Expanding Sustainability: Rights, Global Economics, and Human Transformation

Expanding Sustainability: Rights, Global Economics, and Human Transformation
A Public Talk with Chilean Environmental Economist, Diplomat and
Spiritual Teacher Alfredo Sfeir-Younis

Tuesday, Oct. 26
Noon —1:30 PM
124 Sparks

Brown Bag Lunch Talk (drinks and dessert provided)
Sponsored by Penn State’s Center for Sustainability & Global Studies Institute

"It is impossible to attain the aims of a sustainable civilization without agreeing on a bundle of rights, be it for this generation or future generations. Sustainable Development embodies a social contract which must unfold from a vision and a set of human values that prove essential to human transformation in our global reality.”
—Alfredo Sfeir-Younis

Learn more about our speaker at: http://www.policyinnovations.org/innovators/people/data/07539

Update: You can listen my interview with Alfredo Sfeir0-Younis here.

"Almanac" by Primo Levi

"Almanac" by Primo Levi

They'll continue their flow to the sea, the indifferent rivers,
Overwhelming ancient dikes of tenacious men.
The glaciers will continue their grinding and smoothing,
Or crashing down to shorten the lives of firs.
The sea must continue to batter the lands that contain it,
More and more a skinflint with its riches.
Stars and comets continue on their courses;
Earth, too, obeys creation's immutable laws.
But we, rebellious offshoots, ingenious fools,
Destroy and corrupt, always in more of a hurry;
Spreading the desert to the forests of the Amazon;
To the living hearts of our cities; to our very own hearts.

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This poem about modern human indifference to nature and its consequences to individuals really resonates with me after talking to Gene Baur and in thinking about best conduct in a world with climate change.