Here's How to Design Cities Where People and Nature Can Both Flourish

by Georgia Garrard, RMIT University; Nicholas Williams, University of Melbourne, and Sarah Bekessy, RMIT University, The Conversation: https://theconversation.com/heres-how-to-design-cities-where-people-and-nature-can-both-flourish-102849

An impression of biodiversity sensitive urban design (BSUD) developed by the authors in collaboration with Mauro Baracco, Jonathan Ware and Catherine Horwill of RMIT’s School of Architecture and Design. Author provided

Urban nature has a critical role to play in the future liveability of cities. An emerging body of research reveals that bringing nature back into our cities can deliver a truly impressive array of benefits, ranging from health and well-being to climate change adaptation and mitigation. Aside from benefits for people, cities are often hotspots for threatened species and are justifiable locations for serious investment in nature conservation for its own sake.

Australian cities are home to, on average, three times as many threatened species per unit area as rural environments. Yet this also means urbanisation remains one of the most destructive processes for biodiversity.

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Read more: Higher-density cities need greening to stay healthy and liveable

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Despite government commitments to green urban areas, vegetation cover in cities continues to decline. A recent report found that greening efforts of most of our metropolitan local governments are actually going backwards.

Current urban planning approaches typically consider biodiversity a constraint – a “problem” to be dealt with. At best, biodiversity in urban areas is “offset”, often far from the site of impact.

This is a poor solution because it fails to provide nature in the places where people can benefit most from interacting with it. It also delivers questionable ecological outcomes.

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Read more: EcoCheck: Victoria's flower-strewn western plains could be swamped by development

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Building nature into the urban fabric

A new approach to urban design is needed. This would treat biodiversity as an opportunity and a valued resource to be preserved and maximised at all stages of planning and design.

In contrast to traditional approaches to conserving urban biodiversity, biodiversity-sensitive urban design (BSUD) aims to create urban environments that make a positive onsite contribution to biodiversity. This involves careful planning and innovative design and architecture. BSUD seeks to build nature into the urban fabric by linking urban planning and design to the basic needs and survival of native plants and animals.

Figure 1. Steps in the biodiversity sensitive urban design (BSUD) approach (click to enlarge). Author provided

BSUD draws on ecological theory and understanding to apply five simple principles to urban design:

1. protect and create habitat
2. help species disperse
3. minimise anthropogenic threats
4. promote ecological processes
5. encourage positive human-nature interactions.

These principles are designed to address the biggest impacts of urbanisation on biodiversity. They can be applied at any scale, from individual houses (see Figure 2) to precinct-scale developments.

Figure 2. BUSD principles applied at the scale of an individual house. Author provided

BSUD progresses in a series of steps (see Figure 1), that urban planners and developers can use to achieve a net positive outcome for biodiversity from any development.

BSUD encourages biodiversity goals to be set early in the planning process, alongside social and economic targets, before stepping users through a transparent process for achieving those goals. By explicitly stating biodiversity goals (eg. enhancing the survival of species X) and how they will be measured (eg. probability of persistence), BSUD enables decision makers to make transparent decisions about alternative, testable urban designs, justified by sound science.

A striped legless lizard. John Wombey, CSIRO/Wikimedia, CC BY

For example, in a hypothetical development example in western Melbourne, we were able to demonstrate that cat containment regulations were irreplaceable when designing an urban environment that would ensure the persistence of the nationally threatened striped legless lizard (Figure 3).

Figure 3. Keeping cats indoors greatly enhances other measures to protect and increase populations of the striped legless lizard. Author provided

What does a BSUD city look, feel and sound like?

Biodiversity sensitive urban design represents a fundamentally different approach to conserving urban biodiversity. This is because it seeks to incorporate biodiversity into the built form, rather than restricting it to fragmented remnant habitats. In this way, it can deliver biodiversity benefits in environments not traditionally considered to be of ecological value.

It will also deliver significant co-benefits for cities and their residents. Two-thirds of Australians now live in our capital cities. BSUD can add value to the remarkable range of benefits urban greening provides and help to deliver greener, cleaner and cooler cities, in which residents live longer and are less stressed and more productive.

