How should sustainable development and development go hand in hand? Explain with suitable examples.
Answers
Explanation:
This question gives me another chance, as I did under other questions, to recall the classic work of Donella Meadows (1941 – 2001), late research fellow at MIT, on how we can and should change the structure of systems we live in to produce more of what we want (sustainable) and less of that which is undesirable (unsustainable). Donella was a pioneering American environmental scientist, teacher and writer an best known as lead author of the influential book "The Limits to Growth", which made headlines around the world. She proposed a list of places (leverage points) to intervene in complex systems in increasing order of effectiveness. Here they are (from Meadows 2009):
• 12. Numbers: Constants and parameters such as subsidies, taxes, and standards
• 11. Buffers:The sizes of stabilizing stocks relative to their flows
• 10. Stock-and-Flow Structures: Physical systems and their nodes of intersection
• 9. Delays: The lengths of time relative to the rates of system changes
• 8. Balancing Feedback Loops: The strength of the feedbacks relative to the impacts they are trying to correct
• 7. Reinforcing Feedback Loops: The strength of the gain of driving loops
• 6. Information Flows:The structure of who does and does not have access to information
• 5. Rules: Incentives, punishments, constraints
• 4. Self-Organization: The power to add, change, or evolve system structure
• 3. Goals:The purpose or function of the system
• 2. Paradigms: The mindset out of which the system—its goals, structure, rules, delays, parameters—arises.