Life & Style | General
My world: Professor Herbert Girardet
Professor Girardet is the founder and Director of Programmes, World Future Council
- Interviewed by Zenifer Khaleel for Friday
- Published: 00:00 June 3, 2011
- Image Credit: Supplied picture
- Professor Herbert Girardet.
I have had two defining moments in life and they both have to do with smoke. These incidents made me realise how much ecological damage we are subjecting our planet to. The first was when I was seven. My father bought a new car. He proudly showed it to me and when he revved the engine I saw smoke coming out of the exhaust pipe. When I asked him where all this smoke would end up, he did not have an answer.
The second revelation was in 1987 when I made a TV documentary in the Amazon called Halting the Fires (for Channel 4, London). From an old US army helicopter now used in the Amazon we filmed a vast area of forest that had been set alight to create cattle ranches. The experience of the sheer scale of devastation we witnessed that day will always stay with me.
I grew up in a large family on the outskirts of Essen, Germany, where I was born in 1943. My first years were a life of rural tranquillity, of community and of closeness to nature. I still vividly remember the rubble of bombed houses that Essen had become after the Second World War, and the nagging question I had - Why all this devastation? It took many years to get answers to this question.
I won the UN Global 500 Award ‘for outstanding environmental achievements'. I received this award at the Rio Earth Summit in 1992 and I can't deny that I felt proud and a little surprised as well. I have been trying to raise awareness about sustainable development in books and TV programmes for many years and so have many other people. More recently I have been trying to spread ‘best policies' for renewable energy, recycling, organic farming and other matters.
In the past I was a judge on the ‘Dubai International Awards for Best Practices to improve the living environment', initiated by UN Habitat in 1996. Abu Dhabi is doing a lot to be seen as a pioneer in renewable energy development and in new approaches to urban planning. Masdar represents a brave new departure in urban planning. The Global City 2011 conference was a great opportunity of mutual learning between urban professionals from many countries.
People ask me, what is sustainable development? The concept is all about assuring that the way we live today does not undermine the chances of future generations. I am afraid I think that it has become quite meaningless because it has been usurped by many people and organizations for their own interests. These days I prefer talking about regenerative development, acknowledging that we have done much damage to nature already, which we need to undo if we can claim to be truly interested in the fate of those who come after us.
As to what the main threats to sustainable development today is, I think it is the resource consumption patterns of an urbanizing humanity. In developing countries the resource demands of people moving from country to city typically go up fourfold. India, China and many other emerging economies aspire to the consumption patterns of the ‘developed countries'. And why shouldn't they? It is more urgent than ever before to examine the environmental impacts of contemporary urban lifestyles and to assure that we do not outgrow the carrying capacity of the Earth.
My wife Barbara and I live on a little farm in a forest in Monmouthshire, South Wales. This place is truly an oasis that keeps me sane in the face of the problems of our contemporary world that I deal with professionally.
I lived in London for many years and was involved with much community, cultural and environmental activities. London is a very tolerant city where the people of the world meet and make friends. The downside is that, like so many other cities, it is a very unsustainable place, and initiatives to change are still insufficient.
Quick Questions
What do you do in your spare time?
I wish I could play the guitar, yes, and the piano as well. I grow vegetables and have done so for many years.
Name two things you love doing.
I love walking in the forest and watching the seasons change.
My world
- Who: Prof. Herbert Girardet
- What: Co-Founder and Director of Programmes, World Future Council
- Where: Speaker at Global City 2011, Abu Dhabi
More from General
More from Life & Style
The complete magazine
Life & Style editor's choice
-
'Hypnotism cured my diabetes'
When Linda Robson was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, she found an unusual way of tackling it
-
Driven: Renault's desert Duster
This Renault may sound like it was named after a hoover. One thing's for sure — the Duster is here to clean up
-
Study in style: InsideOut video shoot
Go behind the scenes at InsideOut's May 2012 home office shoot
