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

There are many scenarios and prognoses as well as data and observations supported by an increasing number of peer reviewed publications (in top journals such as Nature) that illustrate that planet Earth is heading to severe and double global collapse, i.e. in terms of economy and most importantly of ecology. Shrinking economy means increased poverty and degradation in ecology means increasing diseases. It is not hard to comprehend: wealthy and healthy environment means high quality of life; unwealthy planet with unhealthy environment means death or in best cases poor quality of life. It is already a growing and severe inconvenient reality in many parts around the world, just tens or hundred meters away from luxury hotels and beaches, there are densely populated slums in mega cities.

Affordable, accessible, safe and clean energy that can support the growing population and the increasing needs of consumption is an ideal painting of a rather gray reality facing a common fate for our planet. With expected future production and consumption of “net” energy and the considerable pressures on the natural “capital” resources, the global production of waste and pollution due to an accelerating urbanization keeps doubling. According to the UN Inter-Agency Mechanism on all freshwater related issues (including sanitation) it has been an increase of 20%, during the period 2000 to 2008, in the number of individuals in cities and towns of all sizes in the world who lack access to basic water and sanitation facilities.  In 2011, a reported of 2.5 billion people in the world did not use improved sanitation facilities and this number keeps increasing. Urban settlements are also a growing main source of point-source pollution even in best countries around the world including Scandinavia where anti-biotic keep injected from wastewater treatment plants to natural surface water systems with serious impacts on the flora and frequency of resistant bacteria. It is not strange that humans will face an increasing number of threats from known, such as Ebola virus disease, and yet other unknown diseases to emerge.

http://www.peakprosperity.com/blog/88380/energy-economics-crash-course-chapter-19

http://www.nature.com/news/environment-waste-production-must-peak-this-century-1.14032

http://www.unwater.org/topics/water-and-urbanization/en/

Would life on planet Earth survive to the end of this century? Follow sustain-earth.com to hear more about sustainability issues.

To counteract the increasing threats from the abuse of energy, water and natural resources and mitigate the accelerating negative impacts of “produce and consume” on quality of life, all education stages have to seriously consider weaving sustainability issues in all educational components. This has to involve applied sustainability instruments and solutions as well as building appropriate interactive links between education, politics, society and the market. There are huge information and data worldwide on continuous and increasing degradation in the atmosphere (air quality), the hydrosphere (water quality), land-water resources, the biosphere and ecosphere (biodiversity, degradation in agro- and animal production, …. ).

“Sustainability” is not only of political and social concern, it is also a natural part of modern high-quality education especially what regards higher education and research where future innovations, engineers, professionals, teachers, policy-makers, scientists, ….. etc, are being shaped and prepared to take care of the planet in much more sustainable manner. The collapsing quality of life reflects severe gaps in education and technology management structures with enhanced fragmentation and isolation within and between society sectors in terms of production, consumption and service. The main responsibility for achieving sustainable socio-economic developments anywhere in the world is through shaping education and research institutions and organizations to meet future sustainability requirements.

http://www.theguardian.com/higher-education-network/blog/2011/oct/13/sustainability-in-higher-education

Two most important spheres for existence of life, and the only life in the whole universe, on earth are suffering from severe and increasing degradation. The ATMOSPHERE with remarkable changes in its global composition that has caused global warming and an accelerating deterioration in the air quality in cities around due to urbanization (70% of world population is planned to live in cities in coming decades. The HYDROSPHERE with an ever increasing degradation in the quality of natural waters with accelerating threats on the whole ecosphere and enhanced negative impacts on drinking water and food production. Though ENERGY is the primary cause of all pollution in these two spheres still much attention and resources are given to it with very little left to protect, cure and rehabilitate WATER, and to enhance its accessibility and affordability in clean forms. Follow how energy-water nexus is shaping the life on the earth http://sustain-earth.com

https://www.dropbox.com/s/atcq7lm7iv4rrlt/Water%20vs%20Energy.jpg?dl=0

Many universities and research institutes around the world have huge investments in energy-related R&D “Research and Development” programs. Much of such R&D programs are primarily related to Renewable Energy Resources that can meet future demands for lowering the emissions of GHG “Green House Gases”, for mitigating the impacts of global warming and for achieving sustainable socio-economic development around the world.

