Shaping Our Future: Creating the World Future Council

by HerbertGirardet (Author), JakobVonUexkull (Author)

• Used

  Paperback
  2005

  $122.46

  As a result of rampant materialism, consumerism and a very narrow view of the world, we have created a profoundly unsustainable civilization, which is effectively a world without a future. The World Future Council is being set up to challenge this situation. This introductory book is in eight parts: Executive summary; foreword by Lois Barber; Making It Happen by Jakob von Uexkull. This chapter explains why the world needs a new, independent body to inject a missing ethical dimension into the conduct of national and global affairs. The key challenge is not that there is a 'values vacuum', but that widely agreed values are not being acted on. A Call to Action by Herbert Girardet. The gap between what we need to do about the key issues of our time--environmental destruction, climate change, poverty, injustice, lack of action on sustainability--and what we are actually doing in reality, is growing rather than closing. The World Future Council is intending to address these matters, challenging civil society, governments and the UN to a new sense of urgency; National, Regional and Local Future Councils by Herbert Girardet. This chapter discusses the functions and limitations of Agenda 21 initiatives set up since the Rio Summit in 1992, and explores the opportunities for expanding their scope by the creation of national, regional and local Future Councils. The Commissions. The WFC will set up 24 international commissions on sustainability, justice, health and education, etc. This section summarises the proposed commissions in short paragraphs and sets out their work programmes. Postscript by Jakob von Uexkull. Endorsements. This section lists the endorsements of the initiative for establishing a World Future Council that have so far been received from eminent people around the world.