MOOC | Jeffrey Sachs - The Age of Sustainable Development | Lecture 1, Chapter 1

Jeffrey Sachs's new, free course, "The Age of Sustainable Development," gives students an understanding of the key challenges and pathways to sustainable development - that is, economic development that is also socially inclusive and environmentally sustainable. Sustainable development is the most urgent challenge facing humanity. The fundamental question is how the world economy can continue to develop in a way that is socially inclusive and environmentally sustainable. The course describes the complex interactions between the world economy and the Earth's physical environment. Ecological processes and constraints (climate, disease ecology, physical resources such as soils and energy sources, topography and transport conditions) significantly shape the patterns of economic development, demography, and wealth and poverty. At the same time, human activities (farming, land use, urbanization, demographic change, and energy use) change the physical environments, increasingly in dangerous ways. The course offers a broad overview of the key challenges and potential solutions to achieve sustainable development in the 21st century. For more information on the course, visit: https://www.coursera.org/course/susdev For more information on Jeffrey Sachs and Columbia University's Earth Institute, visit: http://earth.columbia.edu/ To follow the class and Jeffrey Sachs, please follow @jeffdsachs, hashtag #susdev