{"id":1458,"date":"2011-04-29T00:00:59","date_gmt":"2011-04-29T04:00:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.synapse9.com\/signals\/?p=1458"},"modified":"2011-04-29T00:00:59","modified_gmt":"2011-04-29T04:00:59","slug":"what-kind-of-search-is-finding-the-new-model","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/synapse9.com\/signals\/what-kind-of-search-is-finding-the-new-model\/","title":{"rendered":"What kind of search is finding the new model?"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is a response to Graeme Rickard\u2019s post\u00a0on Apr 27 <\/span>to the Australian environmental network GreenLeap, discussing why the dimensions of the environmental problem seem increasingly unsolvable.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Graeme, \u00a0When you notice that many of our best traditional solutions are making our energy and environment problems much worse now, it raises the stakes, but also lets you trace\u00a0existential\u00a0dilemma to its logical origins.<\/p>\n

The origins of the problem provide solid evidence the problem is our whole model, not shortcomings in\u00a0our\u00a0execution.<\/h3>\n

To have the epiphany needed to change your whole way if thinking, though, seems require finding some hidden dimension of our thinking that can be \u201cuncurled\u201d to help us find ways to branch off the model we have toward something else.<\/p>\n

How some of our most trusted solutions simply won\u2019t work at all exemplifies the problem. The \u201csolution\u201d of providing more energy to an \u201cenergy starved\u201d economic system with an infinite energy appetite, actually just feeds the addiction. It does not cure it.<\/p>\n

I also don\u2019t think trying to build self-sufficient communities makes much more sense. The idea includes an image of resorting to a nostalgic dimension of past skills for living, but that surely couldn\u2019t work by itself now. Going \u201cback to the land\u201d doesn\u2019t fix the problem of our having a failing technological society, that all our \u201csemi-sufficient\u201d communities would still be completely dependent on for technology.<\/p>\n

One thing that goes even closer to the heart of it for me is that, at the limits of the earth, being more productive in using resources reduces rather than increases your supplies. Humans have relied on improving productivity as a way to \u201ccreate\u201d resources for actually thousands of years.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s been our most reliable solution it seems, but it doesn\u2019t actually create any resources. Productivity only improves access to continually depleting resources. So.., at the limits of the earth increasing your access to resources has the reverse effect, decreasing your supply.<\/p>\n

That we seem to have actually hit that natural limit for prospering from productivity growth seems to be why, for 10 years now, prices for the whole spectrum of food and fuel resource prices have been progressively escalating as a group (1). Supply has not been keeping up with demand, worldwide.<\/p>\n

Increasingly the added supply for new users is being taken from the supplies of existing users, by raising the prices high enough. That really changes how an economy works. Anyone looking at it with fresh eyes would immediately say: \u201cGee, that\u2019ll become a very unprofitable kind of investment, won\u2019t it!\u201d<\/p>\n

That we have a world consensus plan to continually drive productivity growth then points sharply to yet another of the completely impossible assumptions around which we built our economic system. As using productivity to solve problems has been central to our thinking all along has also meant that questioning it has always been dismissed.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s part of why it\u2019s been hard to draw attention to this and the other misunderstandings we\u2019re struggling with. Ever since I noticed it I\u2019ve been pointing it out leading bloggers, scientists and activists in sustainability. They have fairly quickly seen that it didn\u2019t fit with the rest of their thinking,.. and in response let it drop rather than start poking around for ways to change their way of thinking.<\/p>\n

You, just can\u2019t start a new way of thinking about productivity with a social movement, for example, as productivity is very popular. For most people social competition drives them to be more and more productive anyway, and they cling to that language and those stories as part of their personal relationships, not even thinking globally.<\/p>\n

From my years of mingling with various crowds, it looks to me that only a few scattered individuals have come to see that increasing productivity has been the problem not the solution all along. Those \u201cbreak-away\u201d individuals can\u2019t lead a movement either, as their thinking is so individualistic they haven\u2019t formed a common language for sharing it with others. So,\u2026 from that view, our bigger problem really becomes, that we have both no leaders and no followers.<\/p>\n

So\u2026 perhaps we at least look for new images of where we should go. One new image of what a sustainable world looks like is an ecology, an economic system with independent parts that lives a long time and remains vitally active and creative, without escalating waves of conflict. That would somehow require the parts to anticipate when further growth will become unprofitable, and to stop growing on their own as a strategy for remaining profitable, to avoid pressing their limits to the point of conflict.<\/p>\n

For our present economic model, the use of savings and investment as an unconditional driver of growing productivity conflicts with nature but is also central to our culture, and so is a special kind of deep cultural and institutional problem. You might have to \u201cgo to the ends of the earth\u201d to even understand it.<\/p>\n

Still, all the signs are that \u201cwe need a new model\u201d. Each thing that proves that our present model can\u2019t physically work also points directly to our needing to explore the difference between our beliefs (from our turning information into theory) and nature (environmental systems using energy). Earning a home on earth seems to require it\u2026<\/p>\n

I grant that to people who imagine that the natural world is what they believe,\u2026 their thinking is sufficient to justify whatever they believe. But even they must also be able to see that if people change what they believe nature is unaffected.<\/p>\n

So, the question then is what would make us curious about studying how nature works differently than we think\u2026 that\u2019s seems to be the rub. Lots of people can see it\u2019s becoming absolutely necessary for our survival. At the same time most everyone also seems rather satisfied with their own beliefs! It calls for a sort of wilderness exploration, of a new kind, that as yet isn\u2019t popular.<\/p>\n

1)\u00a0A decisive moment for Investing in Sustainability<\/a> in New European Economy Apr 2010<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is a response to Graeme Rickard\u2019s post\u00a0on Apr 27 to the Australian environmental network GreenLeap, discussing why the dimensions of the environmental problem seem increasingly unsolvable. Graeme, \u00a0When you notice that many of our best traditional solutions are making our energy and environment problems much worse now, it raises the stakes, but also lets … Continue reading What kind of search is finding the new model?<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1458","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mail","category-econn"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/synapse9.com\/signals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1458","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/synapse9.com\/signals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/synapse9.com\/signals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/synapse9.com\/signals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/synapse9.com\/signals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1458"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/synapse9.com\/signals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1458\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/synapse9.com\/signals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1458"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/synapse9.com\/signals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1458"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/synapse9.com\/signals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1458"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}