A Legacy for the Next Half Century:
What Will it Take to Create a Truly Sustainable Future?
Bill Moomaw ’59, director of the Center for International Environment and Resource Policy at the Fletcher School, Tufts University.
The past 50 years have been extraordinary in many ways. Diseases have been conquered, the world map has been transformed into 200 nations, dramatic social changes have occurred at home and abroad, and multiple technological transformations have fundamentally altered our lives. Despite the benefits, we are leaving a set of challenges to future generations: an energy transformation greater than the industrial revolution, growing demand for depleted natural resources, global climate change, a vastly larger human population, and a unique economic collapse that may require a rewiring of the global economy. While reflecting on the past, Moomaw offers his thoughts on our legacy for the next 50, and whether this future world can be truly sustainable.
Moomaw is a physical chemist by trade who was the coordinating lead author of the Year 2001 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) chapter on greenhouse gas emissions reduction, and was a lead author of the 1995, 2005, and 2007 IPCC reports.
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