Prosperous Way Down Taskforce (original) (raw)
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Prosperous Way Down: Task Forces
The political project organized five hundred years ago by Eastern European Civilization for conquest, dominance and exploration of external territories, is now under deep crisis. It achieved its climax and gives signals of a climatic, ecological, and monetary collapse. It is time to gather forces and promote a change in a democratic and conscious way. Howard and Elizabeth Odum, in their book “The Prosperous Way Down: Principles and Policy”, suggested the organization of “task forces” to help people to face-up the next global change. The constitution of such kind of groups demands the identification, integration and organization of people with different life experiences and knowledges in open-minded groups that need to choose a research and extension project to concentrate their work efforts during some years. The integration and mobilization of this kind of groups is possible if the members have awareness of humankind extinction risks raised by the metropolis growth that depletes the eco ogical reserves mainly in the peripheral area. The success of a task force depends on public recognition of the existence of a serious ecological -economical problem in a region, which demands actions for its solution. The task force demands a continuous feedback approach to improve its organization. It will be described the case of a transdisciplinary task force organized to make a critical study of a water basin system that is suffering with climate change phenomena derived from wrong philosophical and ethical attitudes at different human scales along time.(ORTEGA, E. ; FERRAZ, J. M. G. ; BACIC, M. J. ; KASSAI, J. R. ; CAMPOS JUNIOR, J. J. F. ; COSTA, A. ; PRISCO, C. ; PAIVA, M.; ONCKEN, M. P. ; RISIO, I. A. M. ; NOGUEIRA, R. . Prosperous Way Down: Task Forces. In: 9th Biennial Emergy Research Conference, 2016, Gainesville, 2016.) DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.1.4638.1843
The energy/climate challenge forces us to conceive of the socialist revolution not only as the destruction of the power of the bourgeois state, the creation of a proletarian state which starts to wither away as soon as it is established and progressive phasing-in of self-management by the masses, but also as the beginning of a process of destruction of the old capitalist productive apparatus and its replacement by an alternative apparatus, utilising different energy sources, different technologies and different structures in the service of democratically decided objectives. This extremely profound historical upheaval can start in one country or in a group of countries, but it can only take on its full character and be completed after the victory of the socialist revolution on a world scale, once the abolition of the principal inequalities of development have made it possible to satisfy the basic right of each human being to an existence worthy of the name. It postulates in fact the preliminary realization of energy autonomy, in particular the food autonomy of different countries. Far from being synonymous with the end of human development, it implies an important progress of science and technique as well as of the social power to democratically apply them, with the active participation of everyone, within the framework of a culture of “prudently taking care” of the biosphere, for which the contribution of indigenous communities will be invaluable.
2011
Water is a natural resource indispensable to life. Throughout history, water has mostly been viewed as a source of conflict, this bias often eclipsing its significant opportunity for cooperation potential. In the past two centuries, the growing pressure exerted on water resources by traditional and new water uses has increased dramatically; Today, IWRM is the modern water governance paradigm, parsed on the concept of water as a "social and economic good", which has gained wide acceptance lately; new International Conventions have been adopted. This in turn has prompted a shift in axis of water governance: from a supply led to a demand driven approach. In the EU, the enactment of the Water Framework Directive (EU WFD) in 2000 represented a major turning point in the governance of freshwater resources. All EU river basins must develop a River Basin Management Plan (RBMP) having as benchmark the "good status" of their waters by 2015. During the RBMP' s planning stage the river basin authorities must inform and consult the citizens and actively involve stakeholders (Public Participation). Since the EU WFD represents one of the first examples of EU legislation which explicitly upholds the boundaries of a biophysical system over the politicaladministrative institutions governing them, the PhD dissertation sets out to explore whether the EU FWD 'induced' PP process can enhance the mutual understanding and wellbeing of basin riparian people living in and around the EU borders. To this end, it focuses on and compares the "Public Participation" process features of the water governance regimes of three transborder river basins-Sava, Tisza, and Dniester, all located in and around one of the more socioeconomically and politically complex EU borders. Being the first investigation that has attempted this kind of comparative analysis, the roof level' findings concerning the three case studies and the rationale underpinning their interpretation may serve as a starting point for further research in this field.
