I’ve noticed that most of my posts are focused on the environmental facet of sustainability. It’s not hard to explain; it’s relatively easy to access the world of environmental concerns. They are vast, but relatively focused. Complexity, the other story of how the world works, is not easy to embody but it fairly concise. But when it comes to a new story of what it means to be human, the sustainability story is much more diffuse and hard to pin down. But as I have said in my book, it is the human side of sustainability that needs to be… Read More
Continue ReadingA Sustainability Valentine
Connectedness is part of the new sustainability story. I heard the Kingston Trio sing “Let’s Get Together” first about 1965. Later the Youngbloods made a hit out of it. Love is but a song to sing Feels the way we’ll die. You can make the mountains ring Or make the angels cry. Though the bird is on the wing And you may know not why. Oh! Come on you people now Smile on your brother Everybody get together Try to love one another right now Come on you people now Smile on your brother Everybody get together Try to love… Read More
Continue ReadingSynchronicity at Work
On the heels of finding the new website featured in the last post, I came on this story in WorldWatch about Buzz Hollings by Thomas Homer-Dixon. Hollings is a pioneer in developing models for describing and governing complexity. He calls the framework “adaptive management.” I prefer to call it adaptive governance because complex systems cannot be “managed” in the usual sense of the word. Complexity is a central part of the new story of sustainability. Maybe the discovery of two excellent discussions of the subject in the course of only a day is a sign that this story of how… Read More
Continue ReadingA New Website about Resilience and Complexity
I recently discovered People and Place, a new website for complexity mavens that is well worth a good look. Here’s what the site says about itself: About P&P Some relationships are long familiar. Boy meets girl. Summer turns to fall. Other connections are newly recognized or scarcely affirmed. The DNA we share. The biosphere that supports all life. What are the ties that draw people together and to place? How have these connections – and our understandings – evolved over time? What social-ecological relationships support a more reliable prosperity? How is meaningful change accelerated? Part weblog, part web-based journal, People… Read More
Continue ReadingThe Clock Is Running Faster than We Thought
New data about the state of the world are making the conclusions of the 2007 IPCC report look conservative. Michael D. Lemonick, writing in Environment 360, the Yale Online Magazine, describes new data that indicates that the effects of warming are coming faster than the IPCC consensus predicted. Unexpectedly rapid melting of the vast ice sheet in Greenland, for example, suggests that sea level could rise between 1 and 2 meters (roughly 3 to 6 ½ feet) by the end of the century — nearly triple what scientists projected just two years ago. A surprisingly rapid round of melting around… Read More
Continue ReadingThe Biggest Band-Aid of All
It has taken me a few weeks to catch up with this blockbuster report. Researchers at the University of East Anglia in the UK have published a report analyzing the potential of several geoengineering schemes to reverse the projected increase in global temperature due to the greenhouse effect. I have not been able to obtain the whole report. This summary comes from ScienceDaily. Geoengineering refers to massive applications of technology to change properties of the earth on a large-scale and produce counter-effects to those of continuing emissions of greenhouse gases from economic activities. The key findings include: Enhancing carbon sinks… Read More
Continue ReadingMisery Loves Company
Here’s some evidence that sustainability needs more than environmental remedies. I have written in my book that the first line of attack on unsustainability should be to restore our sense or consciousness of self or being. Only then will be able to muster the caring for our fellow human beings, other species, and all the inanimate, but critically important, parts of the world we inhabit that sustainability demands. In a polemic, but attention-getting [article](http://www.alternet.org/healthwellness/126345/only_in_america_could_misery_be_turned_into_a_commodity/?page=entire), J[oe Bageant](http://www.joebageant.com/), writing for [Alternet](http://www.alternet.org/), argues that our American way has spawned a culture of alienation and loss of being. And further, that misery has become… Read More
Continue ReadingLost in Cyberspace
One of the most basic themes of my book is that the use of [modern] technology always distorts reality. Humans first confronted reality with only the most basic of tools available to them. Today technology not only does much more in getting in our way, but can even create virtual realities. Nick Carr had a recent piece about avatar anxiety. An earlier post introduced the subject. Here’s the money quote from Carr’s earlier piece. > Your online self … is entirely self-created, and because it determines your identity and social standing in an internet community, each decision you make about… Read More
Continue ReadingLife Has Been Around the Planet for a Very Long Time
Ecoworldly [reports](http://ecoworldly.com/2009/02/08/635-million-year-old-animal-traces-discovered/) that life on the Planet has been here for a very long time, some 650 million years, although in forms unlike those existing today. Life on Earth may and probably will continue for just as long, but probably not dominated by our species as it is today. It seems we may be hurrying the process these days. > New research in the South Oman Salt Basin shows evidence of animal life dating back much further than the first appearance of other significant life forms. > > Chemical traces of the minute marine sponges, called demosponges were observed by… Read More
Continue ReadingA Sustainability Parable
A friend sent me this tale. A boat docked in a tiny Mexican village. An American tourist complimented the Mexican fisherman on the quality of his fish and asked how long it took him to catch them. “Not very long,” answered the Mexican. “But then, why didn’t you stay out longer and catch more?” asked the American. The Mexican explained that his small catch was sufficient to meet his needs and those of his family. The American asked, “But what do you do with the rest of your time?” “I sleep late, fish a little, play with my children, and… Read More
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