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Read more: Why a walk in the woods really does help your body and your soul

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BSUD promotes human-nature interactions and nature stewardship among city residents. It does this through human-scale urban design such as mid-rise, courtyard-focused buildings and wide boulevard streetscapes. When compared to high-rise apartments or urban sprawl, this scale of development has been shown to deliver better liveability outcomes such as active, walkable streetscapes.

Mid-rise, courtyard-focused buildings and wide boulevard streetscapes created through a biodiversity sensitive urban design approach. Graphical representation developed by authors in collaboration with M. Baracco, C. Horwill and J. Ware, RMIT School of Architecture and Design, Author provided

By recognising and enhancing Australia’s unique biodiversity and enriching residents’ experiences with nature, we think BSUD will be important for creating a sense of place and care for Australia’s cities. BSUD can also connect urban residents with Indigenous history and culture by engaging Indigenous Australians in the planning, design, implementation and governance of urban renaturing.

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Read more: Why ‘green cities’ need to become a deeply lived experience

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What needs to change to achieve this vision?

While the motivations for embracing this approach are compelling, the pathways to achieving this vision are not always straightforward.

Without careful protection of remaining natural assets, from remnant patches of vegetation to single trees, vegetation in cities can easily suffer “death by 1,000 cuts”. Planning reform is required to move away from offsetting and remove obstacles to innovation in onsite biodiversity protection and enhancement.

In addition, real or perceived conflicts between biodiversity and other socio-ecological concerns, such as bushfire and safety, must be carefully managed. Industry-based schemes such as the Green Building Council of Australia’s Green Star system could add incentive for developers through BSUD certification.

Importantly, while BSUD is generating much interest, working examples are urgently required to build an evidence base for the benefits of this new approach.

Georgia Garrard, Senior Research Fellow, Interdisciplinary Conservation Science Research Group, RMIT University; Nicholas Williams, Associate Professor in Urban Ecology and Urban Horticulture, University of Melbourne, and Sarah Bekessy, Professor, RMIT University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Ten Lessons From Cities That Have Risen to the Affordable Housing Challenge

by Carolyn Whitzman, University of Melbourne; Katrina Raynor, University of Melbourne, and Matthew Palm, University of Melbourne, The Conversation: https://theconversation.com/ten-lessons-from-cities-that-have-risen-to-the-affordable-housing-challenge-102852

Vancouver (Shutterstock)

Imagine planning a public transport system for a large city by providing one bus at a time on one route that might serve a few dozen people (but nobody knows how many). That is what planning for housing affordability looks like in most Australian capital cities: innovative projects take years to develop and never get scaled up into a system.

Who can we learn from? In July, the lead author returned to three cities comparable to Melbourne that she visited in 2015 – Vancouver, Portland and Toronto – to re-interview key housing actors and review investment and policy changes over the past three years. All have big housing affordability problems, caused by a strong economy and 30 years of largely unregulated speculative housing. A lack of federal government involvement has exacerbated these problems.

But these four cities have recently developed very different approaches to housing systems planning, with increasingly divergent results. Toronto has gone backwards. Vancouver and Portland, though, are reaping the rewards of good metropolitan policy, from which we have drawn ten lessons for Melbourne.

Before we discuss these, let’s take stock of the affordable housing challenge in Melbourne.

Who needs affordable housing, and how much of it?

The Victorian state government has recently defined affordable housing incomes and price points for both Greater Melbourne and regional Victoria for households on very low (0-50% of median income), low (50-80%) and moderate (80-120%) incomes. It has enshrined “affordable housing” as an explicit aim in the Planning and Environment Act. Better protection for renters has also been developed.

These are great steps, but we need to go further in the next term of government.

The Australian government estimated that 142,685 lower-income renter households in Victoria were in housing stress in 2015-16. Over 30% and in many cases over 50% of their income was going to rent or mortgage payments.

Our research team at Transforming Housing has more recently calculated a deficit of 164,000 affordable housing dwellings. Over 90% of the deficit is in Greater Melbourne.

