Revealing a Complete Solution
For Reversing the Ecological Crisis
If you define the problem correctly, you almost have the solution. – Steve Jobs
The Stockholm Resilience Centre has mapped the biosphere’s ecological crisis as the sum of nine planet-scale ecological crises (the “Ecological Crisis”) created by humanity’s “overshoot” of “planetary boundaries” …
Simplifying & defining the human decision-making creating the Ecological Crisis reveals a simple process through which people everywhere decide to adopt options for meeting human physical needs (in turquoise) that scale back the things-we-extract-flows & pollution flows (in orange) …
… and, at the same time, keep intact the things-we-extract flows (in orange) and things-we-use flows (in white) for meeting every human being’s physical needs …
Scaling back the things-we-extract flows & pollution flows as a whole allows the planet’s biosphere to regenerate itself as a whole …
The planet’s regenerated biosphere reverses the Ecological Crisis as a whole …
… and allows the planet to heal itself as a whole …
Such a simple process -- in the words of master innovator Steve Jobs -- “almost” solves the Ecological Crisis.
Completely solving the Ecological Crisis requires that such a simple process contain a simple decision-making process through which any person anywhere decides to adopt:
a things-we-extract option that scales back things-we-extract flows, or
a things-we-use option that scales back pollution flows.
In other words, reversing the Ecological Crisis requires a simple decision-making process through which any person anywhere decides to adopt:
a things-we-extract option that takes less things-we-extract from the biosphere, that is, it takes less things like forests, fresh water, wildlife, soils and minerals from the biosphere, or
a things-we-use option – like an energy option, a water option, a materials option, a food option, or a manufactures option – that puts less pollution into the biosphere.
A things-we-extract option that takes less things-we-extract from the biosphere -- or a things-we-use option that puts less pollution into the biosphere -- may be called a “regenerative option” because less things-we-extract flows and/or less pollution flows allow the biosphere to regenerate itself.
Those lessened things-we-extract flows – measured by an increase in the number of species in an area – may be called a “regeneration benefit” of a things-we-extract option.
Those lessened pollution flows – measured by a things-we-use option avoiding more pollution than it incurs – may be called a “regeneration benefit” of a things-we-use option …
People everywhere deciding to adopt regenerative options – that deliver regeneration benefits in the form of avoided things-we-extract flows and avoided pollution flows -- scales back the things-we-extract flows and pollution flows of the Human Enterprise as a whole …
… and, at the same time, keeps intact the Human Enterprise for meeting every human being’s physical needs …
Scaling back the extraction flows and pollution flows of the Human Enterprise allows the planet’s biosphere to regenerate itself as a whole …
The planet’s regenerated biosphere reverses the planet’s eco-crises as a whole …
… and allows the planet to heal itself …
People everywhere deciding to adopt “regenerative options” – for scaling back the things-we-extract flows and pollution flows of the Human Enterprise – allows the regenerated biosphere to reverse the Ecological Crisis as a whole.
My aim – in writing Solving the Eco-crises – is to shift you out of the old paradigm of struggle and into a new paradigm of thinking like, trusting and co-creating with the biosphere for solving and reversing the Ecological Crisis.
Are you ready to get started?
Thank you for reading and aloha!
P.S. I cross-posted this article on Medium for greater reach.