Draft Intellectual Content Outline

This outline should be read as a draft of the intellectual content. The actual presentation may differ considerably as it will be simplified as far as possible, described where possible by stories using the hero’s journey narrative, and translated into visual and graphic representation. This content will not be presented in dot points or lists.

The structure may follow the broad outline as below of setting the scene - understanding the issues - moving to action - and new mindsets. Or it may follow a structure of examining the increasingly powerful “tipping points” for change that Donella Meadows outlines in her article “Leverage Points: Places to Intervene in a System,” starting with the least powerful and moving through to the most powerful.

The primary intention of the show is to drive change, and content will be selected on this basis. Additional slides will be available for anyone wishing to delve deeper into the issue.

Section 1 - Introduction
Setting the scene & outlining the case for change -  defining the problem (a brief look at population & consumption in a finite world);  key trends

What allowed us to get into this situation – key drivers of our current predicament: an addiction to growth (population and economy), unrealistic expectations, not acknowledging natural limits and our lack of understanding  our place in the web of life.  At the root of it lies our fundamental disconnect from nature, and re-establishing that connection must also be at heart of our response to the sustainability issue.

Climate change as a sustainability challenge – understanding CC as a sustainability issue that arose due to the above and how it needs to be addressed in terms of the below...

Sustainability defined -  Intergenerational equity & Intragenerational equity  (Interspecies equity?)– nice aspirations but what do they mean ?

Sustainability principles

Section 2 - How our world works – or doesn’t!
Thermodynamically – the web of life, the capture and use of energy. Biological diversity and ecological integrity – a moral and pragmatic case for action, the need to go beyond protection to restoration.

Financially - Internalising environmental costs - the buck stops here.  This is the nub of the problem! the sustainability emergency, the poverty/inequity in the world, the global financial crisis, and the incapacity of the market to deliver a meaningful form of efficiency (i.e. technical / ecological efficiency) are all symptoms of the claim of virtual wealth (i.e. the claim of money or debt) on real wealth.

 Economically -  The mathematics behind neo-classical economics originated with its founders simply substituting economic variables (e.g. utility) for physical variables (e.g. energy) into a defunct set of physics equations

Thresholds, feedback loops, exponential curves and non-linear systems - a crash course for beginners and why these concepts are critical to understand

Resilience -  key elements of system stability - How natural systems grow and then react to limits are ways they take care of themselves. What indicates the approach of system limits: in relationships large & small running into complications, points to a need to enlarge the view or interacting parts

Section 3 – Sustainability in practice
We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking/systems we used when we created them.

·         We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking/systems we used when we created them

Systems thinking and Integrated decision-making – connectivity, context, messy problems, and rethinking how we deal with them; Long-term decision making – life beyond a 3 year political cycle. Achieving multiple outcomes.

·         Waste not want not - Nothing disappears – there is no “away” to throw your rubbish. Elimination of waste : beyond reduce,reuse and recycling. We are all downstream! Cradle to Cradle design.

·         Real solutions and not so real solutions - focusing on enabling the planet to heal itself and avoiding the traps of “falsesolutions”. Avoiding Jevon’s paradox

·         Issues of scale: reality as a set of nested subsets. appropriate actions at appropriate scales

  Sustainability Indicators – would you drive your car with a blindfold on? How the truth can help set us free & If you don’t change you’ll end up where you’re heading

·         Population –the implications of not addressing it and how do we do so in a just, human and timely manner?

Section 4 - Barriers to progress - addressing and dismantling barriers

Institutional, cultural, genetic barriers that stand in the way of progress. How our perceptions determine the realities we create.

Section 5 – The world we want/redefining progress/the new paradigm

Decoupling environmental impacts from  our economic activity  - the new frontier,  new economies

Creatively as a driver of sustainability, the maturation of the human community – recognising growth is a phase in adolescence that is replaced by other expression of creativity when maturity is reached

Opportunities for inspired and practical action - The Hero Generation  - the regeneration of society and nature