Building Resilience: Meeting Peak Everything With Systems Thinking
by Sami Grover, Carrboro, NC, USA on 03.17.08
With glaciers and arctic ice melting at unprecedented rates, with traditional politicians all but ignoring the threat of peak oil, with food getting ever more expensive and with extinction rates threatening global productivity, the modern world can sometimes feel like a scary place. How do we respond to all of these different challenges, and how do we know which crisis to prioritize first? In the light of so many different, yet interconnected pressures on our current social and economic structures, many folks concerned with sustainability are beginning to explore the concept of resilience in more detail – that is, the idea of not just tackling a problem like climate change or peak oil alone, but instead beginning to restructure our human-made systems so they are stronger, more adaptable, and able to withstand multiple shocks or pressures. Rob Hopkins, of the magnificent Transition Towns Movement, talked a little bit about building local resilience here, but for those wanting to explore the concept further, the UK Systems Society is holding a 3 day conference entitle “Building Resilience” at the University of Oxford this September. This from the conference flyer:
"We experience a world full of turbulence. In the early years of the 21st century, we can point to many examples of this turbulence: flooding and associated devastation; cyber systems which leave us vulnerable to identity theft and fraud; instability in financial systems causing customers to mistrust their banks. We cannot hope to anticipate, still less control, every source of instability. However, we can aspire to build resilience. We can seek to create human-made systems which, when they fail, fail ‘gracefully’. We can seek to anticipate the consequences of natural calamities on all sectors of society, and ensure that we are ready to deal with them. Systems thinking and appropriate tools for systemic practice can help in this endeavour."
::UK Systems Society::via Permaculture Association (Britain):: Image Credit: Transition Culture::
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This is an excellent idea. If it's manageable, it could solve a lot of the current woes of the the entire developed world and be a model for those nations now blossoming onto the world economic stage.
My only concern is that if we can't tackle these problems individually, how are we going to tackle them en masse. Isn't it like the problem physics has with trying to establish the Theory of Everything? That's stumped the elite of the scientific world for decades and looks set to continue doing so.
That said, one still has to try, and talking about this possible solution is a positive step in the right direction. I wish them luck and await the outcome.
Steve N Lee
author of eco-blog http://www.lionsledbysheep.com
and 'What if...?', an eco-suspense thriller with a philosophical twist.
I LOVE this idea.
I think that cultural change needs to be on the table. The transition will take some time, but reshaping our cultures and out communities is of vital importance for the earth, and to continue functioning in a meaningful way.
I view the United states as a work in progress experimenting with a multitude of dichotomies, such as individualism vs a culture's need to have common ties, and the right to do what one desires vs the responsibility to plan for the consequences it creates, as well as the old Oscar Wilde ideas about the boundaries that should or should not be set on pursuing the aesthetic.
However being able to continue to function as a society, and as part of a planet can provide us with guidlines to finding points along these continuums that better help us shape our culture.
I think that planning the points of change and working towards creating the influence will be an interesting process. I also feel as though emergence theory will play a role in this, meaning that people with vague ideas about the cultural change will be able to help initiate the chnge without top down directives. Continuing the conversation is important.
I wish I could attend, but am pleased to be informed, and able to continue my part howeevr small it will be.
(On a point related to continuin the conversation, it was only when I followed the link to the blog of the guy stamping on money that i found out treehugger is the 11th most read blog, and I was really pleased by that number of people paying attention to at least part of the issues here.
As you develop your own systems to provide your own utilities, you'll notice you're not using all of it, and having to store alot of things.
Software engineers have found the same semantic problem with computers. Each computer is doing nothing most of the time, yet fails to handle peak load. The solution is to virtualize to share capacity, backup eachother, allow specialization, and allow gradual transition (you don't need to do everything all at once).
When you go green, consider setting up with other green-minded people, and work as a team. Specialize, and sell eachother resources at a fair, agreed upon price with the understanding that resources are *not* guaranteed. We're all make-shifting it, so we need to accept failure.
Doing this will dramatically decrease the work each person/family needs to do to make ends meet.