17. Factor Five: Transforming the Global Economy Through 80 % Improvements in Resource Productivity

Excerpt

… The 21st century will see monumental change.¹ Either the human race will use its knowledge and skills and change the way it interacts with the environment, or the environment will change the way it interacts with its inhabitants. In the first case we would use the sophisticated understanding in areas such as physics, chemistry, engineering, biology, commerce, business and governance that we have accumulated in the last 1000 years to bring to bear on the challenge of dramatically reducing our pressure on the environment. The second case however is the opposite scenario. It will involve the decline of the planet’s ecosystems until they reach thresholds where recovery is not possible. Following this we have no idea what happens next. If the average temperature of our planet’s surface increases by 4–6 °C we will see staggering changes to our environment, rapidly rising sea level, withering crops, diminishing water reserves, drought, cyclones, floods. Allowing this to happen will be the failure of our species, and those that survive will have a deadly legacy. …