[Ted Talk] The route to a sustainable future by Alex Steffen

resource: https://www.ted.com/talks/alex_steffen_sees_a_sustainable_future

I do agree that people need to live smaller, closer and work harder to provide food, water and shelter for the greater good. Great examples from developing world but democracy is a very poor example of sustainability. But we should be careful and acknowledge the gap between theory and practice. Also I am not highly convinced by the argument that high density leads to higher sustainability. If every person in the world had 1 acre and worked from home then couldn't we all be self sufficient? The uglier solution is to limit population increases. All the resources needed to resolve the major problems on the planet have been available for years, but the will to change political and economic priorities of society have not. As a result, increasing global wealth has been accompanied by increasing global poverty. And even though leaders may have good intentions, their efforts to implement change are constrained by the existing system.  I believe that technology and design are a part of the solution, but the even larger part of the solution is social changes, because social change can happen more rapidly