Sustainable development

Sustainable development means …

Over the last fifteen or so years, the expression "sustainable development" has become so popular as to be almost a cliché. And yet the concept is already in the hands of governments, institutions, members of parliaments, businesses, investors, NGOs, unions, associations, the media, researchers … while the citizens, the inhabitants of Planet Earth, know little about it.
Initially linked with the concept of the "environment", this term now seems to carry with it a summary of essential values which must be explained and made plain to everyone.

• International awareness in 30 years.  For a long time, it was felt that nature could "absorb" the onslaughts of mankind. And that the discoveries of science would correct any problems caused by progress. It wasn't wrong … But the world took off! Galloping population growth, deforestation, energy consumption, desertification, disappearance of species, climate warming and natural disasters are accelerating, with the risk of overturning the fine, the astonishing mechanisms of the living world. Late in the day, the ecological conscience was brusquely awoken by the realisation of the extend of the damage caused by progress due to economic growth and, paradoxically, the conquest of space, which has sent us an image of the finite nature and fragility of the Earth. The need to become reconciled with nature, to re-learn to understand and love it rather than to dominate, exploit and even loot it, then became obvious.

• From Stockholm (1972) to Rio de Janeiro (1992), from Johannesburg (2002) to Kyoto (2003) At political level, the consequences were fast and spectacular. Matters first became official at the Stockholm Conference, where the UN listed the environment as one of its priorities and linked it with the problems of development. The movement was launched and, amid conferences and conventions, led, in 1987, to the Brundtland report and the emergence of the new concept of "sustainable development". "to meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability to meet those of future generations". Alongside this time-based dimension, the idea of sustainable development immediately became a spatial dimension "a greater solidarity between the countries of the so-called North and South".

• Sustainable Development The key to unlock the 21st Century  Putting man back at the centre of his economic activities, at the heart of his natural environment and his individual and community responsibilities. Trying to build a harmonious development, which must be sustainable, fair, viable and livable. Acting urgently on the three causes of the imbalance of today's world:
- social inequalities 
- environmental risks 
-  economic disparities
with a fair evaluation of their three-way interactions.
So how can the present and the future of the world be seen? How can we now combine social justice with ecological care and economic efficiency? An impossible 3-way marriage?

• Making the general public aware… “The issues of sustainable development are both profoundly personal and widely collective”.  If public opinion is made  aware of environmental questions and is worried about the future, it has not yet taken the measure of the collective and personal issues of sustainable development. This exists at every level, all the time and everywhere. It concerns every one of us, because it is a search for greater well-being, and perhaps even the survival of all of us … From access to drinking water to the wars it engenders, from frenetic car use to respiratory disease, from climate change to desertification, from galloping population growth to access to education .. the actions we see every day are totally beyond the individual and the local and contribute - perhaps minimally, but combined with all the others - to a universal phenomenon.
Goods and services companies, the agricultural world, research laboratories and so on obviously also have key roles to play in sustainable development. We have to take a good look at how we work, if we are to anticipate, apply a strategy simultaneously incorporating economic, environmental and social impacts, and integrate these three apparently irreconcilable dimensions in development policies. Awareness is slow and difficult to achieve.
The role of the Pass, a museum of sciences and society, is to help everyone to understand and take account of the issues and challenges of sustainable development so that that they can form opinions and change the way they live with "their" Earth.

• A universal partnership The Aïchi-Japan 2005 universal exhibition.  While the subject needs to be seen globally as well as locally, the partnership considered again strengthens this idea of a universal awareness and an exhibition on this topic for the "world public”. This is why this exhibition is to be duplicated in the French Pavilion for the 2005 Aïchi exhibition in Japan, whose subject is Man / Nature.