A simplified version of the price points necessary for households to avoid housing stress (one that leaves out household size and additional costs and risks of poorly located housing on the city fringe) looks like this:

Palm, Raynor & Whitzman (2018), Author provided

Affordable home ownership bears no resemblance to the current market in which the median unit price is well over $700,000. Median rents are affordable to many moderate-income households, at about $420 a week. Whether such housing is available, with a vacancy rate of less than 1%, is another issue, particularly for very low-income households.

The Victorian government has a metropolitan planning strategy that states the need for 1.6 million new dwellings between 2017 and 2050. That’s almost 50,000 new homes a year. Using the new definitions, we can calculate ideal ten-year new housing supply targets to meet the needs of all residents of Greater Melbourne.

Author provided

The biggest problem is not overall supply. In the six months from February to July 2018, there were 28,602 dwelling unit approvals in Greater Melbourne. At that rate there would be 572,040 new units by 2028, which is more than the total need projected by Plan Melbourne.

The problem is that the price points of these dwellings are beyond the means of 64% of households – 456,295 would need to be affordable, appropriately sized and located to meet most people’s needs. All too many will be bought as investments and remain vacant.

Plan Melbourne doesn’t provide targets for affordability, size or location. This is left to six sub-regions, each with four to eight local governments, which have not produced these reports in the 18 months since the plan was released.

Affordable housing targets that exist in state documents are woefully inadequate. Homes for Victorians has an overall target of 4,700 new or renovated social housing units over the five-year period 2017-22.

An inclusionary zoning pilot on government-owned land might yield “as many as” 100 social housing units in five years. Public housing renewal on nine sites is expected to yield at least a 10% uplift, or 110 extra social housing units, in return for sale of government land to private developers. This is certainly not maximizing social benefit.

What can we learn from Vancouver and Portland?

Although Vancouver has huge housing affordability issues, it has been able to scale up housing delivery for very low-income households – about 15 times as much social and affordable housing as Melbourne over the past three years. Both Vancouver and Portland have ambitious private sector build-to-rent programs, with thousands of new affordable rental dwellings near transport lines.

Both cities have influenced senior governments. Canada is investing C$40 billion (A$42.6b) over the next ten years in its National Housing Strategy.

In contrast, Toronto has had a net loss of hundreds of units of social housing. This is due to disastrous lack of leadership at local and state (provincial) levels.

Our new report highlights 10 lessons for the Victorian government:

1. Establish a clear and shared definition of “affordable housing”. Enabling its provision should be stated as a goal of planning. This has been done.
2. Calculate housing need. We have up-to-date calculations, broken down by singles, couples and other households, as well as income groups, in this report
3. Set housing targets. Ideally, you would want a target of 456,295 new units affordable to households on very low, low and moderate incomes. Both Infrastructure Victoria and the Everybody’s Home campaign have suggested a more attainable ten-year target: 30,000 affordable homes for very low and low-income people over the next decade. This would allow systems and partnerships between state and local government, investors and non-profit and private housing developers to begin to scale up to meet need.
4. Set local targets. The state government, which is responsible for metropolitan planning, should be setting local government housing targets, based on infrastructure capacity, and then helping to meet these targets (and improve infrastructure in areas where homes increase). We have developed a simple tool we call HART: Housing Access Rating Tool. It scores every land parcel in Greater Melbourne according to access to services: public transport, schools, bulk-billing health centres, etc.
5. Identify available sites. We have mapped over 250 government-owned sites, not including public housing estates, that could accommodate well over 30,000 well-located affordable homes, with a goal of at least 40% available to very low-income households. Aside from leasing government land for a peppercorn rent, which could cut construction costs by up to 30%, a number of other mechanisms could quickly release affordable housing. Launch Housing, the state government and Maribyrnong council recently developed 57 units of modular housing on vacant government land, linked to services for homeless people. The City of Vancouver and the British Columbia provincial government recently scaled up a similar pilot project to 600 dwellings built over six months.
6. Create more market rental housing. Vancouver has enabled over 7,000 well-located moderately affordable private rental apartments near transport lines in the past five years, using revenue-neutral mechanisms. Portland developers have almost entirely moved from speculative condominium development to more affordable build-to-rent in recent years.
7. Mandate inclusionary zoning. This approach, presently being piloted, could be scaled up to cover all well-located new developments. Portland recently introduced mandatory provision of 20% of new housing developments affordable to low-income households or 10% to very low-income households. If applied in Melbourne, this measure alone could meet the 30,000 target (but not the current 164,000 deficit or 456,295 projected need).
8. Dampen speculation at the high end of the market. This would help deal with the oversupply of luxury housing. Taxes on luxury homes, vacant properties and foreign ownership could help fund affordable housing.
9. Have one agency to drive these changes. The impact of an agency like the Vancouver Affordable Housing Agency is perhaps the most important lesson. The Victorian government has over a dozen departments and agencies engaged in some aspect of affordable housing delivery. We suggest repurposing the Victorian Planning Authority with an explicit mandate to develop and deliver housing affordability, size diversity and locational targets set by the next state government.
10. A systems approach is essential to build capacity. It will take time, coordination and political will for local governments to meet targets, non-profit housing providers to scale up delivery and management of social housing, private developers and investors to take advantage of affordability opportunities, and state government to plan for affordable housing. Eradicating homelessness and delivering affordable housing for all Victorians is possible. But it needs a systems approach.

