Globalisation and sustainability are defining issues, Sachs tells Trinity

GLOBALISATION AND the challenge of environmental sustainability are the defining issues of this generation, according to leading economist Jeffrey D Sachs, who was last night awarded the Trinity College Historical Society’s gold medal for outstanding contribution to public discourse.

Addressing the TCD Historical Society on the subject of Economics in the Global Sphere, Prof Sachs said that for the first time in history the world is "intensely and completely" interconnected.

“The world’s been globalising for at least 70,000 years but what distinguishes our time is that we’ve reached the completion of this planet. There is no part of the world that is cut off from the rest . . . no part of the world that is not significant for the entire planet.”

Prof Sachs pointed out that when Thomas Malthus published An Essay on the Principle of Population in 1798, the global population was 750 million. This figure has now increased tenfold.

“This matters. When Adam Smith and Malthus were writing, 90 per cent of the world was peasant communities and their use of natural resources was very limited. Today, our average throughput per year is $10,000 per person per year of production. The impact of society on our physical earth and the physical environment is an unprecedented challenge.”

Prof Sachs is a leading economist of his generation. An adviser to UN secretary general Ban Ki-Moon, he has also worked in an advisory capacity for governments in Latin America, eastern Europe, Asia and Africa, as well as international development agencies.

The author of Common Wealth: Economics for a Crowded Planetand the New York Timesbestseller The End of Poverty: Economic Possibilities for Our Time, he is a strong advocate of the principles of sustainable global development and environmental sustainability.