Text: Eszter Götz

State of the World 2010

Based in Washington, World Watch Institute publishes its annual analysis of the current situation of the world year by year. Studies, reports and data charts are grouped according to prioritized topics to give us an overall picture of the tolerance of ecosystems, the standards of societies with regard to their legal system, culture, lifestyle, economy and ecology. The analyses published now are always based on the mutual interests of Planet Earth as such. Every issue of this series reflects a systematic approach to the critical points of society, but this year’s volume is also a kind of summary of the previous ones by focussing on the topic of the transformation of culture, the change from consumerism to sustainability.

In Search of Future – The Significance of the National Council for Sustainable Development for the Hungarian Society

The National Council for Sustainable Development has edited a guiding publication which reflects fairly precisely where we are living and what we are in for in the near future now at the end of the first decade of the new millennium. A unique organization in Europe, this council is hardly known in Hungary yet. It was founded at the end of 2008 after one (or two) decrees passed by the parliament emphasizing that sustainable development requires cooperation beyond politics to involve delegates from political parties, the government, the Hungarian Academy, the chambers, churches, local authorities as well as civilian organizations to function as a forum guarding and protecting the interests of future. The council’s task is to coordinate issues of sustainability at all levels and also to manage the elaboration of strategies.