Jeffrey D. Sachs

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The Age of Sustainable Development

Our generation is truly the first that can end the ancient scourge of extreme poverty; yet it can also destroy the earth’s life-support system through human-induced environmental devastation. By necessity, then, we have entered The Age of Sustainable Development.

NEW YORK – A half-century ago, John F. Kennedy observed that, “man holds in his mortal hands the power to abolish all forms of human poverty and all forms of human life.” Those words speak to us today with special urgency.

Our generation can indeed end the ancient scourge of extreme poverty. Yet it can also destroy the earth’s life-support system through human-induced environmental devastation.

By necessity, then, we have entered The Age of Sustainable Development. So I am enormously excited to be launching a free, global, online university course by the same name in January 2014. (Those interested in joining the course can register here.) I hope that people all over the world will join the course – and then join the generation-long quest to achieve sustainable development.

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