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Capitalism, sustainability and ecosystem services

Posted by mweber on
User offline
Last seen 17/10/2019
Joined 27/09/2019

Given the current form of the world and world affairs, Capitalism has been both the dominant form of human and economic development. However, Capitalism has brought about many major environmental problems that need to be addressed and that I guess are the main focus of these IPBES analysis groups. Such problems are gigantic by nature and include climate change, loss of biodiversity, general deterioration of ecosystem services, an increase in emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases, an increase in invasive species and pests, and many more. There are, therefore, many questions that would need to be addressed if these (and other) groups of the IPBES are to be successful in pointing out and tackling the major underlying causes of those environmental problems. In my view three of the main questions to be asked are:

1) How can we transform the current form of economic development such as it is compatible with the current environmental goals (aka, IPCC, IPBES, Paris agreement and more)?

2) Is "Sustainable development" still a viable paradigm or an oxymoronic fallacy?

3) Given the very high probability that we will reach the +1.5 degrees Celsius threshold goal -probably by far- of the IPCC in the next 10-20  years: What are the main climate adaptation and mitigation strategies to be suggested and followed as human societies for the preservation of major ecosystem services on planet earth?

Cheers!

 

(ps: it is hard to connect on time without a grasp of this system and international hours. I will try harder next time)

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