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Sustainability:
A mosaic of many small steps in the right directions


Presentation by Hans-Peter Plag
Presented on April 22, 2008 at during the Mackay Centennial Celebration at the University of Nevada, Reno, NV, USA

Copyright 2008, Hans-Peter Plag

Download the complete presentation as pdf

NOTE 1: This site is still under construction and not all of the about sixty slides are available yet.

NOTE 2: This presentation is a slightly augmented version of a similar presentation given on April 18, 2008 at the EarthStock at Stony Brook University. See EarthStock for the online version of this presentation.

This presentation has the following main parts:
  • Introduction: Some preliminary remarks on the sustainability
  • Humanity: Our abilities and potentials
  • Humanity's impact on the Earth system: we have acquired the power to change the Earth system substantially, we have entered the Anthropocene, but we not learned to wield the power.
  • The Challenge: We are facing potential extinsion and we have to become good stewards of the Earth in order to survive.
  • Towards sustainability: Do we have the tools to assess progress towards sustainability?
  • Can we meet the individual environmental, social, and economic challenges: we have the ethics, concepts, and technology. But do we have the value system and the will to go there?
  • What you can do: there are many small steps each of us can contribute in the private, social, and work life.
  • Will we make it?