As Spring is approaching, so comes the yearly Sustainability Week, and we put a small selection of titles on display at the entrance of the Library to celebrate this event. The environment and sustainable development belong to the main topics covered by the Library over the past decades. Our dedicated collection is characterised by a large scope of subjects and perspectives of study, covering topics like climate change, natural resources and conflict, among others.
The concept of sustainability is defined, in the Brundtland report completed in 1987 by the World Environmental Commission, as a development” that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”. It tried to answer the question of how to achieve a development that allows everyone to have a decent life while respecting the natural environment.
This was the culmination of a long process of reflection and awareness raising that gained momentum in the 1960s and 1970s with seminal works such as Silent Spring of Rachel Carlson. The conclusion of all this process is that the world has to make changes in the way we produce food and consumption goods but also in the way humans relate to the environment and to others. For some experts the solutions come from technology and science while others suggest deeper changes in the paradigm of production, in governance and in the relationship between humans and nature.
This transition requires efforts of all: international governance institutions that create legal instruments such as the Kyoto or Nagoya Protocols and that coordinate and follow up actions at the level of national governments, NGOs and social movements that raise the problems to be solved at the level of national and international bodies, companies that have to think about new ways of producing and each of us who have an ecological footprint on our planet.
To go deeper into the subject or simply look for inspiration to act, check our selection of books on display in the entrance of the Library, or the following online titles:
Geneva Graduate Institute Library Blog 