Living Within the Doughnut

Oxfam has developed a new model of sustainable development called A Safe and Just Space for Humanity for Rio +20 based on Jorgen Randers work. The following graphics are taken from A Safe and Just Space for Humanity report.

The model is based upon the model of planetary boundaries developed by Johan Rockstrom of the Stockholm Resilience Centre along with a group of 28 other distinguished scientists. Oxfam’s model integrates human development with planetary limitations. It acknowledges that human socio-economic systems are intimately bound to our ecology. Our economy cannot function without health ecology because all wealth produced by our economy is derived from ecological services. Human development must therefore take place within explicitly identified safe limits of global environmental parameters. We must proactively be stewards of the land, sea and air. We must recognize that without a healthy ecology, there is no such thing as a healthy economy.