Coursera Blog • The Age of Sustainable Development from Jeff Sachs, Columbia University 2/14/14 10:42 AM

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The Age of Sustainable Development from Jeff Sachs, Columbia University

Jeffrey D. Sachs is Director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University Special Advisor to UN
Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon. Jeff is teaching a course called The Age of Sustainable
Development, below is a guest blogpost written by Jeff on the course.

“For man holds in his mortal hands the power to abolish all form of human poverty and all forms of
human life,” John F. Kennedy observed a half-century ago, and his observation speaks to us today
with special urgency.

Our generation is truly the first that can end the ancient scourge of extreme poverty. Yet is also the
one that can destroy the Earth’s life support system through human- induced environmental
destruction. We have entered the Age of Sustainable Development. I am therefore enormously
excited and pleased to be launching a free, global, online university course in this critical subject in
January 2014.

Sustainable Development is both a way of looking at the world, and a way of helping to save it. As a
method of understanding the world, Sustainable Development practitioners study the interactions of
the economy, environment, politics, and culture as they relate to economic prosperity, social
inclusion, and environmental sustainability. As a method of helping to save the world, Sustainable
Development encourages society to take a holistic approach to human well-being that ties together economic progress, strong
social bonds, and environmental sustainability.

I predict that Sustainable Development will become the organizing principle for
our politics, economics, and even ethics in the years ahead. That’s why the
world’s governments have agreed to place Sustainable Development at the very
center of the world’s development agenda in the years after 2015. They will
soon adopt Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to help guide the world to a
safer and fairer 21st century trajectory around the global challenges we are
facing, including energy, food, water, climate and jobs.

For most of my first 30 years as a professor, the basic educational technologies

didn’t change much. I stood in front of a class and gave a 57 minute lecture.
Yes, the blackboard gave way to an overhead projector, and then to PowerPoint, but otherwise the basic classroom “production
technology” changed little.

Yet in recent years, technology is fundamentally transforming education, and very much for the better. In the 21st to empower
citizens and give them the tools and knowledge they need. With the ongoing revolution in information and communications
technology (ICT), almost anyone around the globe can access high-quality educational materials that previously were available only
to a lucky few.

Online courses have already reached students in over 190 countries, who are able to watch lecture videos, take quizzes, and
interact with fellow students and professors. Online education is transforming the classroom experience also. Now century,
education is more critical than ever rather than watch me lecture for an hour, my students at Columbia University will watch the
online lectures ahead of time so that we can engage in a much richer in-class discussion.

In the years ahead, we will all have to become leaders in sustainable development in our homes, communities, and nations. Millions
of young people will be the problem solvers of the future. Thousands of cities and 200 countries around the world will need to
convene all stakeholders – government, communities, experts, business, and non-governmental organizations – to play their roles,
and open online education will be key to disseminating necessary information.

This is why my class is part of a broader online education effort of the Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN), an
initiative under the auspices of UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon that I am honored to direct. The SDSN mobilizes scientific and
technical expertise from academia, civil society, and the private sector in support of sustainable development problem solving at
local, national, and global scales. One of its five key objectives is to develop and disseminate online education materials for
sustainable development for students all over the world; and so we will be working with global academic partners to incorporate
The Age of Sustainable Development into their own classes, tailored for local circumstances and issues.

Over a dozen institutions are already on board, and I encourage anyone interested to participate. The combination of global and
local education and problem-solving is critical to the sustainable development challenge.

Please enroll, listen in, enjoy, enquire, and engage. - Jeff

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Coursera Blog • The Age of Sustainable Development from Jeff Sachs, Columbia University 2/14/14 10:42 AM

Sign up Jeff Sach’s Course

#jeff sachs
#columbia
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#sustainable development
December 19, 2013 @ 1:01 am
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Ash • 20 days ago

Please set your web correctly first..

1 • Reply • Share ›

Rob George • a month ago

If Dr. Jeff is at all sincere and worth listening to,

he'll talk about Socioeconomic Democracy. In case the Gentle Reader
hasn't yet heard, SeD is about the following:

We wish to suggest the serious consideration of Socioeconomic Democracy

as a peaceful, just and democratic resolution of the myriad unnecessary
and painful problems confronting humanity caused by the maldistribution
of wealth both within and among nations, and most definitely the vcery real problem of Sustainable Development

Socioeconomic Democracy is a theoretically consistent and practically

implementable socioeconomic system wherein there exist both some form
and amount of locally appropriate Universally Guaranteed Personal Income
and some form and amount of locally appropriate Maximum Allowable
Personal Wealth, with both the lower bound on personal material poverty
and the upper bound on personal material wealth set and adjusted
democratically by all participants of a democratic society.

Socioeconomic Democracy is trivially accomplished with elementary Public

Choice Theory. It further provides the necessary and presently missing
see more

• Reply • Share ›

Denise Arrai da Silva Costa • 2 months ago

Qual a possibilidade de este curso ser transmitido com legendas em português?

Estou muito interessada neste curso... é de grande interesse para minha área de atuação.
• Reply • Share ›

Amc square learning | Reviews • 2 months ago

I think you are so awesome for summarizing this briefly

• Reply • Share ›

Mihai Margoi • 2 months ago

yes! it's ok!

mm
• Reply • Share ›

Manuel Carrillo • 2 months ago

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Coursera Blog • The Age of Sustainable Development from Jeff Sachs, Columbia University 2/14/14 10:42 AM

Manuel Carrillo • 2 months ago

You should have written "Sachs' Course" in the blue etiquette.

• Reply • Share ›

Nadolsw • 2 months ago

Looks phenomenal - can't wait!

• Reply • Share ›

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