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5.	Life Time
	An intriguing new area of intellectual exploration is opening up at the intersection of Sustainable Development and Time. This August, for example, an eminent group of thinkers will gather to discuss the 'temporal dynamics of unsustainability' at their annual meeting. The Balaton Group – which includes eminent theorists like Dennis and Donella Meadows of Limits to Growth fame, may do well to look at how different time scales for decision-making can help or hinder SD. It may be, for example, that some decisions and actions need to 'speed up' (e.g. on global poverty eradication or environmental technology transfers to China), while others need to 'slow down' (e.g. on the over-consumption of natural resources). But the situation is complicated by the fact that life times or cycles vary enormously depending on whether you are looking at animals, plants, products, human beings, ecosystems, soils or minerals. Greater clarity is needed in deciding how to measure the effects of one on the other in a meaningful way – particularly of human impacts on the other variables. As a busy individual, you may choose to 'slow down' your lifestyle for purely personal or health reasons like stress reduction or improved family time. Of course, if societies have too many high-speed, stressed-out individuals, quality of life suffers and something has to give. A recent report called Sustainable Germany advocates shorter work weeks and reduced resource consumption as a central strategy for a more secure social, ecological and economic future. Cultural traditions can help weave more sustainable lifestyles into the fabric of civilizations. The traditional Native American decision-making time horizon of 'seven generations' or about 250 years, for example, establishes a strong link between decisions made today and their impacts on future generations. We wish the Balaton Group and other thinkers success in unravelling the threads that link Time and SD. [appropriate time scales for sustainable decision-making]
	Movement for Slow Food The whimsically-named 'Movement for Slow Food' refers not to a new-fangled Philip Glass composition but to a popular movement to increase the quality of life by decreasing the pace of modern life. Slow Food was launched in Italy when McDonald's brought fast food to Rome. The movement – which now claims 40,000 members in 40 countries – shows that many individuals are rethinking their allegiance to a 'faster-is-better' mindset.
	movement for slow food n. the slow-down movement which began in Italy and has now gone international selective slowness n. the conscious slowing down of certain aspects of our lives, such as mealtimes, evenings or weekends revenge effect n. the unforeseen and time-consuming demands of new, ostensibly time-saving technology
	Driver, Thackeray and Chapman, Graham P. Time Scales and Environmental Change. London: Routledge, 1996. 275p. Tenner, Edward. Why Things Bite Back: Technology and the Revenge of Unintended Consequences. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1996. 346p. Wuppertal Institute. Sustainable Germany: a Contribution to Sustainable Global Development. Wuppertal, Germany: Wuppertal Institute, 1995.