Policy: Sustainable development goals for people and planet

This paper discusses the implications of the UN's Millennium Development Goals and new Sustainable Development Goals on global scale, noting the "the political reluctance to go beyond merely extending the MDGs" as an obstacle of real progress. The paper discusses the onset of Anthropocene, an age marked by humankind's impact on the earth, and how rapid development (sustainable or not) will create a larger population that consumes more, further taxing a world ecosystem already burdened by excessive overconsumption and pollution. The paper suggests that the Millennium Development Goals, though greatly beneficial to humanitarian causes, will severely debilitate efforts to improve the global ecosystem, "as our planet ceases to function for the benefit of a global population."