REBOOT – we need to launch a new operating system for how we operate within the world ecosphere.
Think of the world as the most sophisticated biological computer conceivable with the sun as its power source. We don’t know how it really works! Although, we do know we are damaging it, like malware, and we have some knowledge about how to correct or reverse that damage.
To operate, it needs to be able to regulate the power it receives and it needs to convert the energy to feed and nourish the other biological components. It also needs to operate within a finite level of resources. Somehow this has worked, with no master or plan at the helm, and has been self regulating for billions of years. It has had some large external and internal shocks that have changed the world, including 5 previous mass extinctions. But the world has survived!
Fast forward to around to the beginning of the 20th century, where we humans have started to understand how to master the use of finite energy sources – coal, oil, gas – and we have been able to, at accelerating rates, convert the world to be human centric – the anthropocene era. Through arrogance, we have taken on the role of coding the operating system for the world; something, we are not qualified to do. This coding has achieved the following – 100 to 1,000 times greater rate of species extinction, 60% fall in populations of mammals, birds, fish, reptiles and amphibians between 1970 and 2014, livestock representing 67% of the land weight of animals (humans 32%, wild animals 1%), carbon dioxide (CO2) count reaching 415 parts per million (ppm) vs. never having been above 300 ppm prior to 1980 for at least 400,000 years. At a CO2 count of 415 ppm and growing, this biological machine is now starting to overheat. We did not know how to operate it at normal temperatures and we certainly have no accurate idea of what will really happen when it superheats other than we do know it will be devastating.
Why are we doing this when at the same time it is estimated that nature provides a service worth about $125 trillion per year to our livelihoods. We are now standing on a proverbial burning platform! What is that burning platform? That platform is that we are not fulfilling our duty as parents to make a better world for children and our children’s children, etc.. When we will be sitting with them at the dinner table they will be looking us in the eye and at least thinking, if not saying, why didn’t you care. Why did we go from your parents or grand parents generation, who gave their lives for freedom in the world wars and a better world after – what is called the greatest generation – to the most selfish generation?
Well it’s not over! Despite, putting future generations quality of life at risk, we have accomplished a lot in the last 50 years. We have transformed the lives of billions of people from abject poverty and starvation, we have dramatically improved the health and lifespan of people, we have transformed the number of people with access to quality education, we have improved gender balance, we have introduced new technologies that have changed and improved how we live. These are all selfish definitions as they have been short term focused, exclusively focused on ourselves and at great expense to the planet. We have still fallen a long way short of achieving our overall social well being which in turn is also dependent on environmental well being.
REBOOT is my thinking on the optimistic pursuit, at speed, of improving components of our current operating system so that we will provide a better life for future generations while recreating balance in the world. We have the capabilities, we already have enough knowledge and we have the technology to make a large and urgent impact; and, we can bring on new technology and knowledge as it is developing at an increasing pace.
The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals are the best global consensus of where we need to go. We do not need all the answers prior to action and there is no silver bullet. We must progress now with aggressive intention to make improvements to all areas of our lives and how our societies are managed. We also need to solve the leadership question; but, in any event massive progress can be made and there should be no bystanders.
On the shoulders of individual and organisational giants who have been championing the cause for years, I hope to add to the conversation about what needs to change, leadership of the change, frameworks on how to think about changing, and even some thoughts on how to approach implementation.
Sources: WWF, 2018 Living Planet Report
REBOOT 