There is no such thing as a free lunch
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.
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.)
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?
Resilience science can offer many insights on the challenges that currently beset us, but I don’t see its current deployment as anything more than a strategy of obfuscation and displacement, the strategy you roll out when you don’t actually have a plan
Is it aim or timing that makes for the biggest impact? By David Salt “What do we want!” “We want...
Would a crack in the Greenland Ice Sheet make a difference? By David Salt How do we break the...