European Chapter - The Club of Rome

A Meeting of the The Club of Rome, European Chapter

The Chairman is Mark Dubrulle, President Club of Rome, Europe. Also present is Prince Philip of Belgium, Honorary President Club of Rome CoR-EU

In Part I of this series: Prince Philip of Belgium, introducing Jean-Paul van Yperselle, said that the core of sustainability is this: "We either survive together or we perish together." ... "We must take the long term view, but act quickly."

Limits to Growth The Club of Rome EU Chapter (Part II)
Lecture 73rd- Science, Part II: Jean-Pascal van Ypersele, Vice-Chair Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), Physicist, climatologist, extraordinary professor at the Georges Lemaître Centre for Earth and Climate Research, Université catholique de Louvain (UCL), Recipient of the 2007 Collective Nobel Peace Price (19 minutes)

I've included some notes which roughly outline what the clip contains.

Prof. Jean-Pascal van Ypersele:
We share a unique planet. Did we learn enough about it?
We care about what we love. We love what we understand. We understand what we have been told.
The IPCC tells us that the existence of global warming is "unequivocal", meaning it's beyond any doubt.
They also tell us that we can reduce our CO² emissions if we choose to do so. This was first made clear in 1972 in the book "Limits to Growth". We also made it clear in the statement of the Club of Rome, at the Agenda 21 Conference, in Rio in 1992, twenty years later.
Still we choose not to act.

Limits to Growth The Club of Rome EU Chapter (Part III)
Lecture 73rd- Science, Part III: Jean-Pascal van Ypersele, Vice-Chair Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) (14 minutes)

Prof. Jean-Pascal van Ypersele:
What is growth for? Who will it benefit? What will it cost? Will it be accommodated by the sources and sinks of the planet?

People want peace, simplicity, beauty, nature and respect. Those things cost much less than war, complexity, ugliness, luxury, waste, oppression, and manipulation. Some day we'll realise that we all want the same things, and it will take surprisingly little to achieve it.

A sustainable future begins with these five building blocks.

• Visioning - imagining a future all can have.


• Networking - Community group forming - Allowing everyone to have a say.


• Truth Telling - generating the ability for people to work together.


• Citizen Action - Acting locally but in a global context.


• Connecting - Loving, friendship, generosity and understanding.

The world faces not a pre-ordained future, but a choice. A choice between different mental models. Business as usual leads to catastrophic failure, the collapse of civilization.
An alternative view is that if we act now, and act strongly, there is enough time to save humanity. It's quite possible that this view is wrong, but given the options, it's worth a try.