Is Sustainability too Expensive?

Nature provides a continuous flow of ecological services upon which all human activities depend. Today, human demand worldwide outstrips what nature provides, just as some people spend more money than they earn. What are the costs of running ever larger ecological deficits? Do the consequences of ecological overspending outweigh its benefits? We can never know for sure – but let’s think of it as high-stakes gambling. Is it worth betting the farm on the possibility that human ingenuity will be able to counteract ecological overshoot (including overfishing, deforestation, soil loss, and climate change)? Or is it wiser to bet on options that will protect our economies in case human ingenuity fails to reverse ecological overshoot? If yes, how much should we bet? And how? If not, what might we lose?

The Presenter is Mathis Wackernagel, Ph.D., co-creator of the Ecological Footprint and President of Global Footprint Network. He is also a Visiting Professor at Cornell University. His awards include the 2012 Blue Planet Prize, the Kenneth Boulding Memorial Award, the Zayed International Prize for the Environment, an honorary doctorate from the University of Berne, and a Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship.