Big topics of sustainability (read if unfamiliar, this is the foundation)

1. Planetary boundaries: Overview, video (4’) 

• The nine planetary boundaries define the safe space for humanity, i.e. the biophysical limits which should not be transgressed if we want to preserve a livable conditions, such a stable climate, clean water and air, nutritious food, medicine and all the other ecosystem services which keep us alive. We have already transgressed six of the nine boundaries,

2. Human needs and satisfiers: Max-Neef, M.A., 1991. Human scale development: conception, application and further reflections. (read section 2, pp.13-54); video (5’)

• Wellbeing is a state of thriving, which involves full participation in society, a sense of prosperity and of leading a good life, based on the precondition of all needs being satisfied. Sustainable wellbeing extends this wellbeing to future generations.

• Max-Neef (1991) defines nine Fundamental Human Needs: Subsistence, Protection, Affection, Understanding, Participation, Idleness, Creation, Identity, and Freedom

• Needs are universal, constant over time, and satiate; Satisfiers are culturally specific and constantly changing. Better satisfiers are synergistic (satisfy several needs) and have little impact on ecosystems.

3. Energy and materials: OWID energy mix 1800-2023; Circularity Gap Report 2024; Global material flows

• The world has never experienced an energy transition: new sources are additional, but do not replace older sources, which continue to grow. Coal has not replaced wood, oil did not replace coal; gas, nuclear, hydro, wind, solar all were added, and each continues to grow.

• We collectively use over 100 Gt of materials each year, of which 43 Gt construction materials, 9 Gt metal ores, 16 Gt fossil fuels, and 25 Gt biomass. Every single one of these material flows creates numerous climate, biodiversity, and human rights problems.

Benefits and costs of technological innovation

1. Winner, L., 1980. Do artifacts have politics?. In Daedalus, Vol. 109, No. 1, Modern Technology: Problem or Opportunity? (Winter, 1980), pp. 121-136 (16 pages).

• Is technology neutral? Or is it reinforcing existing power? Technologies as “ways of building order in our world“

• Reflect on the impact of the tomato harvester, and the role of science and research

• “In controversies about technology and society, there is no idea more provocative than the notion that technical things have political qualities. At issue is the claim that the machines, structures, and systems of modern material culture can be accurately judged not only for their contributions of efficiency and productivity, not merely for their positive and negative environmental side effects, but also for the ways in which they can embody specific forms of power and authority.“

• “What matters is not technology itself, but the social or economic system in which it is embedded“.

• “In our times people are often willing to make drastic changes in the way they live to accord with technological innovation at the same time they would resist similar kinds of changes justified on political grounds“

2. Stoddard, I., Anderson, K., Capstick, S., Carton, W., Depledge, J., Facer, K., Gough, C., Hache, F., Hoolohan, C., Hultman, M. and Hällström, N., 2021. Three decades of climate mitigation: why haven't we bent the global emissions curve?. Annual review of environment and resources, 46(1), pp.653-689.

• Three decades of climate efforts have failed to stop the rise of GHG emissions, for three main reasons: (1) Vested interests and a governance system that supports them; (2) How we think about the economy; and (3) Culture, high-carbon lifestyles, inequality.

3. Steinberger, J. 2024. What we are up against. Medium.

• Fossil fuel industry and neoliberal ideology have created a highly effective and coordinated system of restricting democracy; at the same time democracy can and should be the lever of mobilization of climate movements.

4. Keyßer, L.T. and Lenzen, M., 2021. 1.5 C degrowth scenarios suggest the need for new mitigation pathways. Nature communications, 12(1), p.2676.

• Degrowth futures make climate mitigation much more feasible, and do not require highly unlikely scales of negative emissions technology.

Big questions

1. Low-tech and high-tech: there are many good reasons to prefer low-tech (resilience, community agency, local skills), and other equally good reasons for high-tech (capability, energy and material efficiency). However, governing high-tech is much more complex (centralization by power or design, less transparency, rebound effects, specialization with general loss of skill and agency, possible loss of redundancy and resilience). How to ensure proper governance is always in place? Who controls what? Who uses what tech for what purpose? What is the effect on democracy / energy / materials? AI is an excellent illustration of the above questions.

2. Rebound, (de)growth, power, democracy: like any other global commons, communities must establish rules about what can be used, by whom, and how. For technology, current and future, this also included indirect resources like materials and energy affected by tech. Ultimately there are limits to growth, and these must be included in governance. This includes which human activities are acceptable, by whom, to what extent, and for which purpose. Just making money is not a valid reason.

3. Values and culture: What kind of society do we want to live in? What do we value? How do we deal with activities and people we disagree with (ensuring both human rights and preserving limited resources)? How do we build this culture, and unlearn today’s damaging mental models (growth, consumerism, competition, individualism, domination of nature and people)?