See Beyond Our Collective Blindspot (external link)

Using systems thinking to shrink problems instead of piling them up


An Attainable Dream

  • James Greyson (external link) says: Wouldn't it be nice if the world didn't seem so mad?
  • All the world's problems are pretty obvious yet things keep getting get worse.
  • The way that people try to tackle big ecological and social problems hasn't really changed over the decades and the 'solutions' tend to be inadequate or even counter-productive.
  • This tells us that ineffective solutions stand out and that potentially effective solutions are elusive, hidden in the blindspots of our perception.

Shrinking Global Problems

  • The usual way to try making big problems manageable is to divide them up.
  • Which problem is the priority? What can we do locally?
  • Although this seems very practical and suits our modern way of thinking, it hasn't actually worked.
  • The other approach is to think about global problems globally and joined-up problems in a joined up way.
  • Systems thinking can allow solutions to be designed to match the scale and speed of problems.
  • In particular, the machinery of economics can be rejigged to prevent the problems that it's currently designed to cause.

Seeing eye-to-eye with Nature

  • Co-operating with nature and each other is now an achievable vision
  • Climate stability, international security, expansion of nature, meeting basic human needs and economic growth are an indivisible goal-set.
  • Curiously, this makes it easier to achieve them as a set than to try achieving any of the separately.
  • It also means that the long-standing obstacles to each goal are now avoidable by making fairly simple changes to the economic 'rules of the game'.
  • Powerful tools are now available to make sustainable development economically achievable and to use economic competitiveness as a 'weapon' for peace and security.

Collaborate with James Greyson

  • The Blindspot (external link) 'dream' is being developed and published in NATO Advanced Research Workshops.
  • Find out more with BlindSpot's 'climate briefing' at (United Nations Environment Programme (external link)) website.
  • How can ideas like these be used to turn things around fast?

Dream Sharing

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