I am reporting almost live from the Seventh International Conference on Environmental, Cultural, Economic and Social Sustainability. It is now 4:30 PM here in Hamilton (NZ) and the first day of conference is almost finished. Many interesting papers were presented today and I had the opportunity to listen to some of them. There are many points that I want to talk about them but at this stage I prefer to mention an interesting model which Robert Howell introduced during his plenary session this morning.

Look at the below image:

What I want to basically talk about is the model on right which is called Mickey Mouse model, and may look funny but when you take a closer look you find how bad it can be. This is what is happening all around the world these days; while the economy is getting bigger and bigger, the attention to environment and society is decreasing and they are disappearing. Projects are evaluated based on their economic profits and decisions are made according to their economic and financial return. So the economy, as the core, decides what happens and how it happens. 

I haven't had the chance to study more about this but I would write about it as soon as I return to Melbourne. I promise.