Journal of Hazardous Materials, 2001
This paper presents a reflection on the introduction of methods and tools of "participative foresight" for scientific and technology policy as well as environmental policy fields. Future studies have recently made a comeback under the label of foresight. Future technology studies no longer claim to forecast the future, but are presented as a strategic tool for improving interaction between key actors and for anticipatory policy making. They can be defined as a "process by which one comes to a fuller understanding of the forces shaping the long term future which should be taken into account in policy formulation, planning and decision-making" [Foresight in Federal Government Policymaking, Futures Res. Quart. (1985) 29]. We discuss applications of this approach for perspectives on environmental policy and sustainable development. Foresight opens up the possibility of negotiating a new and more fruitful relationship or 'social contract' between science and technology, on the one hand, and society on the other. The focus has moved from merely scientific and industrial insights to social demand, thus emphasizing the importance of both the production and "supply" of innovation, and the "demand" as signaled in the views of citizens. ଝ This paper is based on the synthesis of several studies carried out by the authors, notably: (i) research carried out for the Ministère de l'Aménagement du Territoire et de l'Environnement and the Network of Public Research Organizations entitled "Conception et réalisation d'un système de veille-prospective pour la programmation de la R&D publique en matière d'environnement" (October 1999); and (ii) ongoing research partly funded by the CNRS: "De l'irréversibilitéà la concertation. L'évolution des pratiques de prospective nationale pour la maîtrise des risques collectifs environnementaux" (1999)(2000)(2001).
Civitas , 2019
Development plans at different levels-from local to global-aspire to eliminate poverty, famine, to make health care accessible, to create better access to education, to improve transportation, employment, and the quality of life, all within next decades. Yet, these plans collide with the reality of climate change, more precisely the Anthropocene, which already creates high-dimensional conflicts. These will only intensify within decades because climate change and other consequences of the environment global devastation lead to a real decrease of resources. These resources enable not only development but also an elementary reproduction of the essential preconditions of life. The current model of development has substantially contributed to the intensification of unequal accessibility to resources and existing conflicts have thus heightened and new ones have emerged. Water as an essential resource will cause new conflicts. Growing population, expansion of deserts and a sea level rise then increase conflicts for the land. Heat waves occur more often which strengthens conflicts for land suitable for human life, meaning that inhabitable areas are spreading. Therefore there is a need to re-evaluate the character and hierarchy of resources and their accessibility, and also concepts of development. The existing development of humankind has been done at the expense of others in many cases and mainly at the expense of the environment. The current situation raises a question of climate justice from both historical and systematic viewpoints. It opens a need to reformulate the concept of human rights from the perspective of their essential environmental preconditions and to define the status of environmental migrants. Resumo: Os planos de desenvolvimento em diferentes níveis-do local ao global-aspiram eliminar a pobreza, a fome, tornar acessível a assistência médica, criar melhores acessos à educação, melhorar o transporte, o emprego e a qualidade de vida, tudo nas próximas décadas. No entanto, esses planos colidem com a realidade da 1 Institute of Philosophy, Slovak Academy of Sciences (Bratislava, Slovakia). author_biographical_data
Uvod do environmentalni politicke filosofie [Introduction to Environmental Political Philosophy]
2023
The book is an attempt to identify the main principles of a new political philosophy corresponding to the parameters of the Anthropocene, i.e. the geological-climatic epoch of the planetary system in which the negative influence of man on planetary cycles and evolutionary processes exceeds the influence of geological forces. Humanity has become the dominant force affecting all components of the planetary ecosystem (biosphere, hydrosphere, atmosphere, cryosphere, lithosphere) and its activities bring with them problems that affect the social and political spheres. An Introduction to Environmental Political Philosophy illustrates these problems, examines their causes and phenomena, and seeks to understand them in detail. The book does not formulate cheap populist solutions or serve as a political agenda. Rather, it presents philosophical analyses of ecologically, sociologically, politically, and economically contingent phenomena in order to achieve a comprehensive understanding of the socio-political situation of the Anthropocene.