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hearthstone
the environment in anthropology and related social sciences.
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Date: Wed, 21 Feb 2007 10:22:38 -0500
From: "Mr. Jan Hearthstone" <model...@GMAIL.COM>
Subject: Designing a Sustainable Future.
CREATING A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE. (An Ongoing Draft).
In order to create an ecologically and socially sustainable future for
the Earth we have to agree on what this "ecologically and socially
sustainable future for the Earth" should look like, otherwise we would
never achieve such a future--how could we achieve something we don't
know what it is? We need to know what that that we are trying to
achieve looks like, ideally to the minutest detail, but at least so
well that when we would see it we would recognize it.
It might be, perhaps, easier to imagine something that we want to
achieve for ourselves, but when it comes to envisioning the future of
the Earth, we have to take into the account <i>all</i> the wishes that
others might have for the future of the Earth.
The normal procedure is to envision what future we desire, perhaps
taking into the account the wishes of some who are our family and
friends, try to find out what our enemies have in mind when it comes
to our common future, and then carry out actions that we think would
end up in results that we desire. Needless to say that we seldom
achieve that what we originally conceived of due to many factors that
we omitted from, or were unable to include in our original
considerations; not the last of those factors being that we dismissed
the wishes of many others whom we are sharing our future now.
This procedure, on the whole, applies also how the future happens to
the whole Earth--all the inhabitants try their out-most to achieve a
good future for themselves and their families and friends, but, since
everybody else is bound on achieving a good future for themselves
without really considering the wishes of others, the differences that
there are among all those wishes provides us with humankind's history
that seldom ever was free of violent conflicts.
In order that the future of Earth happens with as little violence as
possible we have to model what our common future should look like, in
as close detail as possible, before we set out to create it, so that
any discrepancies that there might be among our wishes for future
would sort themselves out in the model, rather than, most possibly,
violently in real space/time.
Modeling "concrete" ecologically and socially sustainable situations
by as many participants as possible (ideally anyone who cares to have
a satisfactory future) in a model would greatly help defining what
"sustainable" should mean--at least as far as practicable, applicable
solutions to real problems that humankind is facing would go.
Such modeling would also present an opportunity for anyone from any
discipline to cooperate on solutions to problems that we collectively
share. This would represent the closest that we could ever get to a
unification of all human knowledge--what else should our knowledge
serve than dealing with problems that we face?
More to the idea at: http://www.modelearth.org
Thank you, Mr. Jan Hearthstone.
Credit for this writing is given to Mahayana Philosophy and to <i>Path
of Least Resistance</i> by Fritz, Robert, Ballantine Books, April
1989, ISBN 0-449-90337-0.
Date: Wed, 21 Feb 2007 12:59:33 -0500
From: Pamela Puntenney <pjp...@UMICH.EDU>
Subject: Re: Designing a Sustainable Future.
In-Reply-To: <200702211522....@mailgw.cc.uga.edu>
Content-Type: multipart/alternative;
>From Karl-Henrik Robert, M.D., Ph.D., studied the effects of Chernobl
on the Norweigian countries which led to his founding the
international organization, The Natural Step. From his recent work on
Principled Sustainability and Sustainability as systems boundary
constraints, he has simplified a model based upon planning theory call
backcasting while building toward a sustainable future by using 4
principles of sustainability. #4 is the social-cultural component.
Here is a bio on Dr. Robert as way of introduction:
http://www.gpiatlantic.org/pdf/TNS/Dr.%20Robert%20presentation_Sept.%2022,%202006.pdf
As way of background, a power point presentation, "Sustainability: The
Leadership Challenge", given at The Natural Step - Halifax, September
2006: http://www.gpiatlantic.org/pdf/TNS/Dr.%20Robert%20presentation_Sept.%2022,%202006.pdf
Journal citation Sustainability Constraints as System Boundaries: An
Approach to Making Life-Cycle Management Strategic Henrik Ny, Jamie P.
MacDonald, G?ran Broman, Ryoichi Yamamoto, Karl-Henrik Rob?rt Journal
of Industrial Ecology, Winter/Spring 2006, Vol. 10, No. 1-2, Pages
61-77.
All the best, Pam
Date: Sun, 25 Feb 2007 06:38:52 -0500
From: "Mr. Jan Hearthstone." <model...@GMAIL.COM>
Subject: Re: Designing a Sustainable Future.
Karl-Henrik Robert's model of what sustainable could/should be (as
far, as I am able to see) is one of many such models, each defined in
different ways, not all of those models necessarily compatible with
each other.
ModelEarth is not a model of the future on its own, but rather a means
of "plugging in" all the models that there might be of what a
satisfactory future for the Earth should be (be those "sustainable",
or not), and then designing a <i>unified</i> model (an ongoing dynamic
process, as humankind's knowledge is changing with time) that would be
the resultant of all that any/everyone would wish to see in a
satisfactory future, and all of what is known about ecological and
societal processes.
Once such a "unified" model would start emerging, and once such a
model would start becoming sufficiently discernible so that all the
important components would start becoming enough clear, and once the
resulting model would be, more, or less, indisputably acceptable
(anyone disputing the model would have the opportunity to improve on
it), <i>then</i> (and only then--since it is impossible to strive for
something that is not known) it would be possible to start designing
ways of how to achieve the goal presented by such unified model.
Needless to say that the model would grow gradually more and more
ecologically and socially sustainable, since "ecological and social
sustainabilty" is based and rooted in truth contained in all knowledge
there is in natural processes that is easier to defend than the
unreasonable principles driving us currently in nowhere pretty, as far
as could be perceived.
Thank you, Hearthstone.