My new friends over at Columbia have just published my editorial on sustainable development for Consilience.
The seventeenth and eighteenth centuries saw the rise of human rights in the European imagination. By any account, human rights were a good idea. But as anyone who was around to witness the French Revolution would be able to attest, actually implementing human rights is a messy and potentially bloody process. Today, the idea of human rights has become mundane, but their implementation is no easier.
As the idea of sustainable development becomes increasingly ordinary, the question of what specific actions ought to be taken becomes more pressing. What are the appropriate policies and habits for a bright green future? Fighting and winning media and intellectual contests is one thing; developing a set of strong plans for actual progress is another.
Read further.