Conference and Workshops
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May, 6th & 7th 2011
Teatro Municipal Maria Matos, Lisbon
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Sustainable Development is an amazingly simple and straightforward concept. It is based on the irrefutable fact that it is impossible to endlessly grow within a finite system and adverts that humankind cannot continue to extract minerals, use water reserves, shrink forests, extinct animal and plant species and pollute the air as if they were endlessly available. It states the obvious truth that humankind has to learn to live within the boundaries of Ecosystem Earth, for the simple reason that it is the only planet we’ve got to live on.
Climate change has become the most talked about of all ecological issues, because it is the one that is already causing measurable effects on a planetary scale, but comparable risks of crossing the limits exist on nearly all levels of the global ecosystem. It has become clear that profound and radical change is needed if we want to return to an ecological balance, maintain our economic and social standards and create opportunities for a better life in the poorer regions of the globe.
The changes we need are profound because they have to be applied by all people, organizations, enterprises and authorities on all levels of society; they are radical because they imply real changes in life styles and value systems.
The program Art, Climate Change and Sustainable Development, realized by Transforma (Torres Vedras) and Teatro Maria Matos (Lisbon) acknowledges that the cultural sector and the arts have a real role to play in the transition to sustainability.