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UN United Aspiration - proposed 11 July 2020

The concept of a United Aspiration was initially submitted to the UNFCCC on 11 July 2021.

The United Aspiration is intended to address the need to restore ecological balance. The data from the Global Footprint Network indicates that we have been exceeding our global ecological budget since the 1970s This phenomenon is called global Ecological Overshoot. Before the 1970s then human the environmental damage that was caused by human activity was being repaired more quickly than it was being inflicted. Our global ecological overshoot is now causing ecological collapse. Some symptoms of global ecological collapse that we are currently witnessing are as follows:


 * loss of bio-diversity
 * increased extinction rates (ie Holocene or Sixth Mass Extinction)
 * increased and more severe pandemics SARS, COVID
 * shorter life-expectancy

The United Aspiration seeks to unite humanity and inspire us to move away from our prevailing growth paradigm to soften the landing as the ecology collapses. This involves working to reinstate better ecological balance with the other life-forms on which our survival depends, it requires us to shrink our ecological footprint. The wording of the Aspiration is based on the following scientific insights:


 * Global Ecological Overshoot which tells us that we have been overspending our ecological budget since the 1970s
 * The I=PAT equation which tells us that environmental damage caused by humanity is a product of Population size, how we use our Affluence, and how we use our Technology
 * The Jevons Paradox which warns us that if our use of technology is not carefully selected it will simply enable us to damage our environment more quickly, rather than helping us to mitigate the predicament which we have created
 * The Bystroff demographic model and the MIT World3 predictions that have been revisited using the latest data are both examples of demographic models which go beyond the simple extrapolation of birth and death rates. In different ways both of these models factor-in resource depletion and environmental degradation according to human behaviour.  Both models warn that 2020-2040 is a crucial era for humanity and we can expect collapse if we choose to persist with the economic growth paradigm.

The proposed wording for the United Aspiration is currently as follows:

“ ''This United Aspiration seeks to inspire a new emotional maturity within the human race. This new era will be characterised by increasingly selfless behaviour both individually and collectively in the face of escalating existential threats. To this end it recognises that our environmental impact is a product of our population size and the way that we utilise our affluence and technology. Henceforth we shall collectively and individually aspire to combine our free-choice, affluence and technology to redress the ecological imbalance, which is escalating the sixth mass extinction. All nations will collectively aspire to reducing their ecological footprint to less than 50% of the biocapacity available within their borders, as determined by the Global Footprint Network data. Globally, educational goals will prioritise the symbiotic relationships between ecological footprint, ecological balance, and the need to conserve at least 50% of the planet for sustaining the needs of non-human and non-livestock vertebrates. Human intervention in wildlife populations will be discouraged unless an invasive species is deemed to be a serious threat to either local or global eco-systems.”''

More information is available from the this link.