Nurturing Environmental Leaders Among Science and Engineering Researchers—Tohoku University Approach - Topical Themes in Energy and Resources - page 10

Fig. 1.7 Extraction ( left bar) and Consumption ( right bar) in various regions (kg/$GDP2000).
(Friends of the Earth Europe/SERI 2009 )

growth is expected to remain for China at 6 % or above, rates for the rest of Asia are
lower. In contrast, a majority of African countries (19) are projected to exceed the
6 % GDP growth rate, while an additional 16 will be between 4 and 6 %. Only four
African countries are projected to have growth rates below 4 %. Africa's demand for
energy and resources will thus become increasingly important; a trend illustrated
by the increasing attention given to the continent by Japan, China and Korea as a
source of resources and potential markets.
Current world population of 7.2 billion is projected to increase by 1 billion over
the next 12 years and reach 9.6 billion by 2050 (UN 2013 ). This growth will mainly
occur in developing countries, and over half is expected to take place in Africa.
Indeed, 9 of the 10 countries with the highest population fertility rates are currently
found in Africa 2 . For these reasons, the fate of the world will be highly dependent
on future development paths for Asia and Africa, supporting the priority afforded by
the JST Environmental Leader Training Program.

1.3.2 Teaching Environmental Leadership: Appropriate

Approaches

As pointed out by Norton ( 2012 ), teaching sustainability in environmental leader
programs requires particular attention to be paid to:

• Students . Potential environmental leaders are Masters or Doctorate students in
the Graduate School of Environmental Sciences (GSES) covering a range of
disciplines from sciences through engineering to humanities (GSES 2012 ). The

2 These are Niger 7.58; Somalia 7.10; Chad 6.85; Mali 6.80; Timor-Leste 6.53; Burundi 6.52;
Dem. Rep. of the Congo 6.50; Angola 6.50; Uganda 6.38; Afghanistan 6.33 (UN 2013 ).