Nice job. I like your strong opinions presented in the essay. I absolutely agree that “sustainable development” very often is used as a marketing tool. This process is similar to what happened with great and ideal idea of CSR which in practice turned into PR.

One thing: What do you by “relatively youthful existence of Baltic States”? :)

Hmmm ... In my opinion, it is clearly not "underdeveloped" societies that need guidance but we, in so-called "developed" nations that need to radically re-think our modes of life, production and consumption. I will reuse here one striking fact that I've just posted somewhere else: if we would all live like an average European, we would need between 3 and 6 planets (according to the Global Footprint Network).

Hi Benoit.
Where is this “considerable doubt” on whether renewable energy sources can meet energy demands? You say it can only provide “a small share of conventional demand”, but I think it is more apt to say there is little (but thankfully increasing gradually) interest by major governments and private investors in such technologies, as they are after profit in the short-term, without thinking in the long-term. Renewable (and wholly clean) technologies, if rolled out and invested in properly, could easily provide a significant quantity of power to nations (geographical setting and the make-up of the land would of course determine what type of renewable energy generation would be most suitable, as I say in my essay, for Ireland it would be wind and wave energy).

“The food crisis in now an old and permanent problem” – I disagree on the second part, we must be positive and believe we can emerge from this crisis.

You do a very decent job of summing up the overall situation, but I think your solution “volunteering” requires much more fleshing out and expansion. It seems like the beginnings of a solution, but it is presented more like an afterthought.

*In relation to your comment on my essay, the point I’m making is that underdeveloped countries (who have been exploited consistently by richer countries) require guidance and help from the more developed countries to avoid making similar mistakes in relation to food and energy production and distribution (termed “climate equity” in my essay, meaning they would not be "limited in prospering"). I argue throughout for a “radical re-think” both in developed and developing countries, particularly in the second page from highlighting everyone’s responsibility to protect the vulnerable, demanding answers to ensure factors like global justice and equity become a reality, all based on the principles of health promotion.

Hello Thomas,

Thanks a great lot for your detailed comments on my essay (I've replied if you have some time).

As far as yours is concerned, I was more questioning the second question of your abstract which happens to be the first proposition that you put forward. I think we could contribute much more by solving our problems home before asking others to do things differently (think about the several planets argument!).

Moreover, I would be interested to know what you mean with "ethical guidance". Do you have a concrete example in mind?

You might want to have a look at the following study. It think it will interest you a lot:
http://www.tellus.org/seib/publications/Great_Transitions.pdf

Kind regards,

Benoit

Hi Thomas,
Thanks for the explanation. Well, yes possibly after the 1949 to the "Western World" we emerged as independent nations relatively lately. However it shouldn't be forgotten that we have very long and great history (e.g. Poland - officialy AD 966:)) and that even hidden by the iron curtain we were contries (not all, but Poland yes) and nations with own culture and traditions seperate from USRR. Sorry for tha little history lesson ;) but maybe that's why we strongly notice the meaning of local activities, esspecially our grands and parents experienced strongly that unification and standarization leads to nowhere. And doesn't matter if we call it "socialism" or if we "call it globalization" that always leads to treating some nations as "man-power" and production area to the others. That is what happened to southern countires, like Sri Lanka, like African countries etc. And that's one of strongest reasons why millions of people will suffer hunger and lack of their based demands and needs protection.

I love the slogan "Think globally, live locally". Understood not as closing to the external world but as taking activities in local areas that will help improving life level all over the world.

Hi all, have been doing exams and assignments for last few weeks, will respond to comments asap!
All the best
Tom