The One Earth team was in Rio for the United Nations conference. While in Rio, One Earth Director and UBC Professor Emeritus Bill Rees and Global Footprint Network President Mathis Wackernagel were awarded the Kenneth E. Boulding Award and the Blue Plane
t Prize for their work co-creating the Ecological Footprint. Since, Bill Rees’ article, The Way Forward: Survival 2100, was published in the Solutions Journal. Read his article here. Bill notes key steps to be taken in the coming decades – systemic, economic – and explores how our unique human capacity can support this transition. He writes, “Four critical intellectual and emotional qualities distinguish people from other advanced vertebrates. Humans have:
- an unequaled capacity for evidence-based reasoning and logical analysis;
- the unique ability to engage in long-term forward planning;
- the capacity to exercise moral judgment; and
- an ability to feel compassion for other individuals and other species.
…Now the question becomes, What would truly intelligent, forward-thinking, morally compassionate individuals do in response to available data, the historical record, and ongoing trends?”