Turning Climate Change on its Head

Inspired by the work of Bill Rees (video), David Korten, and other thought leaders, I am moved to present a clear chain of thought, in six steps, leading inescapably (for me) to a surprising conclusion about Climate Change.  If widely accepted, this would turn the Climate Change Movement on its head.  I don't kid myself that this blog will have the viral impact needed to inspire real change, however, I challenge you, the reader, to choose any of the steps below and show me where my conclusion is problematic.

I present all six in summary here and have prepared a separate blog entry for each one, going into details and more explicitly presenting my case for the validity of my surprising conclusion.

#1 - The Law of Propagation and Consumption

All living species are programmed at their core to propagate and make maximum use of available resources.  Evolution has consistently selected for these properties.  When these biological imperatives are unchecked, they lead inevitably to exponential growth and resource depletion.  (Read more)

#2 - The Law of Negative Feedback

Paradoxically, exponential growth and non-stop resource depletion are entirely unsustainable on a finite planet.  Nature controls for these imperatives by providing negative feedback mechanisms.  Evolution balances these two forces.  However, if the negative feedback is too great, the species will disappear.  On the other hand, the negative feedback can’t fail, because if it did, the unsustainability of exponential growth will be its own demise - it’s the ultimate negative feedback. (Read more)

#3 - The Myth of Self-Control and Immunity

Humans are unlike any other species in the knowable history of our planet.  Our self-consciousness and incredible mastery of knowledge and collaboration collectively power a myth that the first two laws don't apply to us - that we can control our propagation and resource consumption, and that we are immune from nature’s feedback mechanisms.  This turns out to be false under our current paradigm.  (Read more)

#4 - The Complex Crises of Current Reality

Human ingenuity and technology, combined with our unnatural quantitative value system (where More is Always Better), have ultimately led to multiple complex crises that directly threaten civilization as we know it.  They include climate change, the Sixth mass extinction, resource scarcity, global poisoning, food insecurity, pandemic diseases, uncontrolled technologies, nuclear arms, overpopulation, and untenable social inequity.  These have been collectively described as ecological overshoot.  While there is no question that these crises are connected, solving any one of them will not solve the others.  (Read more)

#5a - Impossibility of Effective Climate Change Action?

Either effective action to halt or mitigate climate change is possible, or it’s not.  Let’s consider both options, starting with the second.

Climate Change is already well underway.  There’s a belief that what’s needed is serious political or corporate will, but I suggest the reality is that our predominant societal value system simply cannot accommodate the required actions.  If we also accept the inevitability of the law of consumption, and the fact that immunity from consequences is a myth, climate change WILL be in our future.  (Read more)

#5b - Consequences of Effective Climate Change Action?

It’s even more interesting when we explore what happens if halting or mitigating climate change IS possible - and we do it.  Yes, the effort would be huge beyond belief, but imagine we could actually do it.  So what about the other complex crises currently looming over us?  Even if effective action on Climate Change were possible, we are still subject to all the other crises.  Indeed, while solving Climate Change would probably help with some of them (e.g. the Sixth mass extinction and food insecurity), it would merely allow every other complex crisis - the ones without the present stature and focus of Climate Change - to worsen.  We'd be putting society back on track to its own destruction!  (Read more)

#6 - The Conclusion for an Altered Perception of Climate Change

Putting all of the preceding Laws, Myth, Reality, and Possibilities together, I propose the following conclusion:

Climate Change is negative feedback that nature is imposing on our exponential growth and out-of-control consumption.  As awful as it will be, that negative feedback shuts down our suicidal behaviours and gives us precisely the opportunity we need right now to survive into the distant future.  Climate Change is therefore a critical part of the solution for the continuance of the human species - a force strong enough to cause us to question our value systems and change course with whatever is left of civilization.

(Read more) 

Of course, the obvious cap to all of this is a ninth post, being A Discussion of Our Best Strategy Right Now.

(Continue to Part 2 of 9)