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DIVERSITY AND HARMONY I N OU R GLOBAL HOME text by Anders Wall MY RELATIONSHIP WITH Svenskt Tenn of my engagement and responsibility for it came about that in 1975, Estrid Ericson dates back to the beginning of the 1950s, her life’s work, Svenskt Tenn. sold her life’s work, Svenskt Tenn, to the when I was a student at the Stock- Our friendship deepened over time. Kjell and Märta Beijer Foundation, of holm School of Economics. On the During one of our lunches in her apart- which I was chairman. way to my rented room on Grevgatan, ment on Strandvägen, she confided I am among those who consider it I often passed the Svenskt Tenn shop on in me that she was thinking of selling a great privilege for individuals and Strandvägen with its attractive window Svenskt Tenn and that she had no short- organisations with financial resour- displays. I occasionally popped into the age of prospective buyers. However, she ces to be able to contribute to societal shop to admire the beautiful products was frightened at the thought of her crea- development. My old mentor Kjell Beijer and their detail. tion being bought by someone who would was of the same opinion and through On one such occasion, Estrid Ericson not take care of it and of her interior his donations he laid the cornerstone for came up to me and said that they had design concept becoming just one of a foundation supporting research within noticed that I often visited the shop but many in a large department store. If she medicine and the environment. We never bought anything. I explained that were going to sell, it had to be to someone subsequently amended the statutes I was just a poor student. That conversa- who could guarantee that the Svenskt to ensure that the foundation would tion heralded the start of a friendship that Tenn brand and the tradition and quali- work to preserve the Swedish interior lasted until Estrid’s death and the start ty it represented would survive. And thus design tradition. Thanks to my dear friend Stig Ramel, then MD of the Nobel Foundation, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences (KVA) came to be involved from the start. In 1977 the Beijer Institute was founded at KVA and today it is one of the world’s leading institutions for research into ecological economics. Many prominent researchers have links to the Beijer Institute. These include Elinor Ostrom, the Nobel prize-winner for text by Anders Wall Economics in 2009, who for a time was a member of the board and was active within many of the Insti- tute’s research programmes. I am proud that we acted so early in promoting an area of research that is now of acute relevance. The Beijer Institute is creating new understandings of the links between humans and nature and our need for a healthy biosphere. For me, a farmer’s son, this connection is abundantly clear. There is a clear link between the Beijer Institute’s aim of building a robust society with long-term sustainability and the quality and timeless beauty that characterise the Svenskt Tenn interior décor philo- sophy. Whether one mixes old and new, different styles of furniture, colours and patterns – objects that one loves will still blend together into a harmonious entity. This picture of a safe, harmonious and sustain- able home interior also illustrates the concepts of bio- diversity and resilience and their importance for the harmony of our global home. photo by Tobias Regell THE ERA OF MANKIND BE A TREE AND YOU WILL SEE THE BIOSPHERE IS THE thin outer layer on this on the planet, with every inch of it’s surface carry- planet in which life exists. We humans are part ing traces of human activity. We have entered into of the biosphere and are completely dependent a new geological epoch, the Anthropocene – on the air, the seas, the forests and all other The Age of Humans. ecological systems in order to survive and thrive. Changes in the environment sometimes take Welfare and wellbeing are interwoven with the com- place slowly, in small, predictable steps, while in ponents of the biosphere in a complicated pattern other cases they lead to sudden, shocking threshold of interactions. effects. If we use our ingenuity and work together Our species is successful. The number of people with the biosphere, mankind can become the force on Earth has doubled in half a century and through that gives coming generations the chance to live well technological development and globalised trade, within planetary boundaries. humans have become the greatest force for change illustrator JESPER WALDERSTEN SINCE THE BEGINNING OF the 1800s, good news. It helped confirm that phosphorus, changes in land use and loss the world’s population has increased humans and human societies are in- of biological diversity, already seem to from one billion to seven billion. Dur- separable parts of the biosphere – the have been exceeded. The other three are ing the same period, and particularly global ecological system that includes for ocean acidification, freshwater use after the end of World War II, factors all life on Earth and in the atmosphere. and depletion of the ozone layer. such as economic development, tech- The report also emphasised the im- Nature is often subjected to gradual nological invention, new medicines and portance of calculating the value of environmental impacts, such as slowly international cooperation have helped nature’s goods and services. The con- increasing nutrient concentrations or raise the standard of living and improve clusion was that combatting poverty and creeping losses of biological diversity. the health of an increasing proportion economic development are dependent However, ecosystems do not always of people. Despite this, several billion on good management of ecosystems respond in a gradual way. Instead, they still live in poverty. During this period and their ability to provide us with often become more vulnerable to of human development, the world’s essential services. sudden events, such as storms, floods forests, lakes, seas and other ecosystems An attempt to produce scientific and fires, that can cause them to tip have unfortunately begun to show signs guidelines for better ecosystem man- over into a completely new state. A slow, of serious damage. The year 2005 saw the agement was made with the publication stable process of change then suddenly publication of the first health check on the of the so-called ‘planetary boundaries’ becomes much more dramatic. This world’s ecosystems, the UN Millennium in the journal Nature in 2009, with phenomenon is called a regime shift or Ecosystem Assessment, to which the a follow-up in Science in 2015. This tipping point. The consequences can Beijer Institute contributed through its represents an attempt to define a ‘safe be severe; important ecosystem services research. The diagnosis was clear: man- operating space’ for humanity through are lost and quality of life is affected. kind’s rapidly increasing need for food, proposing boundaries that should not Moreover, there is often an inertia in the clean water, timber, fibres and fuel has be exceeded if future development is to new system that makes it very difficult for altered the earth’s ecosystems more proceed in a safe way. Boundaries for nature to shift back. rapidly and more severely in the past 70 seven critical planetary processes were This has happened many times of years than in any previous age. proposed. Four boundaries, those for the course of Earth’s history. Around The UN report also brought some climate change, flows of nitrogen and 6000 years ago, the Sahara was covered by forests, green plains, lakes and solar radiation will accumulate and it moving from the Holocene, the remark- rivers. Through natural causes, the will become increasingly warm. The ably stable period in which our civili- climate changed, first slowly but then planetary boundaries have been set in sations developed and thrived, into an the process became self-perpetuating. order to avoid these types of large-scale, age where mankind has itself become Eventually, rain more or less ceased global tipping-points. a global force that can change the whole to fall, which resulted in the Sahara The increasingly strong links bet- world in its wake. The insight that we Around 6000 years ago, the Sahara was covered by forests, green plains, lakes and rivers. being transformed into an inhospitable ween human activities and the earth’s humans possess this power means that desert at an accelerating pace. A current life-supporting systems are reflected we are sitting in the driving seat and example is the Arctic ice cap, which is in the name Anthropocene, which is have the power to guide development in gradually thinning due to a warmer derived from anthropos, the Greek word the right direction. climate. The white surface of the ice for human. It is the name of the new reflects the sun’s rays, cooling down geological era that many researchers the region, but if the ice disappears the believe we are now entering. We are LOBSTERS AND HUMANS A NETWORK OF LINKS WITHIN ECOSYSTEMS, humans, animals, is known for its lobsters and is often had disappeared from the ecosystem, plants and microorganisms evolve and referred to as a successful example of an so the lobsters were able to expand in shape their habitats. In social-ecological economically and socially sustainable great numbers. systems, humans and nature are stud- fishery where the lobster is not overfished. When too many lobsters live close ied as one entity, where all societies are Through cooperation and joint together, they can easily develop diseases.