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I have initiated this conference because there is very little research
about how information technology can be used to create more sustainable models.
If you take a look, the last 160 years we have exploited our earth's crust
like no generation before us
and this price is not factored into our systems.
scarcitiy is factored in, but that we have ruined our planet is not.
A colleague of mine, Margret Kennedy, once said
if Jesus had invested two grams of gold,
you would need to pay him back 16 times the mass of earth today.
So you can see, how sustainable our systems really are.
An example would be emissions trading, which is a model that is in discredit,
because it seems not to be working,
but I believe it is the political aspect that is not working.
The model itself is excellent
because we could see that within a short amount of time
the certificates got a lot cheaper because the companies started to cut down CO2 emissions.
With Jesse Marsh we have a speaker at EcoCom
whom I believe to have a very global view on the problems of our world
because of his roots in the US and in Italy.
What are new research approaches in our domain
how can we unite different disciplines
to create new ideas and to create new models?
I believe there is a huge unexploited potential.
If we manage to create a kind of research agenda,
maybe not on this conference, but maybe at least on the next one
maybe then I can convince politics, I can convince patrons, I can convince foundations,
to finance research in this area.