1. 

   james wrote about 1 year ago

   I'm a sustainability advisor who, in my spare time, had a go at redesigning capitalism to reverse major gloal problems. Or so I imagine! I meet people all the time who tell me they feel powerless, even when they are active in greening their own lives. By attempting to engage with the need for BIG FAST global solutions I don't feel powerless - most of the time I instead feel ignored. Yet things are changing. I'm getting enquiries from senior policy-makers in China, and from film-makers. I like to think that if enough people engaged with finding solutions that fit the size and urgency of the problems then we couldn't all be ignored. We would be part of a global revolution that might rescue the planet for everyone's kids.

   What do others think about powerlessness and thinking BIG? Can you imagine any solution can possibly work FAST enough? I'd be really grateful for some opinions, especially from anyone who has time to look at a couple of pages from my site www.blindspot.org.uk. I'll soon be starting a new part of the site with super-simple language so I'd love to hear ideas on making my stuff easier for more people to understand.
   Thanks
   James

2. 

   Davie replied about 1 year ago

   Hi James,
   I am currently at a week long event at Findhorn on overcoming powerlessness in the face of climate and energy uncertainty. See http://www.findhorn.org/programmes/programme258.php

   Today we spent with Joanna Macy, the Buddhist teacher who does a lot of deep ecology work. We will be spending the week looking at deeper responses to these global issues.

   I personally think that it will a large scale adoption of small local solutions and not big fast global solutions. Also it will not be technical solutions that will get us out of the situation. Of course they will play a part but 'community' solutions.

   As you remind us on Blindspot - "The problems we have today cannot be solved by thinking the way we thought when we created them." And I agree the climate change is overshadowing sustainable development but I feel we have, as sustainability advocates, a rare opportunity with peak oil and climate change to massively accelerate the move to sustainable systems. A sustainable economy is a local economy and it will be prudent to strengthen our local economies before the global economy starts to unravel. (Unfortunately I think this has already started)

   Big solutions to check are TEQs and an idea from Ireland 'Cap and Share' and my favourite 'Transition Initiatives'

   Anyway its a good idea to simplify the language we use around this stuff.

   Good luck with that James,

   Davie

3. 

   Davie replied about 1 year ago

   I forgot to suggest Bio Char or Tera Preta as a potential large scale response to climate change. It is an ancient technique for increasing soil fertility that has been recently rediscovered.

   It involves adding charcoal to the soil which, as well as making the soil better for growing stuff, draws down carbon. Doing this on a large scale could be a win win solution, sequestering carbon brilliantly and increasing food sequestering.

   Tree Hugger has a good article on it here http://www.treehugger.com/files/2008/03/biochar_an_answer.php

4. 

   james replied about 1 year ago

   Thanks for your reply Davie. I agree about the potential of biochar and transition initiatives. I've spent a lot of time helping our local Lewes transition get going over the past year, including designing a local currency scheme. 15 years ago I spent a lot of time helping Agenda 21 initiatives get going, including a LETS scheme and recycling. What I learnt is that local initiatives are constrained by global errors. No amount of local awareness raising can fix this. So big fast global solutions are not an alternative to large scale adoption of small local solutions, it’s actually the way to make it happen!

   You mention technical solutions. I didn't discuss this in my message but of course all solutions at any level include technical choices. If we want biochar rather than expansion of incineration and nuclear then we need economics set up to make this possible.

   Local economies will be the basis of sustainable global economies but surely a sustainable global economy will be more than a list of separate local economies? Otherwise every town would have to make its own solar panels and toilet paper. And the poorest towns wouldn't get help from the richest ones.

   It’s tricky to see TEQs or cap and share as big solutions since they each deal only with selected aspects of just one issue. Each has numerous unexplored drawbacks. See http://www.blindspot.org.uk/teqs_review.html. I can send you a draft review of C&S if you email me.

   My concern is that by focusing on local initiatives and carbon, sustainability advocates are actually getting the opposite of what they intend. Maybe the ‘empowerment’ of keeping busy with local low carbon action is actually a way to disempower really big sustainability solutions. Politicians interpret low-carbon to mean nuclear power and incineration. Transition towns don’t see it as their job to address the wider aspects of sustainability, leaving the politicians free to make these decisions for us.

   I’d love to see groups like Findhorn help people explore how local solutions depend on global solutions. And how local people can help make that happen.

5. 

   james replied about 1 year ago

   With thanks to Davie's ideas the homepage of my site is now rewritten more simply. Please see http://www.blindspot.org.uk/index.html. What do you think?

   I'll be adding reviews of Cap & Share and transition towns before long.
   All the best
   James

6. 

   Busybee replied about 1 year ago

   Great discussion guys. I am interested in the question James asks in response to Davies assertion that, "I personally think that it will take a large scale adoption of small local solutions and not big fast global solutions. Also it will not be technical solutions that will get us out of the situation. Of course they will play a part but 'community' solutions." While I agree that empowering people at a local level is an imperative it is also essential that larger scale initiatives are addressed in tandem. As James says "Local economies will be the basis of sustainable global economies but surely a sustainable global economy will be more than a list of separate local economies?

   Whats important to focus on here is peoples roles moving forward. I am happy to see these two approaches being discussed here. For many the future is uncertain but we all have a contribution to the 'process' we may not all agree on where it will lead and if the decisions we are making are the right ones. However only by acknowledging that every effort in this area is the right effort, will we stand half a chance of making it.

   In closing I am happy to have James and Davie here on Edenbee and I hope more people will contribute to this discussion.

7. 

   james replied about 1 year ago

   Thanks Busybee. Now I'm inviting comments on my climate briefing, which suggests trying to avoid runaway climate change by fixing the economy so it gets right the things it's previously got wrong. It's a big fast global solution that would inspire and fund big fast local solutions. Please see http://www.blindspot.org.uk/blindspot_stwf.html.

8. Pedro replied about 1 year ago

   Hi James,
   I've just joined edenbee and this chat caught my attention - sorry I'm a bit late! About 3 or 4 years ago my friend and I were having a similar discussion over a pint, and getting laughed at by our banker friend when we tried to persuade him how nonsensical an economy striving for exponential growth ad infinitum on finite resources was. (He gets it now).
   We thought we had 3 options; 1. Become a politician (too many skeletons in cupboards), 2. become environmental activists, or 3. develop business ideas / concepts which create meaningful change and create sustainable solutions - which are commercially successful so they can rapidly grow and spread. We chose the last two and now have a little group of companies creating change and hope to add more. there is a brief intro at www.chilondon.com
   Have you read Jonathan Porritt's book 'Capitalism as if the World Matters'? Its a strong argument for a different approach to real sustainable development utilising the capitalist system we are pretty much stuck with whether we like it or not.
   Pete

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