Saving the future: Steele Rudd and Macgregor Professorial Lecture, 21 April 2010

Abstract

In his speech titled ‘Saving the Future’, Professor Cole will propose that a revolution which puts sustainability front and centre is needed to turn around this unmitigated environmental catastrophe. 'If we are to save our future and that of generations to come, we will need more than new laptops in the classroom. With close to two thirds of the Earth’s ecosystems already seriously degraded and climate change and loss of biodiversity emerging threats to life as we know it, the 21st century will be lived in a very different way. 'Sooner rather than later, we will have to deal fundamentally with the discipline of living within the limits of the planet’s capacity to sustain life. The biggest question of our time is can we live sustainably and the biggest question facing universities is can we research and educate people on how to live sustainably?