BAU (business as usual) vs Sustainable Development Paths

Jeffrey Sachs’ online course on Sustainable Development: Lecture 1 — Section 5

One part of sustainable development is to understand the
inter-linkages of the economy, of society, of the environment,
and of our politics and government processes, and the
other part of sustainable development to do something about it.
We will examine over the coming talks, two different scenerios
for the future of the world.
One, which I will call business as usual.
If we continue more or less on the course
that we’re on right now.
What kind of world we could expect in ten,
20, 30, 40 years?
It’s not all bad.
Because, after all, many wonderful things
are happening on the planet.
Poverty has been declining.
Technologies have been advancing.
But, there are a lot of risks with
business as usual.
Especially in the age of the Anthropocene,
especially as we
trespass planetary boundaries, especially
as we see
growth that is not inclusive, and leaving
large numbers of people behind.
So we want to contrast the
business as usual, or BAU path, with
a truly sustainable development path for
the planet.
What would a business as usual path look
like?
It’s not all terrible.
For many people, especially comfortable
people of, at the top of the
income heap, they say business as usual,
looks pretty good to me.