Carolyn Whitzman, Professor of Urban Planning, University of Melbourne; Katrina Raynor, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Transforming Housing Project, University of Melbourne, and Matthew Palm, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Transforming Housing Research Network, University of Melbourne

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Systemic Thinking: The Primary Skill That Humanity Will Need as We Prepare for a Future That Will Not Be What It Used to Be

by Dick Rauscher, Resilience: https://www.resilience.org/stories/2018-08-23/systemic-thinking-the-primary-skill-that-humanity-will-need-as-we-prepare-for-a-future-that-will-not-be-what-it-used-to-be/

It’s hard to believe that this is my 300th blog post. It amazes me how fast the years seem to fly by when you’re doing something you enjoy doing; when that something feels important and meaningful!  Awakening our collective adult human consciousness and preparing for the changes that are coming, and the disruptive challenges those changes will create for all of us feels very important to me if our goal is the successful creation of a more just and sustainable world.

In this article, we will take a look at systemic thinking and the dangerous unconscious childhood illusion that each of us is a unique being independent and separate from the rest of reality.

We’re not.

But that unconscious childhood belief and the behaviors and actions that this unconscious childhood belief allows us to manifest in the world is clearly threatening the collapse of our planet’s life support system, the foundations of human civilization, and the very survival of humanity.

What we “do” matters. How we “think” matters.

Human Civilization Is At a “Fork” in the Road

Humanity is at a crossroads. We can continue “business as usual” and continue human civilization toward the precipice of collapse, or we can begin to prepare for the life-altering changes I will list below…the changes that are coming.

• Without preparation, those changes will threaten human civilization and life as we know it.
• Without preparation, the critically needed resilience that preparation creates will not happen.
• Without preparation, the changes that are coming will threaten human civilization and life as we know it.
• Without preparation, the resilience that will be needed for our survival will be seriously compromised.
• Without preparation and resilience, the level of courage and sacrifice that will be required for humanity to survive will be seriously compromised.

Unfortunately, our collective childhood illusion of separateness is keeping humanity from preparing for those changes. We fail to “see” the reality that we are intimately interconnected and interdependent on the life support system Nature has provided for us. We “know” it’s true. We simply choose not to dwell on it. We take it for granted… as if it is some form of entitlement that is somehow due to us simply because we exist.  

But denial is a very dangerous human trait… and the illusion of separateness is not helping us deal with the life altering-changes that are coming because they feel too big for any one person to solve. We assume that it’s better to just ignore reality because the changes that are coming feel too complex, too overwhelming, and too depressing to even think about. When denial takes over our consciousness, we find it all but impossible to believe that our small individual actions do matter… that they can spread like ripples through the whole web of life and reality.

Fortunately, there is a growing global community of people who believe they can make a difference.

