STWR - Share The World's Resources

The final report on the Ecology Panel held at the 10th Rhodes Forum on October 5, 2012, included a call for a greater sharing of the world's resources in order to reverse the trend of increasing inequality and economic insecurity. By the Chair and Moderator of the Panel, Professor Kamran Mofid. 

The rise of capitalist practice and morality brought with it a radical revision of how the commons are treated, and also of how they are conceived. The prevailing view today is: what is not owned will be destroyed by individual avarice. How the Magna Carta became a Minor Carta, by Noam Chomsky.

The small country of Bhutan has captured the imagination of governments, civil society and the UN with its proposition of Gross National Happiness, leading to the 'High-Level Meeting on Happiness and Wellbeing' convened in New York at the beginning of April 2012. 

As the threat of a global climate crisis grows and economic conditions continue to falter, a movement is growing in support of long-term systemic change. Advocates of a ‘new economy’ are rethinking business-as-usual and placing environmental and social responsibility at the fore, writes Gar Alperovitz.

Today’s political economy is failing to enhance social well-being while sustaining democratic prospects and environmental quality. It is time to foster progressive perspectives and ideas that challenge the fundamental working arrangements of the status quo, writes Gus Speth.

Considering the biophysical limits of the Earth, the notion that growth can continue indefinitely is absurd. The only option is to create a steady-state economy aimed at maintaining a sufficient stock of real wealth to sustain the population and the environment, argues Herman Daly.

A persistent pattern of violence is inherent in the institutional structure of our existing economy. We need a top to bottom redesign to build a new economic system that shares power and resources for the well-being of all, argues David Korten.