Sustainability & Peace

Peace and sustainability are the cornerstones of humanity's survival in the 21st century.

The major challenges facing humanity today are global – climate change, lack of fresh water, ever decreasing bio-diversity and over population. It is hard to over-state the devastating effects that these problems will have on humanity. No nations or individuals will be untouched.

Global challenges call for global solutions and these solutions will require co-operation on a global scale unprecedented in human history. Peace is the essential prerequisite because without peace we will be unable to achieve the levels of co-operation, inclusiveness and social equity necessary to solve these challenges, let alone empower the international institutions needed to address them.

Over the last 50 years two key elements have changed, stressing the need to rethink humanity's role in the world:

• As the issues of climate change, degradation of the soils of the planet, shrinking fish stocks, full use of the available fresh water and overpopulation loom, the world has become interdependent in ways unimaginable only decades ago. Additionally, any conflict over these ever-decreasing natural resources will only deplete the resources further;
• The advances in the development and deployment of small arms, rockets and improvised bombs have made it increasingly difficult to win wars without the popular support of a large majority of the inhabitants in the conflict area.

These challenges are unlikely to be solved through coercion and aggression. They require new ways of thinking. The solutions that will arise will need to be inclusive, equitable and acceptable to most nations in the world and their inhabitants.