Sustainability is no rocketscience
when we look at the history of mankind
progress always seems to be
about thriving and about evolving
basically about getting better
with all the new technologies that we
implemented throughout the centuries
with
all the additional complexity
that we brought to our societies
at least for me it always seems to
be all about serving mankind and it was
always for the greater good
to help us
to become healthier to live longer
to maybe even have more fun in life
that changed we are now at the point
where technological progress
the increase of our economies
and of course the increase of us
of our sheer numbers
are about to threaten the very existence
of humanity i give you an example
between the fall of the roman empire and
columbus
sailing it took 13 centuries
to add 250 million people to the world’s
population
now it takes just four years
when i was born in the early 70s well
obviously
we had a population of around 4 billion
people back then
in the 2000s we had six billion
and i’m probably witnessing in my
lifetime
that we are going to break through nine
billion
people that is amazing
population population growth though is
much
much higher in the developing world
than in the developed but
i think that’s not the problem there are
two things that are going on
the one is the population
but this is also about consumption
in terms of the impact on the planet
what’s much more important is the growth
in consumption levels
and these are far higher in our
developed
economies
the average person in the european union
consumes about four times of the
resources
of the average person in india
but it gets worse the average person in
the u.s
even consumes seven times as much
and this shouldn’t be an excuse for us
europeans
our world is in a crisis our economies
are in a deep crisis mode right now
because of covet 19. we are in
recessions all
around the world and that means
our governments must invest
to get us through this wouldn’t this be
an amazing moment in our history where
we can now
invest into a cleaner
and more sustainable future
and even create jobs while we’re doing
this
i give you some examples how about
retrofitting
all of our old buildings what about
getting solar panels solar cells on each
and every roof in our cities
i mean this is wasted space that we
could use
to produce clean and renewable energy
what about working on the public
transport systems
and investing into them that
it just doesn’t feel any more like
you’re
getting on a subway that was built in
the 1920s
well most of them are that old
and unfortunately they even look that
old and sometimes
they even smell like they’re from the
1920s
imagine the amazing impact
this would have on on our economies
if we get our production workers to
help us work on a
new idea of low energy buildings
retrofitting them like i mentioned
before
working on the public transport system
make mobility
in our urban centers accessible
and more affordable for each one of us
mobility always was and always
must be a human right
by investing into our public transport
system by lowering the ticket prices
by making it more accessible
we will drive more people towards these
ecosystems and infrastructures in our
cities
which will help our urban areas
our city centers to become more
sustainable
we also need to start producing
affordable food
we waste 40 percent of the food that
gets produced
40 percent and unfortunately most of it
gets thrown away
after it already landed on our plates
that is
absolutely pure insanity it means that
products went through the whole value
chain
they were grown they
probably got their fair amount of
chemicals
you had to harvest them sometimes they
were even
shipped and transported all around the
globe
maybe even wrapped in
those plastic bags that are
ultimately polluting our oceans
just to get flushed down the drain or
the toilet
because our stuffed bellies send a
signal to our brains to make us say
sorry that’s it
i’m full i can’t eat
all of this and we have so
many amazing examples think about
vertical farming
we need more of those crazy ones
that one steve jobs mentioned in his
famous speech
in 1997 the ones who
see differently and are crazy enough to
think that
they can actually change the world
we need the best truly the best
of our engineers to show
that sustainable economies
can create profitable businesses
because basically this will create the
first
wing beat of this green butterfly
effect this world needs so
urgently
we need you guys to prove to the world
that this change starts right now
that it’s a change for the good
for a more sustainable a peaceful
and ultimately a healthy future for all
of us
so i mean what are we waiting for
it’s about each and every one of us to
make sure
that our governments put the wide
regulations in place
financially stimulate sustainable
industries
and reward those who are willing
to make a change who are willing to
transform
we need new priorities because there is
so
much to do on earth which is obviously
the only the only planet
we have for the foreseeable future
it truly is
wouldn’t it be amazing to
see those scientists and engineers on
the cover
of the global business magazines
that are solving the global energy
or sustainable food chain problems here
on earth
but guess what we are doing
instead we cherish those who build
rockets
and talk about the evolutionary step of
of building a multi-planetary society
flying to a planet that won’t be
habitable
for thousands of years to come
is probably the most ridiculous idea
considering the problems we have
to solve on earth
a planet with breathable air drinkable
water
and almost eight billion people
who want to make a living
god damn it forget about mars
let’s fix earth
there is no greater challenge for
mankind
no bigger problem to be solved
and no other disaster
that no one can hide from
and that’s climate change
it affects all of us
if we change if we are willing to change
our behavior
we will write the biggest success story
in our history and that’s
saving this beautiful planet
sustainability is no rocket science
it’s much more important than this
thank you