However, the world energy market in terms of demand and supply is forcing other realities where the use of conventional fossil fuel resources will be gradually shifting towards increasing utilization of unconventional fossil resources. With such trends the world is facing “tectonic” challenges for “safe-clean-secure” shifts towards new extraction techniques from the so-called UHRs “Unconventional Hydrocarbon Resources” with minimal environmental impacts. It is believed that UHRs is the future of the fossil fuel industry not only in North America, with the major part of UHRs, but likely globally as well. UHRs are composed of heavy oil, oil sands, unconventional gas, light-tight oil and liquid-rich shale. While, the Middle East is facing up to end ‘Easy Oil’ it is, also, turning to a much tougher and complex reality to tap their huge heavy-oil reserves (http://m.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052748704436004576299421455133398?mobile=y). A wide-range of investments and pilot studies are being carried out to develop appropriate technologies to boost heavy-oil production in several places in the Middle East. Such trends will expand to other regions around the world with gradual transformation to a worldwide utilization of the global UHRs.

The technology to tap heavy-oil, and to make use of, is not a new one and has already started in the US several decades ago. However it needs to be up-dated, developed and refined to meet not only the environmental and economic demands but also the diversity of UHRs in the complex geo-formations, including coupled litho- and hydrospheric ones. The University of Calgary has clear strategic direction to become one of Canada’s top five research universities by year 2016 where research and innovative teaching go hand in hand with full engagement of the communities they both serve and lead. Among the six research themes of the university’s roadmap to achieve its future goals is “Energy Innovation for Today and Tomorrow”.

https://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=119453290&goback=

DESERTEC Foundation has achieved new milestone for replication with potential for promoting the global transition to renewable energy in desert regions. It has been demonstrated in Spain, the Puerto Errado 2 (PE2) project that joined the grid already in 2012 with much more power added to the Spanish grid in 2014. PE2 is the world’s largest Fresnel CSP “Concentrated Solar Power” Plant that uses 375 000 square meters to heat water and create steam to derive turbines for generation of electricity. A revolutionary technology with clear advantages for many desert regions where PE2 uses innovative cleaning robots, air-cooled condensers for emission-free power supporting 12 000 Spanish homes.

Development of DESERTEC vision worldwide for using the efficient CSP-technology (for more information visit http://energy.gov/articles/top-10-things-you-didnt-know-about-concentrating-solar-power) with less water and air-cooling systems, is an example of how to involve local communities in providing jobs, during construction and maintenance, and creating green economy and living environments. Puerto Errado 2 shows the positive impacts of renewable power plants on local economy, how economies across the earth’s sun belt can benefit as Novatec and others move into new markets around the world. A technology with advantages for sustainable socio-economic developments, lower cost than oil and similar cost as gas, an affordable and friendly energy for emission-free production and green services.

CSP technology is being widely commercialized with much added power in the past seven years especially in Spain and United Arab Emirates (Shams-I, Masdar in Abu Dhabi). This technology has huge potential in many desert regions around the world especially South America and the MENA region. However, availability of water for turning deserts to green living environments is a major limiting resource. Would it be possible to get double benefits in coastal regions where this technology can be used for desalination as well?

