Some notes and thoughts

I thought I should put some new material up.  I know I am not very good at keeping this up-to-date.

Opening comments

There is clearly much being done today, at personal, political and corporate levels, to begin the move toward a sustainable future. However I have come to understand how little we are really doing to address the core issues.

I speak with people from many walks of life, and many different and varied social and cultural backgrounds. Through these interactions I have come to appreciate that while much seems to be being done, little is changing at a fundamental level where things really need to happen.

The present discussions and actions about dealing with global warming, greenhouse gases and climate change, are only about treating symptoms. We are not yet treating the cause, let alone acknowledging it. The cause is the values that drive and motivate individuals, corporations and politics and society in general.  They are those driving growth and excessive consumption.

Through The Natural Step and the work I have done with EcoSTEPS, along with my other work, I came to realise it is around the social impacts and consequences of our activities the major work in achieving a sustainable future must focus.  The discussion we need right now should be about values – our personal and social values.

This realisation helped me make the connections that an understanding of the concept of ‘Education for Sustainability’ (Stephen Sterling), is of real significance. When we get our education model correct, for both children and adults, we shall begin to make the changes for which we are looking. It is this new way of thinking and doing that will inform and influence my continuing work with young people about whose future we are speaking.

Background and experience

I have worked in tertiary level bio-medical science for many years as a technical officer and teacher, and now lecture and tutor on sustainability. I have always had a personal and professional interest in the environment. Undertaking a Masters in Social Ecology at the UWS, led me to the development of a keen interest in Ethics and Futures Studies. This guided me to be significantly involved in the development of an environmental focus where I now work lecturing and talking to groups about the reasons behind the need for change, and how we can go about it.

In closing

Nobody, in any time in the past sat down and designed the world we have – it has developed and  evolved at random.  Without laying blame. we know today how flawed the thinking and systems were that brought us here.

For the first time in history, we now have a global view of our planet, and can see and understand its flaws, along with the thinking that brought it about.

The values used to get us to this time in the development of the human race, are those that have caused the problems we now face. They will not get us to where we need to go.

We now have an opportunity to use this knowledge and understanding to create the sustainable society we talk about.  Maybe it will be the only one we have before things begin to go really wrong.

The majority of the work I do today is with young people, at school and university.  I will never see a sustainable future.  My wish that through working with the younger generation, I can invite them to do at least three things.

·         Explore what sustainability means for them, and

·         Challenge the core values and institutions of the society that gave them life.

·         Realise that we should not be talking about technology, but about the values we wish to live by, and how they can become the core of a new framework for the future life.