“Ultimately the stories from theAnthropocene will be written over thousands of years. Whether they have a happyending for the elephants or any other living thing will depend on whether ornot we can replace 'business as normal' with a 'new normal'. ” On Feb. 26th,UN Under-Secretary-General and UNEP Executive Director Mr. Achim Steinervisited Tongji University and gave a speech on “Stories from the Anthropocene”in Tongji’s Global Vision Lecture. He encouraged youth in Tongji to face up tothe daunting challenge of human beings, carry out multidisciplinarycollaboration, develop innovative green technology, put knowhow into meaningfulpractice, and write their own fantastic story.

Mr. Steiner talked about “the Anthropocene”as the lecture started. He said that human activity now has such impact on theatmosphere, geology and ecosystems of the planet that an international team ofscientists, including Professor An Zhisheng of the Chinese Academy of Sciences,has confirmed that we are living in the age of the Anthropocene. In otherwords, assuming there are actually still people around in a couple of millionyears, they will see very clear traces of our existence in the rocks and ice.

“There is no debate that this is an agewhen our actions are indelibly inked on the very fabric of the planet as itwarms and it loses biodiversity at over a thousand times the historical rate.” Hesaid to young students, “However, this is also your age. The era in which youwill decide whether to maintain 'business as normal' for the plastic planet orto shape your chosen career in a way that improves the lives of people in bothdeveloped and developing world struggling with issues like energy and poverty.”

He stated that more than half of theworld's seven billion population lives in cities today, compared to just athird in 1950 when the population was just 2.5 billion. By 2050, when therewill be around nine billion people, that figure will be closer to threequarters of the population living in urban areas accounting for three quartersof global GDP, consuming three quarters of global energy and natural resourcesand generating three quarters of global CO2 emissions and waste.

Mr. Steiner said to students that just asyou enter the formative years of your careers, the 2030 Agenda and the 13thFive Year Plan converge in an unprecedented opportunity to rethink living inthe age of the Anthropocene. To a large extent, the success or failure of eachendeavor rests on the ability of the public and private sectors to adopt thekind of multidisciplinary approach reflected in the audience here today. But itwill also be determined by the ability of individual citizens and companies tobring those policies to life with meaningful action on the ground.

In his speech, Mr. Steiner stronglyadvocates green technology such as 3D printing. He explains that 3D printing isable to manufacture products quickly, cheaply and locally not only cuts costsand transport emissions, but also it opens up endless possibilities forprototyping that will in turn accelerate the arrival of a whole new wave oftechnology. With a 3D bridge to be printed over a canal in Amsterdam and thefirst steps into 3D house building in China, architects and urban planners areabout to enter a new world of environmental benefits. For transport,particularly areas like aviation, 3D printing will create lighter parts thatcut emissions and noise, but will also drastically cut the waste levelsassociated with traditional metal part drilling from 90 per cent to around 5per cent.

Addressing the sustainable development inShanghai, he claims that as one of the world's ten largest cities, Shanghai isalready quick to adopt technological solutions that can help tackle challengeson that scale - like super capacitor and hydrogen fuel cell buses, and energyand water efficient facilities like the Tongji Campus. But with the number ofmega-cities forecast to grow, we will need to see more knowledge sharing and amore integrated public-private approach to delivering sustainable urbanization,while protecting the ecosystems so vital to sustaining life. And this has to beon a global scale. That means completely rethinking the way we do things fromthe very beginning.

In the end, Mr. Steiner inspired Tongjistudents and said that now you must write your own stories. You can choose tofiddle in the corner and trust your fate to others. Or you can decide to beamong the architects, lawyers, engineers, politicians, scientists, businessleaders and investors that will pool their efforts to tackle the greatcivilizational challenges faced by China and the rest of the world. These arestories that only you can write, but I for one look forward to discoveringthem.

Before the lecture started, Prof. Yang Xianjin welcomed Mr. Steiner and held ameeting. He claimed that based on the 14 years’ successful cooperation withUNEP, Tongji University would involve more advanced disciplines and jointlystrengthen the development of the Think Tank, elevate the collaboration to thenext level, and both promote IESD in Tongji to become the globally recognized centerof education for sustainable development, scientific research and South-SouthCorporation. Steiner stated that China is now in the transition period ofecological civilization construction and green development, the concept ofsustainable development has already listed in the developing strategy of thegovernment, which brings unprecedented opportunity for the cooperation betweenUNEP and Tongji University. UNEP shall keep supporting Tongji University on innovativedevelopment in the field of sustainable development just as in the past years.

Mr. Steiner also paid a visit to IESD andreviewed the exhibition of milestone of collaboration between UNEP and Tongji.Vice President of Tongji University Prof. Wu Jiang hosted the Global VisionLecture this time.