GEORGE NEWS - Dr Albert van Jaarsveld, an international social-ecological systems expert, gave a fascinating talk on 25 September about how systems analysis can be used to find solutions to increasingly complex problems facing countries around the world pertaining to issues like economic growth, populations dynamics, climate change, and energy, water and food security.
His talk was the first institutional public lecture hosted by the Science Faculty of the Nelson Mandela University and it took place at the George Campus.
Van Jaarsveld is a member of the Global Commission on Science Missions for Sustainability at the International Science Council (ISC) and also the former director general of the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA). His topic was 'Systems approaches to fast-track sustainable wellbeing'.
He said the ISC wants efforts towards the United Nations (UN)'s sustainable development goals for 2030 (SDGs), aimed at the wellbeing of people and the planet they live on, to be accelerated. The council's vision is to support urgent "society transformation towards a more sustainable, equitable and resilient future", as envisioned by the UN.
Much of the work Van Jaarsveld is involved with at IIASA and the ISC is aimed at overcoming the challenges policy makers are grappling with when making decisions in the sustainability context. He said although many international initiatives are underway to try to solve the problem of sustainability globally, the world is failing on the UN's goals.
These will never be reached by 2030 and there is already talk of pushing the target date to 2050.
Ongoing poverty, infrastructure collapse, pandemics, conflicts and wars are some of the factors hampering endeavours towards these goals, but slow progress is also partly due to a gap between science and the practical implementation of the solutions it offers.
The ISC recognises this and therefore the Global Commission on Science Missions for Sustainability was established to find new ways to support missions for sustainability around the world.
"The key is that it should be a collaborative process where mission teams get put together from the scientific community, the stakeholders, and business community in an area to act as a team that can work out sustainability solutions in a particular context and environment.
"The teams should include the required core competencies, all the way from the higher modelling development stuff, and bringing it to the needs and wants of the people on the ground."
Funding is another factor that needs urgent consideration.
Countries and funders are willing to jointly fund massive scientific projects such as the square kilometre array (SKA), but are not so keen on backing real actions towards sustainability.
He stressed that in the end, cooperation of all is essential. "We all have to recognise that none of us is going to be sustainable by ourselves. If I think I am going to be sustainable on my own, and my neighbour is not, then I am not, whether it is a nation state, or a neighbourhood or a community."
Dr Albert van Jaarsveld
The lecture was well supported by NMU staff, students as well as learners from local schools.
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