Joining the sustainability conversation

 

Sustainability is a worldview. Everyone gets to craft their own version. Sustainability is compatible with different cultures, different religions, and a wide variety of lifestyles.

Along with environment and economy, equality is an important leg of sustainability. Equality means that everyone has a role to play in sustainability, as well as the right to enjoy its benefits. A new outlook called ‘bright green’ has grown out of the increasing awareness of sustainability in the mainstream. Alex Steffen sums up bright green in the talk below.

Bright green thinking carries a forward-looking message. It is optimistic about our ability to innovate, while remaining realistic about the acute problems we face.  The multi-gifted Kenneth Boulding wrote, “There is a great deal of historical evidence to suggest that a society ... which loses its positive image of the future loses also its capacity to deal with present problems.” 1

At the turn of the millenium Bruce Sterling wrote about kicking sustainability into high gear by making it positive, flashy, and desirable. His Veridian Design manifesto prompted collaborators to take the discussion to a new forum, creating the thriving site WorldChanging. WorldChanging’s purpose is to connect the people who are working on tools for change.

Paul Hawken says in the above speech, “If you just look at the data, and you’re optimistic then you’re not looking at the data. However, if you look at the people, and you see what’s happening in the world and you’re not optimistic then you don’t have a heart.”

The challenges we face in this century will be tackled by citizens groups, non-governmental organizations, and commons-based efforts. In short, niche groups are a new source of planning capability and governance. Millions of NGOs across the globe reflect this explosion of activity. Many of these organizations exist because of internet communication.

Part two continues…

Climate science in the spotlight reviews the state-of-the-art findings in climate science.
A climate of awareness looks at the renewed drive to bring attention to the overtaxed ecosystems.
Kyoto: Pointing the way to our energy future and The oil endgame highlight the political and technical fixes needed to avert extreme climate change.
The consumption shock shows that fully adopting sustainability will involve a serious shift in people’s values.
Material cycles looks at breaking the cycle of ever increasing material throughput.
Smart choices echoes the message that sustainable growth is qualitative, and that sustainable thinking requires a different value system.
A personal action plan offers a starting point for applying sustainability.

 

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References

1. Kenneth Boulding, citing father of futurism Fred Polak in a famous paper, The Economics of the Coming Spaceship Earth (1966) [html]

 

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