The danger in focusing on such “solutions” is that insufficient attention will be paid to more deeply rooted causes. In systems-dynamics lingo, such defocusing is called shifting-the-burden (see image). This occurs when little or no attention is given to finding and addressing root causes. Root causes are those aspects in complex systems that are often found buried deep in the hierarchy of determinative relationships. I believe that this is exactly what is happening today with virtually all discussions about climate change. The argument that follows is not against applying fixes altogether, but only in conjunction with sufficiently large and comprehensive… Read More
Continue ReadingAmazon and Climate Change
In what has to be one of the more ironic, if not oxymoronic, moves of the times, Jeff Bezos announced today he would devote some $10 billions of his estimated $130 billion to fight climate change. Full details of the program are not yet available, but here are a few tidbits I was able to glean from the Washington Post announcement. Amazon has committed to ordering 100,000 electric delivery vehicles, which it expects to start using by 2021, and has also donated $100 million to reforestation efforts. It has promised to being plastic-free in India by June. During an Amazon… Read More
Continue ReadingFinding and Making the Right Choice
We, in the US and other so-called modern, capitalistic, market-driven nations, need a different framework for the way we discuss and decide our political choices. The traditional polarization between left and right, or liberal and conservative, or some other pair no longer enables anyone to find and examine the real issues facing everyone on the Planet. Any conversation that takes economic growth for granted, whether implicit or explicit, creates a blindness that will make whatever choices are made eventually exacerbate the problems for which the choices are believed to be the solution. The planet cannot stand any additional material growth… Read More
Continue Reading