There is no such thing as a free lunch
A quarter of a century since 9/11 – history’s most deadly terrorist attack – and we’re again seeing horrific scenes as even bigger towers crumble and crush all that lie in their shadow. These new collapses aren’t of human structures, they are of our high mountains and their glaciers, often described as the water towers of the world. But their demise is every bit as much a story of human folly as the fall of the Twin Towers.
This is just a quick note to say that Sustainability Bites has been quiet now for several months. But that will change soon.
When building a toolbox, it pays not to put all your eggs in one basket. It’s a basic rule of complex systems science and a cautionary tale for every optimizing handyman (or woman). It’s also a good rule to keep in mind if you believe efficiency will solve the challenge of sustainability.
Everyone has a ‘theory on change’ though, for most of us, it’s not something we explicitly articulate. That’s something that should change. Given the failure of society to engage with the existential issue of sustainability, maybe it’s about time we all started thinking and talking about what we think enables change.
When the status quo shifts, as it always does, uncertainty follows. Come what may, we’ll all be better off if society sustains high levels of trust, good leadership and cooperation.
We want change, but our governments keep doing the same thing. In many cases governments exert stronger control to ensure things stay the same. The irony here is that, over time, the more our leaders attempt to hold things the same, the more things change and slip out of their control. That’s the nature of complex systems. (Part 3 in our series on change.)
In the face of an increasingly uncertain future there are growing calls for change across society. But our elected officials, despite talking big at election time, only give us increments of nothing when it comes to delivery.
More people are growing concerned about climate change and environmental decline. But when will society respond with real change? Is it just a matter of waiting for a majority before we get the transformative change that scientists are crying out for. What actually catalyses transformative change, anyway?
Earth Day – does it provide hope, make a difference or is it actually something that blinds us to a greater truth? Protect the environment, it demands; let us create a truly sustainable future, it implores. But shift the status quo? Not if it pushes up the cost of living!
Tosh and rubbish, of course, but this is what happens when you mix growing uncertainty with increasing vulnerability, and a decline of trust in our institutions, and hypercharge it with social media and powerful vested interests trampling principle and convention. Plant this tosh in a rich bed of prejudice and fear, and watch a hundred conspiracies bloom.
Wetlands are under threat all around the world but there’s one particular type of wetland that provides a disproportionate ecosystem service in the form of carbon storage that is in dire need of increased protection. We’re talking peatlands, and new research is suggesting it’s way past time we got serious about looking after them.
While it might be that the CoPs are not delivering what most people hope for, and what many politicians have us believe they are supposed to deliver, for now it’s the main game in town. And if we want them to have greater impact, maybe we should be acknowledging the true nature of the CoP and throw the spotlight back onto what our own elected leaders are actually achieving. Someone has to set the pace and the rest might follow.
“Travel is a force for good!” So reads the slogan of one of the world’s biggest tourism operations. But ‘good’ for who? Definitely good for individual travelers who are revitalized through exposure to amazing new places, people and experiences. Good for the global economy? Undoubtedly yes, but good for the planet itself? Not so much. And in the spaces between these tourism ‘goods’ and ‘bads’ we hear the seductive siren song of BAU (business as usual) and maybe begin to appreciate just how forceful BAU can be.
The latest Outlook for the world’s greatest coral reef – Australia’s own Great Barrier Reef – give politicians some wiggle room to foster hope that the dire condition of the Reef is improving. But this snapshot of Reef health was taken just before it was hit with a killer blow. This Reef may no longer have the resilience to get up off the floor. (Yet we still maintain it’s ‘the world’s best managed reef’)
Building big on big promises of endless clean energy ignores the limits of our institutions. It’s something rarely considered in the febrile, volatile environment of contemporary politics. We pull our leaders up on the smallest of inconsistencies but let them get away with the biggest of lies. When you next cast your vote, keep in mind that extraordinary promises require extraordinary accountability.
The sirens of BAU (Business as Usual) are singing a seductive song that everything will be okay if we just apply a bit more technology, a bit more efficiency and a lot more optimism. Well, the wheels are starting to come off ‘spaceship Earth’ yet the siren song is still being sung, to great applause. Consider the latest offering: Hannah Ritchie’s ‘Not the End of the World: How We Can be the First Generation to Build a Sustainable Planet’. It’s a Pollyanna potion we should think carefully about before taking.