Consider war as armed conflict carried out collectively by a political entity, with deadly force and deaths of others envisioned. Warring emerged with the development of agriculture and resulting inequality some ten thousand years ago and has been common since, including more recently linked to fossil fuels and other resources. By contrast forager hunter societies had an equity ethic, and carried
Read moreWays of communicating have profoundly changed since humans have been on Earth, especially in the last 1000 years. The transformations over the last decade or two have produced challenges in solving problems together, contradicting earlier predictions that things would be better and even strengthen democracy. With the acquisition of language the predominant method of communication was face-to-face with story-telling a
Read moreMany people sense something is wrong in the world, in the United States, and in other places. Call it a sickness if you will, maybe even a new epidemic. What would the diagnosis be? One approach would be to look at various measures to see what the problem is. Consider these tests like one might do with a sick individual.
Read moreWe live in an era of increasing violence world-wide that requires a coordinated global response. Begin with the ultimate mass violent event — a nuclear bombing. This threat requires immense technological capabilities together with specific nuclear resources to make a device that can’t be done by a few individuals. The U.S. is the only nation that has demonstrated using such
Read moreClimate change, environmental degradation, and pollution are more than just global problems; they are public health crises affecting billions. They form a constellation of cosmic proportions. The prognosis for a smooth future gets worse every day, with 100 million tons of CO2 added to the already full-up Atmosphere, along with the other greenhouse gases. As the global atmospheric temperature rises,
Read moreNeither the Biodiversity Crisis nor Climate Change are hoaxes or the result of some left-wing conspiracy, whatever the absurdist wing of certain political parties would have you believe. They both need to be taken very seriously indeed. Ignoring the science is a road to disaster, especially when it is based on wilful ignorance. Nature is implacable, however inconvenient this may
Read moreIn Blog # 24 on human carrying capacity on planet Earth I mentioned Donella Meadows’ places to intervene in a system that I first came across in a Whole Earth Review 1997 issue. She worked with Jay Forrester who developed systems theory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. At an American Public Health Association meeting in 1994 I heard Forrester
Read moreRobert Sapolsky, the neuroscientist and Stanford sage has come out with a new book: Determined: A Science of Life Without Free Will.He argues that we have no free will because of our individual histories that go back milliseconds, to seconds, to hours, to days, to years, to preconception, and beyond to the arrival of humans on the planet. Our actions are
Read moreWhile recent floods in cities around the world have raised the profile of the ‘sponge city’ concept, looking ahead perhaps the whole future of rivers should receive more attention. As with other natural features the overwhelming approach of contemporary ‘development’ up to now has been to emphasize hydro power, flood-control and navigation, while the value of biodiversity and the natural
Read moreI know I am among friends, so forgive the informality. Editor David, thank you for the opportunity to share a few ideas for a brand new 2024! I am writing from Pilot Projects, a Montreal based systems thinking and design company with the ambitious mission to “co-create a better world”. Our work takes the form of pilot projects that always aim
Read more