We all aspire to a sustainable planet because future generations depend on it. However, as a human race we are seeing climate change, health degradation, overuse of resources, over population, inadequate food distribution, peak oil, greed and other challenges without seriously being prepared to address these issues as a global community.
Where do we start? Everything we do is preceded by thought and our direction is governed by the mental models we develop through this thought. These mental models simplify our view of reality and progress depends on continually improving the models. How do we articulate what we really want to see toward “sustainability”?
At “concepts,” I look at the issue of “trust”, the need to “question” and improvement through building to a higher level of “maturity”. Too many industries and professions now abuse trust for financial gain and are able to get away with it because of our lack of detailed knowledge or the complexity of the systems involved. System complexity and stability are areas where we could all benefit from a better understanding.
The world is focused on climate change and clean energy, so I felt that it would be useful to look at other issues, such as environmental responsibility, population dynamics, social equity, agriculture, food, health and exercise as important components of human “sustainability”. The “organic” concept and the importance of micro-organisms to our health and the agriculture we depend on are looked at.
Let’s seek to progress together by learning and building our own mental models that will be used to influence the political debate. David
