Workshop: Towards a sustainable society
One-day workshop: Charting a course towards a sustainable, equitable and peaceful society
Venue: Cerana Foundation, Hyderabad
Day: Sunday, 13 July, 2014
Time: 9 am to 6 pm
About the workshop: We face one tilting point–environmental degradation and two tipping points–climate change and peak oil. Environmental degradation has already ruined the lives of many people in India and elsewhere. Climate change and peak oil have the potential to collapse our civilization. Yet, scant attention is being paid to address these issues.
The task of navigating a course through these issues has been thrust on future generations. And whether they like it or not, they will have to deal with the issues of resource wars, sustainability, equity and conflict, which are intimately related to the tipping and tilting points. This workshop attempts to help the participants to understand these issues through presentations, practical exercises and discussion.
For whom: This workshop is primarily for young activists wanting to understand the contours of the debates of sustainable development.
Venue: The workshops will be held at the Cerana Foundation office, D-101 Highrise Apartments, Lower Tank Bund Road, Hyderabad 500 080. Tel: 2753 6593. Highrise Apartments is the complex next to Courtyard Marriott Hotel on Lower tank Bund Road. The entrance to the complex is through a small lane behind Laxman Wines, which is at the beginning of the Gandhinagar Road, which forms a T junction with Lower Tank Bund Road.
Donation: To cover lunch and sundry expenses, a nominal donation of Rs 150 per head will have to be borne by each participant.
Registration: Interested persons may register for the workshop by sending an email to . For further information and registering, please write to or call Prasad (nsp_nsp29@yahoo.co.in), 80962 54532 or 80997 73670 or Vinay Bandari (vinaybandari43@gmail.com), 77990 47312. Please feel free to forward this announcement to others whom you feel may be interested in these workshops.
Workshop organizers: Cerana Foundation, Indian Youth Climate Network
Tentative workshop agenda:
Morning
Our unsustainable and inequitable society
Lecture
A historical understanding of development (45 min)
Energy in development from hunter gatherer stage to late capitalism
Unsustainable and uneven development—Energy overuse and its inequitable distribution
Consequences—Global warming, peak oil, social and political conflict
Practicals
Computing energy consumption (2 hrs)
Energy and carbon footprinting for individuals
Energy footprinting for the US, EU27, China, India
Energy footprinting for the world at US/Indian standard
Discussion
How did these problems arise? (1 hr)
If the world were to live like Americans, is it sustainable? Where would this additional energy come from?
What/who caused these problems?
Why and how did they persist for so many millennia?
What were the ideologies and institutions that perpetuated these problems?
Afternoon
Moving towards a sustainable and equitable society
Lecture
Towards solutions (45 min)
Energy sources and their reserves
Defining sustainable energy drawls
Energy distribution in various political systems
Defining vulnerable areas and populations
Practicals
Quantifying solutions (2 hrs)
Computing global energy drawl for a sustainable society
Energy drawl/distribution for a equitable society
Identifying vulnerable areas and populations
Discussion
How can we solve these problems? (1 hr)
What should be the guiding principles for a sustainable and equitable society?
What should be the socio-economic structure of a sustainable & equitable society?
What is the roadmap to get to such a society?
What could be short and medium-term programmes for fixing these issues?
What role can we play as individuals?
Evening
Movie screening
There is a lot of ground we are trying to cover, so the workshop will start at 9am sharp. Participants are expected to be on time.