The Growing Global Community That Embraces Realistic Hope

Fortunately, there are a growing number of people around the world who do believe in realistic hope. They believe we can adapt and survive the changes that are coming. They believe the survival of human civilization is worth fighting for. Their beliefs and actions reflect a deep sense of realistic hope for our planet. Regardless of how disruptive those change will be for human civilization, these folks believe that by working together, we can begin to prepare and build resilience into our lives… a resilience that will help them create a viable and sustainable future.

So, who are they?

They are folks that live in your community. They live in your neighborhood. Your town. They live in your city. They are all around you. They are the people who know that resilience and survival will require an openness to radical new ideas and new ways of thinking. They are the people who march, carry signs and demonstrate for the things they believe in. They are the folks who know we can’t solve the problems that are coming alone. They are the people who know the problems that we’ve created for ourselves, will never be solved if we continue to use the same thinking that initially created those problems.

(A quote attributed to Albert Einstein)

They are not blind to the realities that are coming. They are preparing for resilience and survival in a future they know will not be what it used to be. They know the future that is rapidly heading our way will change life as we know it. They know that preparation for the changes that are coming is absolutely essential for us if we are to successfully create the tough resilience that will be needed.

I am convinced these folks represent the future of humanity.   They not only have the ability to embrace a sense of realistic hope in the diversity and spirituality of wholeness reflected in nature, they also have the ability to think systemically… the two primary skills that human civilization will need if we are to survive the life-altering changes that are coming… sooner than most of us believe.

As this global community of everyday heroic folks continues to grow, I believe they will be fondly remembered by history as the heroic people who had the courage to unflinchingly face the threats that were coming; the possibility thinkers that had the visions that humanity needed to create a new and viable future; the folks that had the realistic hope and the faith that their actions would somehow matter.

The ability to embrace realistic hope is certainly one of the more important traits of those folks I refer to as “the future of humanity”. But I am concerned that realistic hope alone will not be enough to ensure our survival. Without the ability to combine realistic hope and action with wholeness and systemic “thinking”, effective preparation for resilience and the survival of humanity will be all but impossible.

So, let’s jump in and take a closer look at why I believe wholeness and systemic thinking are so vital for the future survival of our planet’s diverse ecological life support system, human civilization, and our human species in the coming decades.

The Importance of “Wholeness” And “Systemic Thinking”

I am convinced the importance and primacy of systemic thinking for the very survival of our species, and human civilization, cannot be overstated. So why is systemic thinking so important for our survival? Stated simply, systemic thinking is essentially “wholeness  thinking”; a big picture way of seeing the world that understands and embraces the radical interdependence and interconnectedness of all of reality. Systemic thinking embraces a deep spiritual focus on the wholeness and oneness of reality; a whole system way of thinking.

Complex systemic thinking replaces our current tendency to simply confine our focus on individual, isolated pieces and parts of reality. For example, we use this simplistic pieces and parts focus when we attempt to understand the depth and complexity of nature itself. Systemic thinking accepts the reality that all complex systems, including nature, are an interconnected set of individual parts that interact together to create a complex whole that is greater than the sum of the individual parts… and the complex whole is itself always a part of a larger complex whole. Scientists refer to this as holonic thinking.

Some examples of a complex system include the human body, nature, economic systems, political systems, environmental systems, human cultures, human civilization, global warming (including the storm intensification, droughts, flooding, forest fires, and other global warming impacts).

• Systemic thinking is the recognition that whatever affects one thing in a complex system ultimately affects everything else within the system.
• Systemic thinking is the ability to see the bigger picture, multiple perspectives, how things interact… the whole complex web of reality and all living things.
• Systemic thinking recognizes that problems that arise within complex systems are never solved by simple solutions.
• Systemic thinking rejects the notion that simple solutions can fix complex systemic problems.

Systemic thinkers “know” for example our world is far too complex, too interconnected, and too interdependent for anyone to fully understand its intricate diversity. When someone attempts to offer simple solutions to complex systemic problems, they are guilty of narcissistic hubris, or are simply reflecting the ignorance that is always created by inflexible ideological, black and white, either/or, thinking; a thought process that refuses to embrace the truths that always exist on both sides of every subject or issue.

