Durabilidad humana y la educación química

Resumen

Human durability and chemical education

Two hundred years of intense economical growth, centrally driven by abundant access to sources of inexpensive energy, have allowed the establishment of a social paradigm that has directed the development of all social, economic, educational, scientific and technological aspects of our society. However, during the past fifty years, evidence has accumulated of our displacement towards several planetary boundaries as a result of the effects of the application of this paradigm, thus alerting us of the impossibility of its continuance. Sustainability science is a rational attempt of adopting an alternative paradigm that allows to deviate from these planetary boundaries. The relative autonomy of universities and its influence on the creation of cultural capital make them a forceful participant in the diffusion and application of the science of sustainability. Chemistry has an important role in solving some of the most urgent problems of our present situation.