本日、南アフリカのダーバンで開催中の国際社会科学評議会会合で、
2016年をIYGU(International Year of Global Understanding)「国際地球
理解年」とすることが宣言され、記者発表が行なわれました。IYGUは
IGUが提起したものであり、現在IGUの最優先プロジェクトと位置付け
られております。またFuture Earth をボトムアップで支えるものとして大
いに期待されております。この情報の周知に是非ご協力ください。
なお添付ファイルのうち日本語版は私が翻訳を担当しましたが、Meadows
さんから送られてきたものが少し古いバージョンだったため、新しいも
のと差し替えております。
氷見山
―
Dear Colleagues
I am absolutely delighted to forward you the formal press release (in seven
languages- you may wish to forward the document in only one language of
course depending on to where you send it) regarding today’s announcement,
at the International Social Science Council meeting in Durban, that 2016 is
proclaimed as the International Year of Global Understanding. I should
appreciate your forwarding this to your national press and other media
contacts so that the important news can be spread as wide as possible. This
is a landmark day for the IGU - and an opportunity for us all to share the
positive messages that the concept of developing global thinking and turning
it into local action can bring about.
Congratulations to Professor Benno Werlen and colleagues who have worked so
hard in order to bring this about,
For convenience, I copy the English version of the press release (y)
Mike Meadows
Professor Mike Meadows
―
2016 to be the International Year of Global Understanding (IYGU)
“Building bridges between global thinking and local action”
The International Council for Science (ICSU), the International Social
Science Council (ISSC) and International Council for Philosophy and Human
Sciences (CIPSH) jointly announced today that 2016 would be the
International Year of Global Understanding (IYGU). The aim of IYGU is to
promote better understanding of how the local impacts the global in order to
foster smart policies to tackle critical global challenges such as climate
change, food security and migration.
“We want to build bridges between global thinking and local action,” said
Prof. Benno Werlen of the Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Germany.
“Only when we truly understand the effects of our personal choices ? for
example in eating, drinking and producing ? on the planet, can we make
appropriate and effective changes,” said Werlen, who initiated this project
of the International Geographical Union (IGU).
How to translate scientific insight into more sustainable lifestyles will be
the main focus of activities ? research projects, educational programmes and
information campaigns ? for 2016. The project seeks to go beyond a narrow
focus on environmental protection and climate policy and explore quality of
life issues and the sustainable, long-term use of local resources.
“We live in the most interconnected world in history. Yet at the same time
that world is riven by conflicts, dislocations and uncertainties - an
unsettling and disturbing mixture of huge opportunities and existential
risks,” said Lord Anthony Giddens, former Director of the London School of
Economics, UK. “Finding a positive balance will demand fundamental
intellectual rethinking and new forms of collaboration of the sort the IGYU
offers” he added.
“Sustainable development is a global challenge, but solving it requires
transforming the local ? the way each of us lives, consumes, and works.
While global negotiations on climate attack the sustainability crisis from
above, the IYGU complements them beautifully with coordinated solutions from
below - by getting individuals to understand and change their everyday
habits. This twin approach elevates our chance of success against this
crisis, the gravest humanity has ever seen,” said former ICSU President and
Nobel Laureate Yuan-Tseh Lee.
For example, on each day in 2016, the IYGU will highlight a change to an
everyday activity that has been scientifically proven to be more sustainable
than current practice. Primers on everyday life which take cultural
diversity and local practice into account will be compiled and distributed.
“Now more than ever it is vital that we find the strength to understand and
relate to the positions, thoughts, and expectations of others and seek
dialogue instead of confrontation,” said Professor Klaus Töpfer, Executive
Director of the Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies (IASS)
It is hoped that this focus on tangible, local action will generate ideas
for research programmes and school curricula, as well as highlight best
practice examples. Wherever possible, activities will be communicated in
several languages. Using this bottom-up approach, the IYGU hopes to support
and extend the work of initiatives such as Future Earth, the UN’s Post-2015
Development Agenda, and the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable
Development.
“In Rwanda, environmental pollution through plastic litter was a widespread
and intractable problem. Ultimately, the insight that plastic is harmful to
ruminant animals, in particular cows, turned the tide in favor of
environmental legislation. This led to a ban on plastic items that could
cause litter. Today you’d be hard pressed to find plastic polluting public
areas in Rwanda,” said Werlen.
The involvement of the ISSC, ICSU and CIPSH in IYGU underwrites broad
collaboration across the natural and social sciences and the humanities,
from across disciplinary boundaries and from all around the world.
In 2016, the IYGU program will be coordinated by about 50 Regional Action
Centers. This network is currently being established and cities such as
Tokyo . Washington, Sao Paulo, Tunis, Moscow, and Rome, while Beijing,
Mexico City, Maçao/Coimbra, Nijmegen, Hamilton, Bamako and Kigali are
confirmed as hoists of such Centers with their regional to continental
reach. The IYGU General Secretariat in Jena, Germany coordinates these
Regional Action Centers.
Further information on the International Year of Global Understanding is
available at www.global-understanding.info. Prof. Werlen is available for
further interviews upon request.
