The focus could be national happiness. See http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gross_national_happiness#section_5.
So far as sustainability is concerned, we should start with preserving as much of the remaining natural functioning of ecosystems that evolved over millions of millennia. For their own sake. What we will be left with following the current "experiment" likely will be far more fragile. Geoff Patton Sent from my iPhone On Jul 18, 2012, at 1:24 PM, Rob Dietz <rob_di...@steadystate.org> wrote: > Interesting question, David. The most important part of the curriculum, > especially for a nation (and university) thinking hard about the future, is > steady-state economics. We need a new curriculum that addresses how to > build an economy that can meet people's needs without undermining the > life-support systems of the planet. This means accepting the ecological and > social limits to growth. And we need a new generation of economics > professors and students who can help develop the most effective policies and > institutions. It looks like an auspicious time for such an educational > overhaul. Brian Czech's latest essay in the Daly News describes the > positive reactions of Rio+20 delegates to steady-state concepts: > http://steadystate.org/positive-vision-international-affairs/ > > We can make a good start on the required economic changes by pushing to add > ecological economics as a critical part of what universities offer. > > Thanks, > Rob Dietz > Editor, Daly News
