Dear President-elect Obama,

I have been keenly interested in the concept of sustainable development since I was 12 and realized in school why it has never been a priority of economies:

GDP = C+I+G+NX

All the variables that define economic progress are consumption and/or production based and therefore legitimized the wanton and indiscriminate use of natural nonrenewable and renewable resources.

If we are to leave our children a better world, we have to change how economic progress is defined. Maybe, add one variable that represents how many trees have been planted, how many acres have been set aside as natural preserves, how much renewable energy has been produced, etc.

Or we can totally re-engineer the calculation of GDP from scratch to something that better measures progress. We all know that even renewable resources we use to produce goods take years to grow. A tree cut down for lumber to build houses doesn't grow back instantaneously but this fact is lost in the current GDP calculation and so is the amount of oxygen it used to produce.

By no means, is this an easy task. A new definition requires the collaboration between scientists and economists. But that won't really be an issue since we have all the best minds in the world within our shores.

Thank you for your time and consideration,
Lorelie Calima-Prall