Many food and beverages we buy from the market don’t give any information on toxic levels which make food stores to offer safer products the so-called “eco-products” with almost double the price of normal products, eco-milk, eco-cheese, eco-vegetables, eco-fruits, ……. and the list keeps growing. It wouldn’t surprise me to see “eco-water” given on bottled water as well “coming soon”. Many reports from several countries around the world give data demonstrating  degradation in water quality of bottled water. The reasons are very simple and are expected, the quality of “natural” surface and ground water are suffering from severe pollution problems and the threats are expanding. Even in regions where natural waters are expected to be of high quality, e.g. Europe, we can still find reports about increasing degradation as new compounds and toxics keep injected to the hydrosphere.

http://sustain-earth.com will report on the increasing health threats that are associated with bottled water.

https://www.chinadialogue.net/article/show/single/en/7152-China-s-bottled-water-the-next-health-crisis-

In many countries around the world out-doors living, especially in rural areas, with simple constructions can offer economic possibilities where housing can be integrated with nature. Solutions to benefit from solar-energy can provide access to the outer-world communication and distant services through modern ICT-technology. Needs for all household services and needs, i.e. energy, water and sanitation can be managed through solar-energy applications.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/whvw0wtj6oyaaso/2013-09-25%2020.32.34.jpg?dl=0

Poverty is not only the lack of food and will never end by traditional aid policies where only free-food is given to the poor. These policies have indeed not only fueled poverty but generated more and more poverty, as they turn the poor not only to passive consumers with no empowerment for own production but even counteracted their possibilities to join the era of sustainability.  We have already seen that affordability and accessibility to food is very much related to sustainable management of natural resources, in particular water and energy. Sustainable management of natural resources involves, also, holistic approaches for the protection and preservation of all natural resources through the engagement of every citizen in the society. In this context, achieving sustainable socio-economic developments around the world requires establishing appropriate instruments for true poverty alleviation, i.e. all types of poverty, where the inactive and passive poor populations around the world become actively engaged not only in food production but in all the components of achieving sustainable socio-economic developments.

The world needs much more organizations and institutions that can be both actively engaged in poverty alleviation and in engaging the poor in becoming active players for achieving sustainable socio-economic developments rather than being passive observers and consumers. In this context, “SNV Netherlands Development Organization” demonstrates many successful stories around the world. However, much more is still needed as the world competition on the natural resources, in particular water and energy, is becoming much severe.

http://www.snvworld.org/

Toxic waste and pollution have sources, pathways and final fate in our environments. They may end in your blood, lungs, lever, kedney, bones, ….. and anywhere else in your body. How and why, and what are the impacts are frequently asked questions. To get answers is not as simple as it seems, it is a matter of imagination and hardwork to sort out misleading information from the reality of what is really happening in our waters.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/n2ya650p466mq8u/finalversion%2C%20open%20house%20Tracers%20as%20detectives.ppt?dl=0

Successful socio-economic policies around the world depend on a simple strategy where “Serve and Get Served” should be of national concern focusing on “Quality as a Goal”. Transformation to sustainable socio-economies is becoming a global struggle to formulate policies for every citizen to use “natural resources” with minimal loss “waste”. It is about how to create “political-stakeholder-citizen” collaboration to utilize “natural resources” effectively while keeping waste and consumption under control. We are not all participating in such solutions and we even left  the consumption of natural resources and production of waste to go hand in hand to promote failing realities where threats to all life forms and degradation in all life qualities are piling up in major parts on our planet.

Successful examples around the world demonstrate that sustainable socio-economic solutions start by listening to the needs of the citizen and enpowering them to participate in “serve and get served” with focus on national quality. To achieve global socio-economic developments we should go the same path as successful nations with focus on listening to and engaging citizens.

The planet as is managed today is facing a failing reality because of increasing and fragmented competition on natural resources with little attention to proper protection and conservation of these resources, in particular water and energy. Management of education, research and technology should consider the urgent necessity for sustainable and appropriate coupling to society, population and market needs. The increasing global population, the random use and consumption of natural resources has caused severe threats to, and degradation of, all life forms on the planet.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/7euopk4zjqpom3w/Why%20Sustain-earth%3F.docx?dl=0

Management and pricing of water resources are important issues for improving access to water and sanitation, and also for achieving sustainable socio-economic developments around the world. Financing the sustainable management of water resources is a major and accelerating challenge because of the increasing competition on water resources, still growing populations and expanding needs. Water resources and their uses shift greatly around the world and in water resource management there are increasing attention to how pricing of water could be best coupled to financial strategies as well.

