In the U.S. and the developed world, we have made decisions based on a false perception that people and prosperity are disconnected from the planet’s health; and individual health and prosperity disconnected from the health and prosperity of others. We have mined resources while ignoring natural laws, local limits and system dynamics. Most recently, we have combined globalization with advanced technology to mine global resources to the extent that the human-dominated global ecosystem is degrading at a rapid and accelerating rate. In addition, global conversion of resource to waste (including air pollution) and the massive fossil fuel consumption that powers this conversion, are producing rapid climate change.
This project seeks to reverse this trend, and is therefore particularly significant to developing countries because they bear the greatest burden of climate change (Patz, 2007). This burden includes increased incidents of malnutrition and temperature-sensitive diseases. According to the World Health Organization, the recent ¾ 0 Centigrade rise in temperature is causing an increased 160,000 – 180,000 deaths per year globally in regions with a prevalence of temperature-sensitive diseases (Frumkin, 2007). This is only one dimension of the crisis in developing countries which are the venue of emergent new diseases (Ebola, SARS, and so on) and the anticipate venue of the myriad of additional emergent diseases that will be triggered by climate change. The social injustice of this divergence between who impacts and who suffers – the North-South global divide - is also driving major global conflict.
Implementation of the P3 Award Project as an Educational Tool: These symptoms and deeper crisis are also driving the sustainability movement that promotes a societal shift to embrace deep interconnections of people, prosperity and the planet. The movement embraces a challenge to address the triple bottom line: social justice, economic vitality and environmental responsibility. In the U.S., after decades of talking there is a recognized urgent need for key universities to “lead society to a sustainable future” (Motloch, 2007). These symptoms and deeper crisis also drive the 2030 Challenge to achieve carbon neutral universities, and the 2010 Initiative that challenges design education to reduce or eliminate fossil fuel consumption, achieve ecological literacy, and achieve a carbon neutral design campus by 2010.
Challenges Defined
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