(This is Part 1 of a series.)
There may be no sirens, flashing lights or shouts of "code blue." But the reality is that our human experience, and the larger planet it depends on, is facing an unprecedented challenge. This challenge is not just ecological, but also financial, political and connected to energy. It’s all related. Unless we take some steps now to change the course we're on, life as we know it on planet earth, and in particular our human reality, could dramatically decline or even possibly cease to exist.
Many fine proposals have been offered for specific actions to be taken in various areas to deal with this or that crisis. But here our emphasis is somewhat different. Here we’ll ask: What are the general principles involved if we humans are truly going to create a sustainable planet? In other words, we’ll ask: Are there some general principles that could help guide us in this uncharted territory?
In order to address that question, we’ll first take a look at the current situation of the world in a number of contexts including finance, geopolitics, energy and the environment. Though these dimensions and others are interconnected, to gain clarity we’ll first look at them in some isolation before seeing, as the series progresses, how they might combine into a set of general principles.
We'll also take a fascinating journey into some past and present societies that either succeeded or failed—and in either case, ask why. Then, we'll follow some amazing and valuable computer research that is concerned with scientifically modeling the earth's biosphere—and see what that might reveal about our planet.
So we begin by first looking at the current situation of the world in different dimensions. And although the picture may appear grim at first blush, the picture will take on a more and more hopeful tone as we make our way through, reflecting the reality that there are solutions and it's not too late to implement them.
Finally, as this series progresses it will look more and more at an overall vision, a global vision.
What would a global vision of our collective future on a sustainable planet look like?
That is our overall question and objective.
Here we go . . .
(This is the end of Part 1. Go to Part 2.)
—jim sloman, 2.28.07
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