Achieving sustainable managements policies is very much related to appropriate optimization of water uses to achieve the “best value for the water resources” on all levels with attention to enhancing accessibility and affordability to water and sanitation. The cost of managing water resources to reach social, economic and environmental goals is increasing due to population and economic growth as well as to climate change. This is generally true in the developing countries especially in Africa.

Formed in 2003, the European Union Water Initiative Finance Working Group (EUWI-FWG) is focused on helping to shape the financial strategy of the EUWI. The FWG group encourages innovation, the development of institutional and regulatory frameworks and capacity building. It also encourages the use of development funding as a catalyst to leverage other forms of finance, including national budgets, donors, user and private finance, to improve access by the poor to water and sanitation services.

Click to access Water_Pricing_FINAL.pdf

Management of drinking water is becoming a global issue and it is not any longer a problem in the developing countries but it is, also, appearing in developed countries as well. National Geographic along with other news media, e.g. “The Guardian” are describing the accelerating demands on water resources, in particular the decreasing accessibility and affordability to drinking water. In this case it is Detroit, USA, which indeed is situated in a region rich in fresh-water resources: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/special-features/2014/08/140822-detroit-michigan-water-shutoffs-great-lakes/; http://www.theguardian.com/environment/true-north/2014/jun/25/detroits-water-war-a-tap-shut-off-that-could-impact-300000-people

According to “The Associated Press ABC 7 News” Detroit water shutoff controversy ignited nationwide debate in the USA http://www.wjla.com/articles/2014/07/detroit-water-shutoff-controversy-igniting-nationwide-debate-105641.html

A pressing and urgent question now is: how would drinking water be treated in the future and how far would we go on with privatization of drinking water. Also, how would the pricing of drinking water look like in the future and how public drinking water facilities be financed?  These are typical management issues where policy-makers should be prepared to deal with.

http://www.filmsforaction.org/watch/detroit-water-crisis-a-prelude-to-the-privatization-of-water/

Food is a pleasure that has found many ways to adapt to the country where they are prepared. The ingredients, although they may appear similar to those of other continents, there is always a unique stamp associated with the taste of each dish depending on processing, origin of meat or vegetables and spices being used (http://www.whichcountry.co/countries-with-best-food/).

However, food is not only a pleasure of the taste. There are very much to learn about global cultures and habits and importance of agriculture, farming, food production and processing. Why some countries are better than others and why, for example, The Netherlands is ranked best in world food systems (http://www.undercurrentnews.com/2014/01/15/netherlands-ranked-best-in-world-food-systems/). Also, why European countries and Australia are among the ten best countries. The challenges countries faced in getting enough of the right food are dependent on many factors. Oxfam’s Good Enough to Eat Index asked four core questions using two measures each in order to get a global ranking of eating in terms of accessibility, affordability and quality of food, and the unhealthy outcomes of people’s diet. Here are these questions and measures used in the global assessment and ranking:  1. Do people have enough to eat? – Measured by levels of undernourishment and underweight children; 2. Can people afford to eat? – Measured by food price levels compared to other goods and services and food price volatility; 3. Is food of good quality? – Measured by diversity of diet and access to clean and safe water; and 4. What is the extent of unhealthy outcomes of people’s diet? – Measured by diabetes and obesity.

http://www.buzzfeed.com/tasneemnashrulla/the-best-and-worst-countries-in-the-world-for-eating#i7aod3

Sustainability issues are imperative for the survival and any technology. Lead, as other toxic compounds, has negative environmental and ecological impacts both what concerns air and water quality.

