On Physics and Education for Sustainable Development

Physics offers an important additional insight to the understanding of sustainable development that needs further attention, particularly with regard to higher education for sustainable development. The use of energy and other resources in the society and the consequences of this use on the environment can be described and better understood by applying the concept of exergy and exergy based methods. The concept of exergy is introduced and applied to the use of physical resources in the society and introduced as an excellent ecological indicator. This brings new insight to the conditions for a sustainable development that is further elaborated in this presentation. The importance of introducing this new knowledge into present higher education for sustainable development is argued for. However, difficulties and obstacles from the higher educational establishment are also presented. This may relate to a problem of changing paradigm, since higher education is presently mainly engaged in the education of an unsustainable development