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Abundance must surely be a human right …

Abundance

It is fantastic how much change we can easily accept – “As long as it does not affect me”…

Nothing so needs reforming as other people’s habits.

Mark Twain

Once we have acquired a habit, regardless if it is a “good one” or a “bad one” it becomes almost as an incurable decease or an addiction… and like most addicts we are likely to fight any attempt to remove or change that habit.

Let’s take a look at one of our addictions, in the “rich parts” of the world – “Abundance

Ever since we heard about the cornucopia of children’s fairy tales, it seems that humanity has decided to make the fairy tale come true – that is, the rich part of humanity have decided to… Continue reading

Who is the real enemy to progress…?

CO2-Budget

Quite often Environmentalists and people who advocate Sustainability are accused for being against development and progress – Nothing could be more wrong!

It doesn’t take much arithmetic or high-level thinking to realise that with a maximum “emissions-budget” of 565 gigatons of CO2 until 2050 and the current emission-rate of 31.6 gigatons per year, increasing by approximately 3 % per year – the budget is exhausted already by 2025…

And then what… Continue reading

Sending double messages – Deception, Greenwash or what…

Janus

The Planet doesn’t really care about Emissions per Capita, does it – I think it is more interested in the accumulated total emission…

Question:
If each product or service I produce is a little more environmental friendly and causes a little less emissions but at the same time I push a growth-strategy – does that make me “more Sustainable”…?

…we are in this precarious situation with “almost” runaway Climate Change, pollution, depletion of species and resources because of the current Consumption-levels – staying at this level isn’t going to save us, is it…  Continue reading

We are not ”Human resources” – We are Human beings…

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On my holidays I always try to include some extra time to read and I actually read two books this Christmas, “Too much happiness” by the excellent Alice Munroe, and a very good book by Neela Bettridge & Philip Whiteley, “New Normal, Radical shift” about leadership in a Sustainable Future. 

… don’t know if this combination of books tell anything about me, but a humanistic Nobel Laureate and a very up-to-date book on leadership was a very good combination, and “food” for many thoughts…

I don’t know if it was Taylor, Keynes, Friedman et al. that “invented” the viewpoint on fellow human beings as “resources” and I don’t know what kind of “time-sprit” or maybe “elitist” mind-set triggered such an idea – but what is really fascinating is when you mix this viewpoint with more recent “inventions” such as Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) …

Continue reading

Being Passive or Neutral is not an option…

Stop pretending that there is a Choice

Emissions, dominantly caused by industrialism, have so far increased our planets average temperature with +0.8 °C. If we shut down CO2-emissions totally, right now, the average temperature will continue to rise to approximately +1.6 °C due to the systematic “delay” in our planetary systems – this is scientifically proved – and widely known.

But still sometimes when I read articles and op-eds, watch the news, listen to political debate or reports it seems as if some people, politicians and corporations think there is a choice, a choice not to address Climate change – to remain passive or neutral about it…

So what ARE our options?
A rough summary on some approaches, attitudes and future “results”… Continue reading

And we are supposed to be the “superior species” on this planet…

Downward spiral

During the last weeks in the aftermath from the COP19 in Warsaw I have read about countries refusing to send ministers to the meeting and instead sending people apparently wearing T-shirts and gorging on snacks throughout the critical negotiations, a host country dismissing their appointed environmental minister during the meeting [to accelerate shale-gas operations], how corporate lobbyists have been given exclusive access to the meeting process, organizers allowing fossil-fuel related business to sponsor and “use” the meeting as some kind of greenwash, countries starting of the meeting by stepping down from promises already made, countries trying all kinds of “tricks” to delay and procrastinate urgent matters, UNFCCC leaders attending and giving key-notes at the parallel pro-carbon events and, and … Continue reading

You are defined by your actions, not by what you say…

Saw it coming

Lately there have been a number of reports and studies clearly showing that most corporations are failing to take any considerable steps toward a Sustainable future. (Link to previous article)

This is truly disheartening and extremely worrying.

“What gets measured gets done”… or Not…

This quote, often attributed to Peter Drucker, is used frequently when talking about performance improvement, but is it right? Should it instead be “Some things that get measured get done?”

There is in reality very little to prove that “What gets measured gets done”. Continue reading

Is it a New type of Sustainable ”Diet” or “Workout”…?

Runs on money or fat

One week it is the 5:2 diet, next week it is the LCHF, then the Atkins-diet and the Cambridge-diet… there is an abundance of them – what about a method that not only is good for you but also for the Climate… and your wallet…

Just the other week I heard an interview, in connection to a recent study about driving habits – a young person was confronted with the law, stating that it was illegal to send SMS while driving your car – his obvious choice then was to “ditch the car“…

Unlucky when thinking…

I have an intelligent friend (no names) whose intelligence I am starting to be doubtful about… Continue reading

Why wouldn’t we want to have a positive impact on the world…?

Positive Impact

As a “possibilist” I am triggered by the idea of having a positive impact and moving things forward, so when I recently saw the TED Talk by IKEA CSO, Steve Howard – “Let’s go all-in on selling sustainability” (Link) – I was thrilled when he asked the rhetorical question

“Why wouldn’t we want to have a positive impact on the world?”

This is probably one of the most essential and simple questions to ask yourself, other people and businesses. (Try to come up with an evasive answer without compromising yourself…) 

Even if there are still many questions to ask, many behaviours to change and many inequalities to remove before we get to a sustainable world, there are some attitudes that really needs to be worked on, to enable and speed up the journey.

One of them is; What is regarded as Positive? Continue reading

One step changes everything…

First step

Once upon a time when we took our first steps in life – we really risked everything, we didn’t even know what a step was, and although we might have seen grown-ups around us moving in a totally different manor than our crawling and toddling at ground level… we didn’t know!

It’s not that we gave up crawling all at once, it was still a fairly decent way to get around, but after a number of trials we found out that the “other way” definitely had its advantages…

If we at that moment in life had used the same tactics many people seem to apply when we talk about change to a more Sustainable Society – humans would have still been a “crawling” species.

A trip down “memory-lane”…

TricycleI still remember when I learned how to ride a tricycle, and I am reminded of it every time I look in a mirror – the white scar on my forehead is not covered with hair anymore – it matches exactly with a flange on one of the large cast iron radiators that heated up the house where I grew up… so did this close encounter with “heavy-metal” stop me from riding the tricycle – of course not, once I had experienced the “slipstream” going down the hallway, I was “hooked”… Continue reading