Sustainable development has been discussed world-wide for decades but the problems, mischievously keep getting worse. Could we have been missing something big, maybe huge? The recent documentary Blindspot (http://www.blindspotdoc.com/) shows how the most basic assumptions about our future are wrong. How wrong? It is as if modern civilisation has got stuck in reverse gear, with economics that systematically, relentlessly messes things up.  Millions of individual efforts to hit the brakes, to reduce the damage here and there, have been well-intentioned but ultimately futile.

The urge for more speed, for economic growth, is built into democratic politics but if the economic vehicle is in reverse then faster growth means more damage. Unfortunately, slower growth or even recession is still driving in reverse, so the problems still get worse. As things get worse our attention gets drawn towards the individual glaring symptomatic damage - and away from the sources of the problems. All kinds of desperate decoy 'solutions' are promoted but simple whole-system solutions are overlooked.

The cliff-edge may still be avoidable. We can grasp what may be a last chance at a revival of civilisation, to rethink basic assumptions and silly incentives and to design solutions that actually work. Joined-up solutions that capture the potential of humanity to actually improve ourselves and our planet, to reverse problems not just tinker at reducing them. Breathtakingly fast solutions that make us wonder why it wasn't done long ago. Let's try forward gear!

1.  Notice the blindspot.  Notice that we've been trying to solve global problems with the same thinking that caused them. Do problems really become more manageable when tackled separately, here and there, a bit at a time? Don't get so distracted fiddling with pieces of the puzzle that the big picture is ignored.  For example our struggles to recycle a bit more have masked the ease with which all resources could be rescued to help our economy and planet. When we grieve about the latest armed conflict, we stop thinking about how simply peace could be instituted world-wide. 

2. Switch our thinking to what it would take to really fix things, to get net positive impacts and 'positive development'. Imagine solving multiple joined up problems in a joined up way. Imagine turning problems around, not just slowing them down. Imagine an economy that does these things automatically, without needing centralised limits and controls and without stealing from our children with growing ecological and financial debts. 

3. We can throw away the heavy luggage of denial and fatalism. Throw away the institutionalised convenience of dividing up reality into convenient pieces and pretending that the smaller pieces make sense.  Throw away the implicit assumption that the economy must inevitably worsen global problems - this is the most basic design flaw that becomes fixable when we notice it. 

4. Design interventions which work across problems. (See 'results' below for suggestions.) Simple switches of policy can change gear from consuming the basis for future growth and well-being to building it. The economy could be set up to generate new resources instead of waste. It could switch from weapons-based to peace-based. Nature's productivity and abundance could be expanded. Hoarded wealth could be recycled back into circulation. Humanity could regain its sense of belonging to the Earth. All of this and more would result from a global economy that thrives by creating real lasting wealth.  

5. Put this approach on the policy agenda world-wide as the alternative to 'gradually less-bad business-as-usual'. The impending large-scale economic, social and ecological collapses will not be gradual nor reversible so any serious effort at recovery needs precisely this level of ambition and speed. 

The latest and fullest outline of how to do 'forwards gear' or 'positive development'  is Seven Policy Switches for Global Security. It was presented in summer 2009 at a NATO Advanced Research Workshop. It will be peer-reviewed by international professors and hopefully published in the NATO Science Programme. 

A 2008 paper about reversing global multiple problems with systems thinking and systemic changes was published in the NATO Science Programme  and publicised in a UNEP site.

It now needs to be presented to the public and decision-makers in ways that make it possible for them to use it. The 'changing gears' metaphor can help define the necessary scale of action and opportunity.

The global economy is destabilised due to the blindspot of seeing things as whole systems. The same is happening to ecosystems and societies. Any hope of recovery based on bail-outs and controls on individual symptoms is delusional. Government stimulus programmes that seek to revive the throw-away reverse-gear economy will succeed only to bankrupt people and planet.

A forward-gear economy of net positive development is a simple but effective option for economic and planetary survival. 

