The Asahi Glass Foundation established theRoundtable Conference on Global Environmental
Issues in December 2006 and had held discussions formore than three years on issues confronting the humanrace, bringing together the expertise of the mem­bers of
the Board of Directors
a n d C o u n c i ­l l o r s o f
the Foundation repre­
senting different fields.
As the final report ofthe Conference andpresenting a newvision for society in the21st century, 10,000
copies of the booktitled Conditions forSurvival – Toward aSolar Energy-BasedSociety Full of VibrantLife were published inMay 2010. They were
presented to libraries
across the country as
well as to individuals
who had requesteda copy. The text can
now be downloaded from the Foundation's website.
The report was then translated into English andChinese and there are plans to be translated into otherlanguages.

Lester R. Brown(USA)
President and SeniorResearcher, EarthPolicy Institute(BPP laureate for 1994)

R

eceiving considerable domestic and international
support for the report, the Foundation held theSymposium“Conditions for Survival”to provide an
opportunity for even more people to think about thenew vision for society. Three Blue Planet Prize winners
who contributed articles in
the report were invited togive a talk and they shared
their views on global
environmental issues.
uring the panel dis­cussion, Prof. Ma Xiao­
jun of the Party Schoolof the Central Committeeof the Communist Partyof China, who played aleading role in publishing
the Chinese version ofConditions for Survival ,participated with thecoordination of Professor
Emeritus Akio Morishimaof Nagoya University anddiscussed“New Ideas fora New Age”with the threewinners.
he following are summa­ries of the statements madeby the panelists in their talks and in the panel
discussion.

DT

The food supply is the most vulnerable among the global systems the human race has built. According
to a detailed analysis on the impact of the heat wave that hit Russia last year on the global food supply,
the yield of cereal crops declined 10% with an average temperature rise of one degree Celsius. We cantherefore predict a potential critical food shortage caused by climate change in the future. At the sametime, the land rush currently involving certain countries will also contribute to serious food shortages.
The investment needed to implement the Plan B that we propose as a solution to these problems is
200 billion dollars. This amount in fact represents just one eighth of global arms spending. To create asustainable society, strong leadership is required.
The 21st century needs an economy that differs from that of the 20th century. Focusing on cities, wemust have the ability to imagine a world in which we have never lived, so to speak, with unprecedented
designs and means of mobility.

It must be said that the global environmental issues we raised are unfortunately becoming moreacute. At the same time, however, it is important to maximize our efforts, thinking positively that
we still have time left.
While the calculation of GNP includes negative factors for society, such as accidents, disasters,and deforestation, because they involve economic activities, it does not consider volunteer
activities. Going forward, we should emphasize the genuine progress indicator (GPI), whichshows the degree to which genuine affluence is attained.
It is also necessary to understand that "perverse" subsidies have a negative impact on global
environmental issues, as demonstrated by the fact that subsidies for the forest industry can cause
deforestation.
The problem is that we are not using intellectual resources such as scientific and technologicalstudies and recommendations, even though they already exist.
SEPTEMBER 2011 No. 41

Dr. Norman Myers (UK)
Fellow, Green College andSaïd Business School,
Oxford University(BPP laureate for 2001)

Dr. Emil Salim(Indonesia)
Chairman of the Advisory
Council to the President
Member of the Senate
Board of the University ofIndonesia(BPP laureate for 2006)

Prof. Ma Xiaojun(China)Professor at Institute ofInternational StrategicStudies, Party School of
the Central Committee of
the Communist Party ofChina

The issues we have seen in society since the Industrial Revolution can be summed up by theword “gesellschaft” (a society based on mutual self-interest). For example, Islamic society wasonce a community where faith, nature, and society coexisted in harmony, but since the Industrial
Revolution it has been transformed into a gesellschaft, guided by economic rationality. While
humans have been thriving by conquering and using nature, nonrenewable resources such as oilsare drying up, and environment degredation has been taking place.
Society in the 21st century has to be guided by the idea of well-being. Growth in Asia will continue
toward 2050. Although Asia has been balancing economic growth and the abundance of nature toa certain extent, it should explore ways to revitalize the link between life and livelihoods throughnature by increasing theadded value of nature, asa means of solving socialissues.
Let’s change the world
through multifaceted
efforts by transforming
our value judgment
indicators.
Coal provides 70% of
China’s energy needs,
which is extremely highcompared with 20% for
the world as a whole.
Environmental problems
such as acid rain affectnear­ly half of China’s land area.
Although a number of nuclear power generation projects are being developed in China to reducethe dependency on coal, we would like to advance them carefully, learning many lessons from theJapanese experience, including the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant.
China has now become the world’s largest producer of greenhouse gases, but it is also theworkshop of the world. Although production activities in China are accompanied by the emissionof greenhouse gases, exported products are enriching people’s lives around the world. I would also
like you to know that China is focusing on the development of a green economy.
In China, a demographic shift from farming villages to cities is proceeding every year. Urban
lifestyles are rapidly westernized, and this movement cannot be turned back. We have to resolve
environmental issues, taking these historic trends into consideration.

Professor Emeritus,
Nagoya University(Coordinator)

The video of the symposium is posted on the website of theAsahi Glass Foundation. (Voices are original without oraltranslation)

Prof. Akio
Morishima

I have realized that what
under­l ies the views of thepanelists is the same. Although
we have little time left, I havecome to think that facing thechallenge of combating theenvironmental issues for thehuman race to continue tosurvive is indeed an honor forme.

SEPTEMBER 2011 No. 41