Page 3 - NYY Muscat Call 2022 April 24

I: INTRODUCTION

1.1 Where we are: Technology, Sustainability, Humanity

Staged in a process of ferocious advance, technical progress brings unprecedented new tools

and abilities. With those, we are poised to potentially resolve whatever vast, outstanding
issues confront us. On the other hand, applied to enable ever-more effective resource

exploitation, along with means of violence and destruction, technology equally undermines

Sustainability.

Meanwhile, Climate Change, biodiversity loss, broken land-use and water cycles are
interlinked with what and how we produce and consume. Humanity has become entangled in

a systemic crisis, propelled by collective mismanagement and lack of investment in nature,

reflecting inability to appreciate and convert nature’s endless, multifaceted value streams into
mechanisms for devising responsibilities and sustainable resource use.

National governments, multilateral organisations, financial markets, the corporate sector,
citizens, and consumers, fail to combine efforts to rectify the situation. Yet, actions on the

ground, in various corners of the world, demonstrate that tangible change - and progress - is

possible. More is required, however, to learn from good practices, scale up solutions, and
realize untapped opportunities.

While no single silver bullet is at hand, to rectify the situation, the key to change resides with

people. How technology is eventually put to use, and for what purpose, comes down to

multiple influences, at polling stations, in the marketplace, on-line, or the square where
demonstrators assemble. Yet, many people experience they have little “say”. Fear and

prejudice are consciously stoked on, by populist leaders and narrow interests shielding
privilege, to put the blame elsewhere, confuse, and divide. Meanwhile, technocrats argue that

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