This project does not fit within conventional sustainable development subject boundaries, nor within the habits of thinking that allow the problems to keep getting worse. So this solution, despite being a bit obvious, is strangely 'off the scale' of the kinds of solutions being considered in public debate. 

The changing gears metaphor can help us avoid the usual limitations of sustainability and economic policy:

1. Don't treat sustainable development and economic development separately. Economics can be set up either to make sustainability inevitable (forwards gear) or widespread collapse inevitable (reverse gear). If sustainability is going backwards and someone's telling you that wealth is being created you can be sure it's a trick. 

2. Don't be distracted by the other instruments. Accelerating more or less won't stop us tipping over the cliff-edge. No-growth is no answer. Alternative indicators on the dashboard such as 'well-being' 'genuine progress' can be useful as a reality check on where we actually are at any moment.  However beware measures that include GDP (which measures activity not progress) and don't let anything distract from the need for an immediate gear change.   

3. Don't divide up the experts (and public understanding) into arbitrary categories, 'you folk get the economy working, you lot take care of climate change, you people focus on waste disposal...' All these issues are symptoms of the same systemic problem of whether to wake up and go forwards. So dividing them up into policy silos offers only the illusion of 'solutions'. 

4. Don't keep trying to stimulate both tomorrow's green economy (forwards gear) and yesterday's exploitive economy (reverse gear). Engines don't like that and the result won't be pretty. 

5. Act local and global. Local or national action can help but the problems are global and can be solved anywhere only if solved everywhere. This avoids the market-distorting nonsense of some nations and corporates competing to exploit whilst others compete to preserve and recover. Change means changing global systems that only pretend to be unchangeable.

Help make it happen. Even though all the problems mean we are running out of time, money and resources, we still need to find within us the initiative to collaborate on solutions with a chance of actually working.

Please comment and rate this solution. Please connect with its network. See the links at the top of this page. 

Let's get in touch and think together how to make it happen. 

Idealism and ambition to match the scale of global problems. 

Willingness to think flexibly.

Fondness for life and kids. 

This approach cannot be tested on a small scale or gradually. Either we change into forward gear globally or it doesn't happen at all. Messing about in between gears or pretending that both forward and reverse are possible simultaneously is as silly as it sounds. 

The key assessment to be made is that our collective blindspots can no longer be ignored. Until we can develop a capacity for cross-issue problem solving and practical idealism on a scale to match the problems, we should expect continuing instability in finances, co-operation and ecological health. Sooner or later the consequences will eliminate the opportunity for this or any other solution, so let's not sit on our hands.

Non-technical paper presented at a NATO Advanced Research Workshop in Split, Croatia in June 2009, Seven Policy Switches for Global Security. How to fix the planet's long list of broken bits with a short list of changes. 

Presentation (paper and slides) for the Middle East Waste Summit , 'From credit crunch to planet crunch - or revival?' posted as a 'resource' at From credit crunch to planet crunch - or revival?. This outlines why no-growth is no answer and what to do instead. 

Positive Development - a book by Janis Birkeland, Australian architecture and design guru, about how to refit the entire urban fabric to achieve net-positive impacts. http://books.google.com/books?id=3X5ZW21uY7cC&dq=birkeland+positive+development&source=gbs_summary_s&cad=0 

Blindspot documentary - 'what if all the expectations you have about the future are completely wrong'. http://www.blindspotdoc.com/

BlindSpot website - think tank for global revival, based in England. http://www.blindspot.org.uk

Keynote talk at an Irish National Summit: switch the logic 180 degrees; combine resource, climate and economic recovery.  National Waste Summit 'zero disposal' presentation

Academic paper by James Greyson - in the NATO Science Programme, about redesigning the global economy with just two basic tools, to achive rapid sustainability and peace.  http://books.google.com/books?id=vnq5eBNf5-oC&pg=PA139  or .

If you prefer a different metaphor, here's today's unintentionally destructive economy described more dramatically as a ravenous many-headed beast! http://news.independentminds.livejournal.com/975369.html?thread=3160073#t3160073