Ole Wæver)Bringing Mozart to the Masses: Venezuela's Music Revolution (Maria Páez Victor)Creating the Schools of the Future: Education for a Sustainable Society (Peter M Senge)A Values-Based Set of Solutions for the Next Generation (Tim Kasser)Teaching a University Course in Sustainable Happiness (Catherine O'Brien)The Time Has Come to Catalyze a Sustainable Consumerism Movement (Peggy Liu) Readership: Undergraduates, professionals, researchers, and anyone interested in what a sustainable and desirable future might look like. Keywords:Envisioning;Sustainable Future;Desirable Future;Positive Future;Future History;Scenarios;World ViewsKey Features:This book has an outstanding list of contributors who are world thought leaders. Their views on what a sustainable and desirable future would look like will be highly sought afterThis is an outstanding collection on a topic of great interest to many people, but on which there has been little written, especially in book formReviews: “The book is a compilation of thoughtful articles from a broad range of academics, research scientists, policy specialists, politicians and others — thinkers all.” Australasian Journal of Environmental Management