Researchers from USA and U.K. came up with new research where they claim could be a win-win solution for new long-lasting solar panels that provide emissions-free power. The idea is to use recycled lead from discarded car batteries to produce solar cells using perovskite “organo-lead halide perovskite”. This technology has rapidly progressed from initial experiments to a point where its efficiency is nearly competitive with other types of solar cells. Perovskite technology identified its use of lead as a drawback. Researchers claim that using recycled lead from old car batteries can save the environment insteed of the energy and waste demanding lead mining. Also, such technology can benefit from excess lead in the future markets because of production of new lead-free batteries.

Production of “perovskite” solar cells is relatively simple and economic as the process can be done at low-temperature with reduced number of steps as compared with the manufacture of conventional solar cells. So, it would be “easy to get to large scale cheaply”. Questions still remain (https://www.businessspectator.com.au/article/2014/8/19/solar-energy/revolutionary-perovskite-solar-cells-could-be-game-changer-questions) about how this technology become sustainable: (1) would large-scale production require additional lead mining as lead-recycling is currently used to produce lead-batteries, i.e. before there is complete shift to new car-batteries?; (2) would lead used in this technology be capsulated with no leak to the environment under the life-time of solar cells?; (3) would the life-time of “perovskite-based” solar cell be as long as traditional solar cells?

http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/article/2014/08/recycling-old-batteries-into-solar-cells?cmpid=SolarNL-Tuesday-August19-2014

“Knowledge” is needed in all sectors and on all levels in any society, however the content of knowledge for achieving “sustainable socio-economic developments” needs not necessarily to be of the same components, structure and organization. To bring about changes and developments in any society knowledge has to be “fresh” in the sense that it has to be up-dated or “refreshed” not only to mitigate historical imparities but also to meet emerging necessities and to have capabilities and instruments to deal with any future known or unknown challenges. Knowledge has, also, to be individually adapted to maximize engagement and integration of all citizens and stakeholders for the benefits and welfare of the society.

In our ICT-based “Information Communication Technology” societies there are huge capital and diversity of knowledge resources, though needs of more knowledge still remain to be among essential priorities. Problems and difficulties in many societies for bringing about changes, especially what regards sustainable developments, are not a priori related to availability and accessibility of knowledge but rather the management of knowledge in terms of structure, transfer and adaption on both vertical and horizontal levels. In this context, instruments for appropriate coupling of science and technology to society and market needs is an imperative part of structuring, transferring and adapting knowledge. This is the essence core of successful knowledge-management policies where the coupling goes through citizens and stakeholders, i.e. within and between the very building blocks in the society, i.e. “individuals” and “groups”, in all society levels and sectors.

Services, i.e. serve and get served, production and consumption have to be shaped and based on sound economic policies involving all basic sustainability requirements, i.e. the conservation and protection of natural resources. If all natural resources are consumed, wasted and/or degraded, then it wouldn’t be possible to have life any more. In a knowledge-based society difficulties don’t exist in how knowledge can be obtained and how “citizens”, as carriers, transformers and generators of knowledge, can be engaged to form and shape “consumption”, “production” and “services” for the benefit of their society. The optimum functioning of any society is therefore a balance of these components: why knowledge is needed; what and when knowledge is required; how can knowledge can be produced, transferred, disseminated and propagated.

A major part of the capital knowledge of humans is stored in “virtual memories” around the world. However, such knowledge is accessible but not necessarily affordable for everyone. The Internet provides knowledge with variable quality and in a very scattered and random way though search engines may provide certain limited structuring. Traditional sources of knowledge through libraries are still important sources to “on-line” publishing with excellent audio-visual illustrations and “open-access” versions. In social and human sciences, for example, morals and ethics can be biased by historical misconceptions with negative impacts on freedom of speech as expressed by the public on the Internet. Quality of knowledge is, therefore, essential not only for sustainable socio-economic development but also for lasting security, safety and political stability.

Issues and topics of relevance for achieving socio-economic developments around the world are being discussed and detalied in http://sustain-earth.com