We owe at least this much to future generations, from whom we have borrowed a fragile planet called Earth.

I am convinced the prophets of doom have to be taken seriously.

The Prime Minister of India, at a meeting that I co-chaired a few months ago, stated that any development that is not sustainable is not development.

A shift is necessary toward lifestyles less geared to environmental damaging consumption patterns.

If you want to maintain a sustainable supply of fish you have to farm the fish, rather than mine them. So putting your money into fishing fleets that are going to exacerbate the problem by over-fishing is not the way to preserve the underlying asset.

Toyota was the first to put a commercial fuel cell powered car on the road, and I have no doubt that Toyota will continue to be in the front lines in the development of competitive fuel cell vehicles.

Don’t accept that you can’t make a difference. Because if you can’t make a difference, you won’t make a difference, and if you put a multiplier on that we will continue on an unsustainable pathway.

I believe we are going to move into a situation where the more effective conferences will be smaller, more specialized, more focused, with occasional large gatherings to get the attention of the larger world.

We in the industrialized world make a greater difference because our ecological footprint, our impact on the condition of the environment, is 40 to 50 times larger than that of people in the developing world.

Ted Turner is still a leader. And he sets a great example. His ability financially has been reduced, but his influence and his example still is an important asset to the whole environmental movement.

After all, sustainability means running the global environment – Earth Inc. – like a corporation: with depreciation, amortization and maintenance accounts. In other words, keeping the asset whole, rather than undermining your natural capital.

So, what we do as individuals matters. It adds up.

I’ve developed a huge regard for Toyota for its environmental awareness, for its immense commitment to research and development in this field, and for its leadership in developing hybrids which others are now following.

Licences to have babies incidentally is something that I got in trouble for some years ago for suggesting even in Canada that this might be necessary at some point, at least some restriction on the right to have a child.

We need what I have often called an ecological approach to the management of these resources and we do not have that now. We have the inertia of past habits, unsustainable habits.

Not to say that corporations are perfect today, but even grand corporations like Dupont have made immense progress in translating some of their past environmentally damaging practices into new profit opportunities.

Also, it is interesting that developing countries, with China and India perhaps in the lead, where the future of the global environment will be decided are now on board with the case for sustainable development.

What pleases me most is that sustainable development is on almost everybody’s agenda now.

I am on the board of corporations who contribute both to environmental problems and their solutions. And I am on the NGO side: the Earth Council and other organizations.

One of the things that I’ve always thought I would like to do is to develop an environmental index. Then people can measure their own environmental performance on an index as they do in other ways.

We must, from here on in, all go down the same path… There may not be another chance.

Well they do have a use, but we should never believe that any international conference is going to suddenly solve problems like the condition of the global environment.

Nevertheless, the concept of sustainable development is now known – even amongst those who haven’t accepted it – and it’s recognized, debated and followed by an increasing number of businesses.

We owe at least this much to future generations, from whom we have borrowed a fragile planet called Earth.

We may get to the point where the only way of saving the world will be for industrial civilization to collapse.

In addition to this, they already have a fuel cell car on the road in Japan. It is subsidized from within the corporation because they are still at a high cost.

We’re either going to save Ihe world or no one will be saved.

The tendency is to keep doing things the way you have done them.

I was with Ted Turner when he came to see Kofi Annan – the Secretary-General of the UN – to announce his decision to put $1 billion to the service of UN projects and programs.

I am President of the UN created University for Peace, which has a strong commitment to the relationship between peace, security and the environment. I meet with young people around the world and I always come away enthused and encouraged.

Inertia is a powerful force in human and political affairs.