https://spencerrscott.substack.com/p/an-ecological-civilization-is-the
"Many see the Industrial Revolution as its own kind of Renaissance. Over the
past 300 years it enabled an accumulation of wealth that the world has never
before seen. Yet, industrialization and the fossil-fuels that aided its growth
did not come without a price. As a recent report warns, six of nine planetary
boundaries have been exceeded. This unprecedented material abundance is only
enjoyed by some, yet has polluted and put at risk the whole world’s air,
rivers, oceans, forests, and food, and has caused two of humanity’s largest
crises: climate change and the biodiversity crisis. The era of the industrial
civilization is foreclosing on itself, and many are now pointing to the need
for an ecological civilization to take its place. This would be a true
Renaissance, where human and ecological flourishing alike are at the center of
everything we do.
Before industrialization, humanity existed in an agricultural civilization
during which productivity was low and people were organized around meeting
basic needs. The industrial civilization ushered in a new high-productivity era
that inevitably affected peoples’ values, lifestyles, beliefs, and the
institutions that governed them. An ecological civilization will similarly
necessitate a major paradigm shift. As Jeremy Lent asserts in “What Does An
Ecological Civilization Look Like?”, we need “a transformation in the way we
make sense of the world, and a concomitant revolution in our values, goals, and
collective behavior.”
From Latin,
ecology means “knowledge of home” and
ecological means the
“applied knowledge of home.” While the old industrial system is characterized
by an indifference to how life on this planet works, an ecological
civilization operates with ecological principles at its core – with behaviors,
values, goals, and institutions organized around the applied knowledge of life
on Earth.
In her book,
Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature, Janine Benyus
outlines some of Life’s Principles here on Earth:
“Life runs on sunlight. Life rewards cooperation. Life builds from the
bottom up. Life banks on diversity. Life recycles everything. Life builds
resilience through diversity, decentralization, and redundancy. Life
optimizes rather than maximizes. Life selects for the good of the whole
system. In short, life creates the conditions conducive to life.”
Inspired by Benyus’ Life’s Principles and the work of sustainable development
scholar, Jiahua Pan, I created 6 ingredients for an ecological civilization."
Via
Future Crunch:
https://futurecrunch.com/226-eighth-continent/
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
