Pr. Sarah Cornell makes an interesting point at the very end of this first lecture from week 6:
"It's a global problem, but we can only act locally, in our own place."
While I totally agree with her statement, isn't it clear that this reality IS part of the problem ?
I doubt all our local/personal commitment(s) will be enough to handle the current problems, and then the upcoming changes.
May I come back to an earlier question: Do we need new, different, Institutions ?
I guess we could agree that in order to handle global problems we'd need global institutions, so the remaining question is are there any global institutions that are/could be up to the task ?
Could we reform the UN ?
(Most think it's not possible).
Will new (global) institutions take over ?
Rachna LEVEQUE
#pbmooc #governance #sarahcornell
Hi Roger, I think we need both the local and the global to bring about the radical changes that will bring us within planetary boundaries. Currently, the individual/household/community costs of unsustainable lifestyles that lie outside planetary boundaries are significantly lower, which limits how radical local initiatives can be. This is the space that global institutions - or responsible national institutions - need to fill in, introducing a 'cap' on consumption and degradation. However, global and national institutions tend to be influenced quite heavily by large corporate interests (such as oil and gas), so the pressure from local groups is critical.
I feel strongly that cities have a key role to play in bridging the gap between the two scales (local and national/global). To do this effectively, the city needs not only strong leadership and political will, but also organisations/individuals that can communicate local place-specific conditions and needs to relevant authorities (Indeed, I think it was this local experiential knowledge that Sarah Cornell was referring to in her lecture). One could say that a culture of openness and learning is needed to foster the involvement of such organisations but, from my work in various cities, I realise that these organisations exist even in non-participatory city governance cultures. I guess if the stakes are high enough, people get involved.
Which brings me to the last point: more awareness is needed to make people understand just how high the stakes are with crossing planetary boundaries. How many times can one hear skeptics in, for example, NW Europe say, "Oh we could do with a warmer climate, there are not enough hot days in the year." without realising of course the impacts on food, water and the very tenability of human life on earth.
ps, on your note on resilience officers, increasing numbers of cities now have "Chief Resilience Officers" (CROs), whose job it is to put together a Resilience Strategy. However, I see the job remit can be defined as anything from security (against terrorism), to emergency response, climate change mitigation (eg against floods), disaster recovery, livelihood protection or other. Look at the Rockerfeller 100 Resilient Cities initiative, which relies on the appointment of CRO's and let me know what you think about it.
http://www.100resilientcities.org/
Rachna,
Thanks for the great contribution, I agree with you.
Actually this week (7th) course talks about Governance, and I agree with Pr. Galaz view that there are different approaches to it, and that Global Governance is (very) different from World Government (or we would be doomed :) ).
Deep Institutional reform would be highly welcome, but likely hard to achieve (especially in the short time we'd need it).
I believe in Global citizenship, Civil Society's involvement, that's where the greatest hope for chance lies.
I find interesting Pr. Galaz view on "legal transformation", the fact that there are already so many treaties likely many of our current challenges are already at least partially covered by existing laws, so new interpretations/applications of existing laws are an interesting path to explore.
And then "networks" of existing Institutions that come together and work towards a common goal.
And finally I believe in natural/organic recombination of the above.
We can push for it to happen some way, but in the end it may/will happen some other way.
What we to do is to be/remain reactive, adapt and progress accordingly.
I've practiced "Agility" in my work for years, and I can see the challenges but also the large advantages of such kind of approach.
I agree Cities might/will be THE place where Sustainability can and MUST be achieved in the future.
And as the last lecture of week 7 is about "Cities: Challenges & Opportunities" I'm going to listen to it with much interest !