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09:53

Challenges and Opportunities of Oil, Gas, and Mining

Jeffrey Sachs notes that it is, on the whole, good to have mineral resources or coal, oil, or gas resources as major inputs to the economy; major inputs to economic development to countries that are bereft of these resources have major challenges of producing other goods that they can export in order to be able to import these vital commodities. But natural resource wealth can also lead to issues. First: extractive resources are finite. Second: the resource curse or the paradox that…

08:44

Our Ocean: A Finite Resource

The ocean has always sparked human curiosity. In the mid-20th century, people began to realize that there are limits to what humanity should do to our planet before it cannot support life as we know it, limits known as the planetary boundaries. The human population of the planet has reached 7 billion people and will soon approach 11 billion people. We rely on the earth to support us with ecosystem services; the ocean provides these services by regulating the climate system. The oceans have a…

09:26

Introduction: The Oceans and Sustainable Development

The global ocean connects us all and provides our livelihoods, the oxygen we breathe, and transportation, among other things. The ocean is included in SDG 14. This course will try to provide a deeper understanding of the complex understanding of the ocean, environment, and climate system. Humans receive resources from the ocean, as well as risks. There will be weekly lectures on different topics, including the basic physics of ocean circulation, the ocean ecosystem, how the deep ocean works,…

39:21

Covid-19 Impacts on and Implications for the Global Food System

This is a guest lecture by Prof. Glenn Denning, Columbia University, in the course "The Covid-19 Pandemic: Virology, Public Health, and Economics," taught by Prof. Jeffrey Sachs, Columbia University. The course offers a comprehensive and up-to-date analysis of the global Covid-19 epidemic. We will consider the epidemic from multiple perspectives, including: the historical role of epidemics in human history; the basic epidemiology of SARS-CoV-2; the basic virology of SARS-Cov-2; the…

12:33

How a Company Decides to Invest in a Project

This chapter overviews investments in oil, gas and mining projects. It includes a comparison of private and state ventures. Sources of income include: cash from existing projects and retained earnings, bank borrowings against the corporate balance sheet, or project finance specifically loaned against the capacity of that project. The chapter also details the various analyses and assessments done by companies technical, social, governmental, and financial. Sir Mark Moody Stuart stresses that…

05:00

Project Tujenge: Solar-powered water purification

In 2022, the University of Pretoria's "Team Tujenge" earned second place in the international student competition “Universities for Goal 13” for their small-scale, solar-powered water purification system using plasma technology. The competition is an annual partnership between SDSN and SIEMENS Gamesa. Team Tujenge (meaning “Let’s build” in Swahili) worked under the supervision of Dr Samuel Iwarere, Head of the UP Plasma Research Unit and Senior…

08:16

Introducing SDG 16: Peace, justice and strong institutions

SDG 16 seeks to promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels. The following video provides a look into three of the above targets: reduce illicit financial and arms flows, reduce corruption and bribery, and develop accountable and transparent institutions. The focus of the discussion is on how we should interpret SDG 16 and it provides another example of how the…

07:52

The Role of Global Partnerships for Sustainable Development

The international context of achieving the sustainable development goals. Agenda 2030 puts a big emphasis on global partnerships and SDG 17 is about global partnerships. This video is licensed under the CC BY-NC-SA license.

51:38

Conversation with Jessica Rawson, Life and Afterlife in Ancient China

Join Professor Jeffrey Sachs and Jessica Rawson, one of the world’s most eminent scholars of China, as they discuss Rawson’s book, Life and Afterlife in Ancient China. Listen in to learn about the roots of Chinese civilization through the stories of twelve grand tombs, each helping to reveal a pivotal phase in China’s history. Together, they discuss the political, geographical, technological, and cultural evolution of China. Professor Rawson offers profound and fascinating…