Nitin Desai did not come to Duke to enjoy a round of golf at the Washington Duke during the first week of his retirement from the position of United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs. Instead, he made a case for sustainable development as a more clearly defined discipline at the university level.
Speaking as part of the Distinguished Speaker Series co-sponsored by Nicholas School of the Environment and Earth Sciences and the Duke University Greening Initiative, Desai spoke before a packed house Tuesday afternoon.
"Sustainable development is not a recognizable discipline," Desai said. "We need to start working toward that." Desai defined sustainable development as a balance between the needs of the world's developing populations and the protection of the environment for future generations.
"Some type of human impact on the environment is necessary to meet the needs of people," Desai said. "We must not think of humans and nature as two different things.... The two are inseparable." Though he cited several positive developments in the field--which studies such issues as climate change, allocation of resources and management of dams, forests and fishing--he argued that much remains to be done.
"We still do not have the results," Desai said. "We still face the same problems we did 10 years ago."
Through several examples, Desai demonstrated that sustainable development is a field that requires a multidisciplinary approach including law, political science, economics, ecology and engineering. He said the slow progress in the field is indicative of a lack of understanding of this fundamental concept, but pointed to Duke as a place to foster such broad knowledge.
Desai added that a newly defined study of sustainable development would allow scientists to utilize a precautionary approach when presenting information to politicians, emphasizing the need to take action before the harmful effects to the environment begin to surface. In order to convince governments to adopt new standards, Desai said, the scientific community must speak with a unified voice--something that he said has not been present in the past.
"If you think it is hard to get politicians to agree, you should try to get scientists to agree," Desai said.
Speaking more generally, Desai praised environmental treaties that have been secured between nations, but said that the lack of a comprehensive sustainable development policy reflects a mindset in which national identities take precedence over a global identity. One audience member said he found the lecture to be particularly timely.
"It was a good way to start the school year because this is what we do here," said Eric Ward, a first-year doctoral student in ecology. Another student said he found the lecture lacking in specific solutions, but agreed with the basic premise of Desai's remarks.
"[The speech] left a lot of open questions, but I agree that education is the best way to go about starting to deal with the problem," said Allister Bernard, a graduate student in computer science.
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