President of Club of Rome to deliver major address in Stockholm
The 2010 Gordon Goodman lecture takes place at 10:30 on Friday 28 May 2010 at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in Stockholm. Dr Ashok Khosla, one of the world's foremost thinkers and doers on environment and development issues, will speak on 'Equity and empowerment: the missing variables in the sustainability equation'.
Criticism of the global economic system tends to argue that humanity is reaching ‘limits’ or ‘boundaries’, that ‘peaks’ in resources are just around the corner. Such terms imply the impossibility of infinite growth on a finite planet. From the 1972 Club of Rome report The Limits to Growth to new research on Planetary Boundaries, the interactions between technology use, economic growth and depletion of ecological resources continue to be better understood.
However, there has been very little focus on the human, demographic and social dimensions of sustainability, or on how these impact on the definition, shaping, and measurement of lasting social progress. Dr Khosla will take up these challenges for sustainable development in his Gordon Goodman Lecture. Attendance is free and registration is not required. For those that can't attend in person, the lecture will be webcast at www.sei-international.org.
About Ashok Khosla
In 1972 Ashok Khosla established and headed the Indian Government’s Office of Environment and was later Director, Infoterra at UNEP. He has been advisor to governments and international agencies and Board member of WWF, IISD, SEI and other bodies. In 1981, Dr Khosla founded Development Alternatives, a social enterprise that champions sustainable development through the innovation and elivery of technologies for creating rural livelihoods, of methodologies for managing the natural resource base and of designs for effective institutions. In 2002 he was awarded the United Nations Sasakawa Environment Prize, in 2004 the Schwab Award for Outstanding Social Entrepreneur and in 2008 the OBE by Queen Elizabeth II.
About the Gordon Goodman lectures
Professor Gordon Goodman was the founding Director of the Beijer Institute of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences and the Stockholm Environment Institute. To commemorate Gordon Goodman’s legacy and unique contributions to global environment and sustainable development issues, a lecture is held annually in his honour.
Contact for more information and interviews with Dr Khosla
Robert Watt (robert.watt@sei.se, 00 46 73 707 85 89)
About SEI
Stockholm Environment Institute is an independent, international research institute specializing in sustainable development and environment issues. From fundamental research at the cutting edge to capacity building with developing countries, our goal is to bridge science to policy.
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