The United Nations seems to recognize things so late that solutions become complicated, very difficult to manage and in panic things get turned up side down. What are supposed to be “scientific instruments”, available for decades, to implement became suddenly and urgently “political goals”. Yet not all science is realized as important in politics, policy-makers select and it is generally based on short-term election-driven, economy and competition-based market policies.

After more than a century of advances, progress and innovation in science and technology, the UN is suddenly asking the engagement of science. I would agree that science could have contributed much better. But this is, again, related to socio-economic political priorities. It looks like science can fix things over-night, fix everything alone and for all other sectors and for everyone in the society? We shouldn’t mix science with politics though they are inter-dependent. Were we all blind during such a long-time or were we just ignoring the failing reality and hoping “business-as-usual” will make things better. Sustainability requires early engagement of ALL SECTORS in a coherent, collective collaborative and interactive manner. What happened was an increasing fragmentation and isolation in “within” and “between” sector activities where individuals were lost in failing reality and an increasing complexity without unified holistic vision “Life on Earth”.

It is not any longer SUSTAINABLE to let it burn first then come to extinguish the fire, life on earth does not function this way. This has been more or less how WE were acting or reacting on world problems.

http://www.scidev.net/index.cfm?originalUrl=global/mdgs/feature/jeffrey-sachs-sdgs-big-science.html