The Jakarta Post/Jakarta
Indian environmental activist Vandana Shiva once told a public forum that the words “ecology” and “economy” were actually rooted in the same ancient Greek word: “oikos”, which could refer to a household, house or family. While we are striving for human development index betterment through our economic activities, it is also essential for us to be mindful that we do not run our planet Earth into overdrive.
Being mindful of the need to achieve this balance, the United Nations Development Programme’s (UNDP) 30
th anniversary edition of its annual Human Development Report (HDR) includes the “planet pressure” variable in its Human Development Index (HDI) measurement, thus coming up with a new concept called the planet and human development index (PHDI).