2. Sustainability is….
… providing for the NEEDS of
ALL people alive today, without
jeopardizing future generations.
and we know that….
3. ….we know that…
…there is a difference between human
wants and human needs.
• Gandhi said that the world could surely
provide for the needs of the many but
not the greed of the few.
4. Okay, but I’m a sinner…..
How do I know if something is sustainable?
5. The Sustainability Triangle
The quest for
sustainability
Economic Environmental
Vitality Integrity
Social Equity
PerspectivePerspective
9. Ecological Footprint: A
measure of the “load”
imposed by a given
population on nature, or
the land necessary to
sustain resource
consumption and waste
discharge.
Our Ecological Footprint, by M. Wackernagel and W. Rees
13. What do the scientists say?
• 1972 – Limits to Growth is published by
D. Meadows et al.
MIT systems modelers take a look at the
future resulting in lots of debate
14. World3 – MIT Computer Model
A computer model of the world including data on:
• Population
• Food production
• Pollution
• Natural resource use
• Industrial growth
15. The “standard” run
• What happens (according to World 3) if we
“just “keep on keeping on”….
well, then….
20. Other “what ifs”…
• Increasingly effective pollution controls
• Increasing agricultural production/acre
• Effective soil erosion controls
• More efficient resource use (technology)
All these help, by either “delaying or
softening the pain somewhat.”
22. What works?
Three major changes make huge differences:
• Two children per family and,
• Reasonable industrial output (stuff) or,
“enough is enough!”
• We invest in new sustainable technologies.
25. What do the scientists say now?
• 1972 – Limits of Growth – lots of debate!
• 2004 – Limits to Growth – 30 Years later
– The model is “mostly” correct, so far….
– And, we still have a choice!
26. So, what do we need to do?
1. Two children per family
2. Enough is enough!
3. Appropriate and efficient new sustainable
technologies
Is this possible?
What prevents us from making the shift?
28. One of the problems is the way we
think about the world!
Our “mental models”
29. “The problems that we have created cannot be
solved at the level of thinking that created them.”
-Albert Einstein
30. Why do we continue to make the
same mistakes over and over?
The “iceberg” model of systemic relationships
is a simple tool to understand root causes.
Lets look deeper…..
Events
33. Events
Patterns
of Behavior
Systemic
Structure
Mental Models
We need to look deeper than events….
Plastic water
bottle that is used
once
Convenience,
non-responsibility
Systems that
make plastic
bottles “cheap”
____
The world is
organized as a
linear throughput
34. Here’s a mental model...
Natural
Resources
Goods and
Services
Pollution, Waste
and Environmental
Disturbances
The world is organized as a linear
“throughput” of material
35. Water bottles that we use once
and will last for a thousand years
Non-
sustainable
action
40. Create NS Mental Models
Non-sustainable
Action
Non-sustainable
Pattern
S
Non-sustainable
Structures
S
Non-sustainable
Mental Models
S
41. Which creates a
Reinforcing Feedback Loop
Non-sustainable
Action
Non-sustainable
Pattern
S
Non-sustainable
Structures
S
Non-sustainable
Mental Models
S
S
R
42. Feedback loops are powerful
• We know about “vicious” cycles
– You hit me…. I hit you harder…. You hit me harder…. I
hit you……
– Hate breeds hurt - hurt breeds hate…hate breeds
hurt….
– I feel bad so I “take something” – I feel better for a
while, but then….. I feel bad, so….
45. Lets call it “something to learn”
Non-sustainable
Action
Non-sustainable
Pattern
Non-sustainable
Structures
Non-sustainable
Mental Models
R
Something to
Learn
46. It is often painful!
Non-sustainable
Action
Non-sustainable
Pattern
Non-sustainable
Structures
Non-sustainable
Mental Models
R
Something to
Learn
Pain and
Confusion
47. We can get stuck here!
Non-sustainable
Action
Non-sustainable
Pattern
Non-sustainable
Structures
Non-sustainable
Mental Models
R
Something to
Learn
Pain and
Confusion
Defensive
behavior
48. The way out is through
acceptance followed by wonder and awe….
Non-sustainable
Action
Non-sustainable
Pattern
Non-sustainable
Structures
Non-sustainable
Mental Models
R
Something to
Learn
Pain and
Confusion
Wonder and
Awe
49. Wonder and awe allows us to
try something new
Non-sustainable
Action
Non-sustainable
Pattern
Non-sustainable
Structures
Non-sustainable
Mental Models
R
Something to
Learn
Pain and
Confusion
Wonder and
Awe
Change
50. A new reinforcing feedback loop
Sustainable
Action
Sustainable
Pattern
Sustainable
Structures
Sustainable
Mental Models
R
Wonder and
Awe
51. We have a choice!
We can find our way out of these loops through
pain and confusion - and eventually we will!
or….
We can choose to create sustainable reinforcing feedback
loops through…
1. voluntary small actions …
and
2. changes in mental models….
54. Here’s the good news!
We can choose to create a new
world through sustainable
reinforcing feedback loops...
But how?
55. Virtuous feedback loops can be just as
powerful as the vicious ones
Through small actions, like…
– Adding worms to your compost
– Smiling
– Holding the door open for someone
–Changing a light bulb
– Making salt (April 6, 1930)
62. What’s this got to do with me?
• Well the truth is, you and I choose to live in
a way that will eventually result in collapse.
