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Below are some thoughts on a foundational understanding of sustainability. These are the results of my 25 years of study and intuition.
I look forward to your dialogue to evolve this document to the highest possible truth and wisdom. Please add your energy in the comment section below. Thank you for reading and being a part of the solution.
Concepts for a Sustainable Human Civilization
David Levesque 2-25-10
Sustainability – The ability to maintain life support systems.
The best model for sustainability is nature. Even that is not consistent over time. Humans did not exist on earth 10 million years ago. However humans must model nature’s ability to adapt and use energy over longer cycles than are currently being applied. Adaptability and higher evolution has always been nature’s way, we cannot avoid nature’s way.
Sustainable systems include all layers of energy, value and social exchanges. We must have sustainable value exchange systems and energy systems and social systems. Making all systems adaptable to nature's cycles is the only sustainable option.
Sustainable Community – Region that restores and maintains natural cycles. i.e. Forest, Ocean, Village.
A sustainable community consumes more pollution than it creates and all energy comes from sources that renew at a rate faster than they are consumed.
Values – activities that are important. Values are measured by time and money spent on them. You spend 8 hours at work each day, 8 hours sleeping, 2 hours eating, 3 hours being with family or socializing. These are your values. Being honest could be a value.
Sustainable values – activities that ensure the continuation of nature’s cycles.
Energy – The effort it takes to make something move.
Physical, thought, fuel (electricity, gas), and communication are all forms of energy.
Waste – Energy, materials, or time that does not go toward adding/creating value.
Pollution – Energy that requires more resources to return to usefulness than are available in nature. Waste that does not equal food.
If a 10 square foot area of dirt can filter one quart of oil within a day, without killing al the organism that live in the dirt, than the oil is not pollution. The tons of matter we put into landfills everyday, that will not return to useful resources in the next 100 years, are pollution.
Value – Energy that serves a purpose toward achieving a sustainable goal. Value is usually measure in effort that saves time and money.
Harmony – The result of the whole being greater than the sum of its parts. This happens when energy/frequencies co-exist and add to each other through their co-existence.
In music when notes are in harmony they do not cancel each other out. They add to each other to create a sound that is greater than was possible when they where by themselves.
Renewable energy – heating, cooling, electricity created by and returning to nature using methods that do not deplete the source or pollute more than they clean.
Renewable food – Food that provides all the healthy nutrition required by humans that is grown using method’s in harmony with nature (sustainable methods).
Economy – System of production, distribution, consumption and measurement
Resourced based economy – Economy in which all decisions are made based on the earth’s ability to provide the resources to support the decision.
If a town needs 100 gallons of water to live and only 75 gallons are available from the local spring than the usage needs to be reduced or the resource increased.
Currently in this scenario resources from outside the town are brought in, these resources do not take into account the effects of extracting them from their current location or the long term negative environmental impacts of importing the resource.
Growth – To make bigger
Development – To make better
Money – Means of leveraging trust and exchanging value.
Technology - Process that increases efficiency
Social - Activities that engage, accept and support each other.
Competition – Process of eliminating some parties so that others have access to limited benefits/resources
Collaboration – Working together to achieve goals that benefit all parties
Scarcity – Mindset of limited resources. The 2010 global economy operates on scarcity mindset.
Abundance – Mindset of limitless resources. Nature operates from the mindset of abundance due to its ability to cycle resource sustainably.
Food for thought. If we think there are limited resources why don’t we start eliminating waste? A competition based economy creates more waste than anything else. For example: Nike, Addidas, Reebok all make the same product for the same purpose. In the current economic model they must all do their own research, development, manufacturing, marketing and sales.
If we had one company making sneakers we would eliminate much of the duplicated research, development, manufacturing and all sales.
Consumers would waste much less time shopping and have much more time to enjoy their sneakers.
This does not mean we would eliminate product options or make products that are not as good.
I think human will and nature drive improvement more than profit or competition.
What do you think? Did you ever want to make yourself better at something because you could, because you wanted to be better?
Some may ask, what about all those jobs that are lost due to non-duplication of work?
I say there is plenty of work to be done that is much more valuable than making sneakers.
Inspiration for this article came from Frank Dixon, Glohal System Change.com and Jacque Fresco, The Venus Project.com
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