Today, there are five billion seven hundred million people on earth,
and in forty-five years, there will be ten billion. This upheaval
in the demographic structure will have consequences in all fields.
People throughout the world have begun to be aware of these problems,
as has been concretely shown by the Rio Conference, the Cairo Conference
on Population, and conferences on social development to be held in Denmark
and on women's condition in China. This international awareness of the
stress on the earth's resources caused by a radical increase in population
and consumption is our sole ray of hope. It is in this context that
Ecotechnie was born.
The idea of creating university chairs through which Ecotechnie-a new
approach to decision making-would be taught was adopted at a meeting of
the scientific council of The Cousteau Society in New York in 1986. UNESCO
has joined the effort to carry out this project.
The first Ecotechnie chair was created at the Free University of Brussels,
Belgium, and the Ecotechnie network has since expanded to many universities,
from Romania to Brazil.
Why were the Ecotechnie chairs created? What needs do they meet?
The analysis of many important projects has shown that political and industrial
decisions take into account only short-term consequences. The list is very
long: radioactive waste, nuclear proliferation adn the black market of fissile
products, building on flood plains, consequences of the Aswan dam, Chernobyl,
Bhopal and Seveso. These are errors we have made which are the result of the
absence of long-term vision.