63. We are the problem….
• I belong to the 20 percent of the world’s
population … that uses 67 % of the planet’s
resources and generates 75 percent of its
pollution and waste.
Barbara Kingsolver
Small Wonder
66. Lets start with food….
- Eat local foods
- Take kitchen wastes to a compost
- Make a worm compost in your kitchen
(or dorm room)
- Recycle and reuse what you can
- Join a CSA (a what?)
68. It takes a village….
Community Supported Agriculture
(www.buylocalfood.com)
69. Food….
The average food item set before a U.S.
consumer traveled 1300 miles to get there.
Transporting 5 calories’ worth of strawberry
from California to New York costs 435
calories of fossil fuel.
So, what do I do?
79. And while you are a student ?
- Demand local foods in the dining halls
- Don’t take more than you can eat
- Avoid fast foods
and….
- Join a student garden….
80. What else could I do?
• Change a light bulb
• Turn off the water when you brush your teeth
• Return the packaging to the store
• Turn off the lights when you leave the room
• Ride a bike or walk
• Learn to listen
• Join the Great Turning!
81. Okay, so what else?
• Well, why not do one simple thing?
– Like….
102. The surveys say we care!
We say we care about family, people,
nature, and good food – but…
…we eat fast food and toss out the
wrapper.
103. Lack of sanity is…
Saying one thing and doing another…
When our core values are inconsistent
with our daily actions – we are no longer
sane.
- I know…..
104. Who will lead the way?
•Politicians?
•Corporate leaders?
•People!
105. Who thinks and acts in
“sustainable time
frames?
Who will lead the way?Who will lead the way?
112. To learn more…..
join us!
HONORS 397I – Leadership for Social Change - Winter
PLSOILIN 265 – Sustainable Ag – Fall
PLSOILIN 285 – Sustainable Living – Spring
PLSOILIN 298G – GardenShare – year round
PLSOILIN 397S – Dialogue on Ag Issues
PLSOILIN 389P – Permaculture - Summer
PLSOILIN 597S – Ag Systems Thinking – Spring
114. Please call me to chat….
jgerber@psis.umass.edu
http://people.umass.edu/jgerber/
Editor's Notes
Water will probably become limiting before oil.
To begin to understand root causes, lets use a systems thinking tool…..
Mental Models result in structures that produce patterns that cause events….. What we see of course are the events!
Here is an example.
Here is an example.
We might be begin by asking, “why do individuals continue to act in ways that are clearly non-sustainable?”
Well, from a systems perspective, we know that non-sustainable practices done over enough time and space, produce patterns of behavior that make it easier to continue non-sustainable practices.
This is the beginning of a causal loop diagram that describes this sort of behavior. Notice the little “s” on the line, indicating that these elements move in the same direction. That is…
… when non-sustainable practices increase, non-sustainable patterns of behavior increase… and vice versa.
Actions result in patterns…
Non-sustainable patterns of course, create the conditions in which we generate structures like organizations, laws, policies, physical infrastructures, which all support the conditions for patterns of behavior, which influence individual action, and round and round….
Society then develops organizations and structures which encourage non-sustainable patterns of behavior.
Structures make it easier for the behavior to occur.
Patterns and structures become the norm and reinforce mental models that “make sense” out of the practices.
Mental models, or worldviews including beliefs, assumptions, and most important, the stories we tell are the foundation upon which structures are built.
This is a reinforcing feedback loop. Individual actions change patterns of behavior, which of course influence individual actions. Patterns result in the emergence of structures, which influence patterns of behavior. Structures and mental models co-evolve and reinforce each other in ways that may be unsustainable, or sustainable.
This is a reinforcing feedback loop that makes any experiments in sustainable behavior more difficult.
But, in living systems….. Like the universe, ecosystems, society and a human life….
These loops are powerful.
These loops are powerful. But…..
Something always happens…..
We might call this “something to learn” - and it is often…
It is often painful. We can stay here as long as we choose, or we can choose the way out…..
It is often painful. We can stay here as long as we choose, or we can choose the way out…..
Through “wonder and awe”….
Through “wonder and awe”….
We can begin to reverse the spiral…
Through “wonder and awe”….
Sustainable feedback loops are just as powerful….
We have a choice….
Many of us have tried to change the systemic model at the level of patterns of behavior (we protest and educate) or structures (we try to become involved or we burn it down). The leverage points however elsewhere….
This is a powerful feedback loop in which actions create thoughts and thoughts result in actions…. They may be either sustainable or not, but this is a powerful source of change.
We have a choice….
We may choose small acts of courage.
Which begins spirals of change.
Small acts are important…. Because they can start us on the path to….
…big shifts in consciousness. Changes happen both because a critical mass of people have an awakening to new mental models (shifts in consciousness, like the renaissance, enlightenment, the agricultural, scientific and industrial revolutions, human rights, the awakening of the mythos, theos, logos, holos, AND because individual people take small personal actions. Systemic change from both ends.
This is the social basis for spirals of change.
Here is a view of the same area today. All of the foreground is tropical dry forest. In the background are several volcanic peaks covered with tropical rainforest (with some cloud forest on the summits). The scene you saw earlier was from the summit of Cacao (right of centre), looking across Volcan Orosi to the two volcanoes in Lago Nicaragua across the border. Janzen has formed a Dry Forest Conservation Fund, and has been very successful at soliciting donations to protect lands on the flanks of these volcanoes as they become available. Local farmers are able to get a better price for their land as an addition to the GCA than by selling to a logging company for the uncut rainforest timber.