Ideological thinkers insist that they have “the truth”, but they base that truth on a limited vision of reality. They fail to see the truths that are present when reality is embraced as a complex whole, not simply a focus on the separate, unconnected pieces and parts of reality.

Far too many of our politicians and policymakers, for example, appear unable to embrace the reality that they are dealing with complex, interconnected, interdependent systems. They appear unable to understand that the problems and changes that are coming, or have already arrived, represent breakdowns in extremely complex social, economic, political, environmental, and biological systems. They are unable to comprehend the reality that viable solutions to these problems will require complex systemic thinking and the ability to think in very long-time frames… in other words, far longer than their next political election.

To summarize the concepts discussed above, the changes, challenges, and problems threatening the future of human culture are all embedded in complex, interconnected systems… and they will never be solved by simple, short-term solutions! In fact, some of the “possible” solutions that will need to be implemented in order to deal with issues such as global warming… will require centuries… or longer. Nature can fix some of the problems and reverse the damage we have caused, but she moves in time frames far longer than individual lifetimes.

Our Collective Human Consciousness Is Addicted to Thinking in Pieces and Parts…. Not Middlepath Wholes

Unfortunately, our secular human culture celebrates separation, fragmentation, differentiation, specialization, individualism and independent autonomy; all of which require a narrow focus on individual, unconnected pieces and parts; not the “whole”. This is especially true for those who insist on using dualistic, black and white thinking that sees the world in simplistic either/or terms rather than a more complex both/and thinking.

As I’ve written about in past Stonyhill-Nugget articles, when we choose to ignore the truths on both sides of any complex issue (and all issues are complex) we are choosing to walk a path that leads toward intentional ignorance…….and dangerous conflict. The conflict and gridlock we see in Washington today have been created by politicians that simply fail to accept the reality that there are always truths on both sides of every issue. They choose to ignore the reality that to be viable, the path forward always has to be a compromise that acknowledges and incorporates the truths embedded on both sides of every issue.

Systemic thinking, or what I sometimes refer to as “middlepath thinking” attempts to connects previously unconnected things, or issues, in order to discover new pathways into the future. Middlepath, systemic thinking always attempts to integrate multiple perspectives, and intentionally searches for the truths embedded on both sides of all complex, conflicted issues.

For example, our global economic system is driven by individual “what’s in it for me” greed, profit, accumulation, wealth, success, power, and production. It’s an economic system in which those who profit from it (the multinational corporations and the 1%), choose to intentionally ignore its impact on the whole. Pollution, wealth inequality, over-consumption, environmental destruction, resource depletion, and waste remain outside their thinking or concern. They spend a lot of money to ensure that you and I remain focused on unlimited economic expansion, not the impact of that “unlimited economic expansion”.

On the other hand, capitalism has created the modern industrial world.

So, the issue is, how do we create a middlepath economic system that continues to help humanity move into the future, without replicating the problems and limitations of modern capitalism. That is one of the most important and complex issues that humanity will need to successfully address as we move into a future that will not be what it was. “Business as usual” capitalism as we know it, will not be part of our human future if human civilization and humanity are to survive.

Systemic Thinking “Will” Change Life as We Know It

There is currently very little real concern for the “whole” in human civilization. We give it lip service; we wring our hands over global warming, crippling growth in debt, extreme wealth inequality, and poverty. We agree that something needs to be done… by somebody… but our concern for the future comes to an end when we recognize that a real, compassionate, empathic focus on the “whole” implied in true systemic thinking would require major life-altering changes in the way we currently live our lives.

We are not yet willing to embrace the changes in lifestyle that walking our talk would require if we actually embraced and applied systemic thinking to the challenges that face us.

