New Delhi: Union HRD Minister Kapil Sibal
on Wednesday said the growing consumption trend of people in the
Western countries was a cause for concern and maintained that
sustainable lifestyle was the key to check climate change.
Instead of becoming an instrument of sustainable
development, education has become a major cause for
unsustainable lifestyles, especially in the western countries,
he said at the 35th UNESCO General Conference held in Paris.
"It is ironic that both in the past and currently the
developed world, with higher human development indexes, had
and have unsustainable lifestyles and consumption patterns.
Education, instead of becoming an instrument of sustainable
development, has become a major cause for unsustainable
lifestyles," Sibal said.
If developing countries adopt and imitate Western styles
of production and consumption, it is estimated that "we would
need four times the resources planet earth provides by the
year 2055 for sustaining us," Sibal said.
He asked the developing countries to adopt and adapt to
sustainable lifestyles, as they implement their development
strategies.
Bureau Report
First Published: Thursday, October 08, 2009, 21:09