We live in calamitous times. The global Populist movement may take over our governments, as it has done in many countries all over the world, in the Global West and the Global South. Conspiracy theories are a dime a dozen. The incredibly rich are global citizens who will park their money wherever it is safest, for them. They hardly pay any taxes: this is the privilege of the poor, who everywhere bear the highest burden of what society throws at them. Social justice is far removed, both within societies and between societies. Humanity continues to breach planetary boundaries of what Earth can provide in food, clean water, air, bountiful nature and the many resources we depend on. An adaptive and resilient sustainable balance between the social, economic and environmental domains is beyond our grasp, at the moment. The sustainability crises are often presented along the lines of “we do not have a planet B” if we destroy life on this planet. Science teaches us that this is not correct. Life will survive, whatever we do. In previous mass extinctions of species, the larger species all were exterminated. If we are not careful, we will exterminate ourselves. Planet A will continue, but it will for millions of years not have a “humanity B”.
Yet there is evidence that many of our systems, for example for energy, transport and food, are moving in the right direction, and hopefully will reach tipping points where they transform to a sustainable future. I have personally seen most of that evidence, and had the privilege of working on verifying and validating that evidence, as an applied scientist / evaluation manager for the Global Environment Facility (GEF). The GEF has funded experiments, pilots and innovative investment programmes throughout the world to test how our future could take shape since the early 90s of the previous century. A great number of other funds, multilateral, non-governmental, bilateral, and civil society organisations and entrepreneurs and companies have tested our various pathways to sustainability. We can do it, if we want it! There is evidence for hope that we can find the way.
There is ample evidence that a sustainable future is much cheaper than our current economic system. Just think about what needs to be done to bring fossil fuels to your car. Crude oil needs to be mined, and then transported to refineries. It needs to be changed into petrol, that needs to be distributed throughout a global maze of petrol stations. Compare this to wind and sun power, which will almost always be harvested relatively close to your home, village or city. Thanks to the ongoing battery revolution, generated electricity will be stored locally as well. This will democratise energy. And it is limitless – take the Sun: it delivers all humanity’s current annual energy needs to Earth in 1 hour, 30 minutes. And the Sun is just one sustainable and renewable source of energy! This is the upcoming sustainability revolution, where we discover that we can have enough energy, healthy food, clean air and water for everybody, forever.
As a retired applied scientist, I have published articles and chapters on how evaluation can support the transformation of our world to a sustainable one. I have co-edited several books on this subject. I have written Evidence for Hope about the wider consequences of this – bringing evaluative and applied evidence to a wider audience. On this website you will find my publications as well as a few blogs on how to secure a better future, with social justice and in balance with nature. News (if any) will be published here.
Enjoy!