Abstract:
Our civilization is facing a time of unprecedented complex, and transboundary sustainable development challenges (Allen et al. 2020). The increased emergence of communicable diseases is linked to an ongoing ecological backlash and declining planetary health (Petrikova et al., 2020, Jowell and Barry, 2020); the rapid degradation of lands, habitat, and biodiversity; growing urbanization; and increasing air pollution that kills millions every year (Cohen et al., 2017). To confront and neutralize such complex global challenges, we cannot continue with standard policy and practices. While the millennial generation is moving from the 21st to the 22nd century, instead of awaiting, we should consciously create a future without poverty and hunger, with sustainable jobs, and a clean environment, that requires deep transformational changes in how our economies and societies function if we are to achieve the SDGs (Sachs et al., 2019).
