Focal Points of a Psychology of Sustainable Development

Abstract

According to the recent Worldwatch reports and the Johannesburg Memorandum (www.joburgmemo.org) the globally threatening trends like climate change, species extinction or growing injustice in sharing the worlds resources could not be reversed in the last decade, despite of the declaration of Rio de Janeiro, and despite a growing scientific activity aiming at sustainable development (SD). Thus, a chance for intensifying the impact of psychology in fostering SD may be a reconsidering and reflecting our implicit or explicit assumptions about human nature relevant for SD: Are human beings able to take into consideration the future after the own life cycle? Are we able to feel ourselves as a part of nature responsible for conserving the net of life we are living from? Are we able to reduce our consumption of resources to an amount which does not impair the carrying capacity of our earth? Are we able to share justly the available resources within the human generation living now and between us and future generations? Basic questions like these will be reflected and discussed in the symposium.