Cadmus

For several decades, we have heard, over and over, that climate change is a very bad development, and that addressing climate change and evolving to a sustainable or low-carbon society are a necessary response—seemingly painful in the short term, desirable in the long-term however. But how desirable?
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Abstract
Urban centers are the engines which must bear the brunt of required changes to meet climate change mitigation goals, whilst continuing to provide social and economic opportunities. Restoring nature to the city is not a luxury; it is vitally important to our health and well-being. Biopolicy can help international decision-makers find new ways for understanding the relationships between cities and their environments and how environmental burdens may be mitigated or resolved. A “biopolis” model, as proposed and supported by the principles of biopolicy, can evolve into a coordinated program of action in sustainable urban management that limits emissions, preserves and expands green spaces, protects waterways, encourages urban farming, enhances cultural development, creates green jobs and promotes educational opportunities for all.

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Abstract
The international climate policy is in big trouble. The governments of the world cannot agree on a reasonable, enforceable cap on global CO2 emissions – not today and not in the future. Concerning a strict enough cap, this issue is politically not handleable today, because this would directly interfere with the options of countries to generate future economic growth. Problems in this respect are politically unfeasible.
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Abstract
Despite the UN’s adoption of a new economic and social right in 2010 – the Right to safe drinking water and sanitation – the deficit of fresh water is becoming increasingly severe and large-scale.

The mounting water crisis and its geography make it clear that without resolute counter­action, many societies’ adaptive capacities within the coming decades will be overstretched.
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Abstract
Education is the most important catalyst of social evolution. Today higher education is in the early stages of a revolutionary transition that will have immense impact on the future of global society. This article presents an overview of perspectives explored at the World Academy’s Forum on Global Higher Education conducted at the University of California at Berkeley on October 2-3, 2013. It examines issues resulting from rapid changes in educational technology and organization that impact on accessibility, affordability, quality, relevance, employability and content of higher education. It envisions establishment of a World University Consortium as a network and umbrella group to facilitate educational partnerships and linkages with other interested stakeholders at the international level, to provide a centralized source of information about latest innovative ideas and developments in this field, and to explore creative solutions to enhance the reach, quality and relevance of higher education globally.
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Editors’ Note

The Double Helix of Learning and Work by Orio Giarini and Mircea Malitza is a report to the Club of Rome first published by UNESCO in 2003. It advances fundamental paradigm-changing ideas in the field of education. Drawing inspiration from the double helix structure of DNA, the authors seek to strengthen the relationship between education and employment in order to bring ‘The Knowledge Society’ within reach. This article contains the first chapter of the report. Successive chapters will be carried in subsequent issues of Cadmus. Read More

Abstract
Internet and Communication Technologies are transforming education, taking it out of the traditional classroom and making it open, affordable and dynamic. Universities, publishers, corporates and individual lecturers are creating online courses. A course consists of video lectures, electronic study notes, online tests and assignments. Anyone who wishes to learn may enroll in these courses, take the lessons, complete the tests and assignments, and receive a certificate upon successful completion of the course. These Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) are making world class higher education available to all those who wish to learn, regardless of age, location or educational background. Education faces a number of challenges worldwide. Over 366 million youth are unenrolled in colleges. College education is growing more expensive. Many institutions face shortage of qualified faculty members, funding and infrastructure. Education over the internet can address many of these issues. Online classes are scaleable – a class of 50 can be expanded to teach 50,000. Teaching and learning over the internet can be done at a fraction of the cost of traditional classroom teaching. Flexibility, mobility, use of multimedia technologies, constant syllabus revision, collaboration and interactive discussions give online education an advantage. This is still an evolving field. New partnerships, innovations and technological advances are revolutionizing teaching and learning, and clearly, online education is an integral part of the future of education.
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Abstract
The emerging Knowledge Revolution goes beyond the changing technologies and the challenges and opportunities they create to include the structure of knowledge and how it is transmitted inter-generationally and across countries. There are seven major features of that profound transformation, which I call “The Seven Pillars of the New Knowledge Revolution”. These are: (i) Parsing, Life & Organization; (ii) Image & Text; (iii) Humans & Machines; (iv) Complexity & Chaos; (v) Computation & Research; (vi) Convergence & Transformation; and (vii) Pluridisciplinarity & Policy. This diagnosis has profound implications on how one should think about the design and management of our institutions of learning, starting not only with universities, but also the school system, as well as our research institutions (whether in universities or in public and private labs), and the supporting institutions of knowledge (like museums, libraries and archives). Radical proposals are advanced for the content, method, participants and organizational setting of education, as well as the role of the University as mediator of transitions, its relationship with society and economy, as well as its physical presence, governance structure and the values it should promote. Core functions and curricula for the future, along with the possibility of a global university consortium, are discussed.
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Abstract
Consciousness is creative. That creativity expresses in myriad ways – as moments in time in which decades of progress can be achieved overnight, as organizational innovations of immense power for social accomplishment; as creative social values that further influence the evolution of organizations and society; as the creativity of individuality in the leader, genius, artist and inventor; as social creativity that converts raw human experience into civilization; as cultural creativity that transforms human relationships into sources of rich emotional capacity; and as value-based educational creativity that can awaken and nurture young minds to develop and discover their own inherent capacity for knowledge in freedom. Through such moments do society and humanity evolve. Education is society’s most advanced institution for conscious social evolution. Values are the essence of society’s knowledge for highest accomplishment. Education that imparts values is an evolutionary social organization that can hasten the emergence of that creative consciousness.
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We are the first civilization in which the pursuit of the real and the good has become separated. The current predominant worldview adopts the scientific method as the singular legitimate method of discovering the truth. It relies on prediction, repetition, control, and quantification. Aspects of human experience not amenable to such categories like soul, love, meaning, experience, self, and consciousness are thus marginalized and placed mainly in the realm of aesthetics. It is from the latter categories that purpose, telos, is discerned. One could propose that we have a preoccupation with ‘how’ and are ignorant of ‘why’.
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