As I said above, our human civilization and human culture are standing at a fork in the road. We can continue “business as usual” and move into a future that is rapidly headed towards social collapse through…

• overpopulation (est. 11-12 billion people),
• an increasingly fragile and unsustainable global economic system based on greed and unlimited economic expansion on a finite and resource–limited planet,
• a growing level of global hunger and poverty,
• global warming and global climate change, which will require that we power down and radically simplify human civilization from its current dependence on petroleum and carbon energy, which will require learning to consume significantly less “stuff” than we do today,
• growing climate and storm intensification,
• increasing droughts, and famines,
• flooding,
• forest fires,
• an increasing number of climate immigrants,
• massive debt restructuring,
• a growing and dangerous global wealth inequality between the 1% and the commons (a primary historic cause of past “empire” collapse),
• growing air and water pollution and their related health impacts,
• ocean warming and acidification, and
• the inevitable destabilization and collapse of human civilization as we know it by ice melt and the rising ocean water levels and the massive climate migration and global relocation it will create.

In other words, given the above realities, it’s clear that business as usual is not an option.

Regardless of the economic system humanity designs to replace capitalism, this newly proposed alternative to “business as usual”; an economic system created in the crucible of wholeness and systemic thinking would open our hearts to a deeper compassion and empathy for the “whole”.  A “whole” that would include all the other people and life forms that we are interconnected, and interdependent with on this tiny planet we call our home.

We Are Not Separate from The Rest of Reality

In fact, our survival as a species is intimately dependent on and interconnected with all of our planets various life support systems, and all of the other living species that we share the planet with, and indirectly, the entire Universe. Without the reality of countless supernovas that have erupted in the Universe over the last 13.7 billion years, our planet would not exist. Life on our planet would not exist. You and I would not exist.

Our planet’s life support system includes the air we breathe, the water we drink, the organic soil that grows our food, and the biodiversity of our planet down to the smallest cells…….and if any of life support systems are compromised in any significant way, the ability for you and I to survive would also be compromised. We are an integral part of, not separate from, the complex life support system that Nature has created for us.

Stated simply, what happens to our planet will ultimately determine the survival of our human species. Global warming, pollution of our air and water, over-fishing, the acidity of our oceans, all matter. Nothing is independent from the rest of the reality that surrounds us. And that includes you and me.

Summary

Systemic thinking is simply the ability to embrace the interconnectedness and the interdependence of all of reality… but it will require that we change how we behave, how we live our lives, what we value, and who and what we include inside our compassion and empathy.

Separateness with the rest of reality, and the fragmentation of reality into isolated pieces and parts is deeply embedded in our bone marrow; a thinking that began in childhood. As children, our primitive ego conditioning was primarily focused on creating a “self”. We believed our “self” was a “self” separate from the rest of reality. As a result, the illusion of separateness is an unconscious childhood belief that very few of us are consciously aware of. We simply grew up believing it to be true. Until we have the courage to become intentionally self-aware of how we think, the illusion of separateness will remain buried in our unconscious.

Unfortunately, the illusion of separateness is one of the most dangerous illusions unconsciously accepted by almost all of our collective adult human consciousness. Reality is clear. We are not separate from the rest of reality. We are an integral part of the complex life support “system” we call nature. It’s time we awoke to that important reality and do the work of intentionally evolving our collective human ability to embrace “systems thinking” … because the illusion of separateness unconsciously embedded in human thinking is rapidly compromising nature’s ability to support life on our planet.

Our collective human unconscious illusion of separateness is a primary source of conflict and violence in the world. The whole concept of “other” is an extremely dangerous illusion embedded in our unconscious childhood conditioning. The reality is there is no such thing as “other”. Other is a meaningless concept. There is only “we/us” interconnected and interdependent on all the rest of reality.

So when we choose to intentionally embrace systemic thinking, and embrace the wholeness of reality, it “will” require a radical, and deeply personal willingness to intentionally change how we act, and how we behave, in our day to day lives. This is not a philosophic endeavor. I am convinced the future survival of human civilization and humanity itself will depend on how successful we are in changing the adult human consciousness from our current what’s in it for “me” thinking, to a more enlightened focus on the impact our life choices and behaviors will have on the “whole”. And the whole I’m referring to is the whole complex interconnected, interdependent world of “we and us”.

We are an invasive species on this planet. And biological history is clear. Nature deals with invasive species through a process called extinction. I see nothing that would support the concept that we are somehow a “special” species that will manage to escape that fate.

Conclusion

You and I are not separate from the rest of reality.  Nothing exists in isolation. Nothing! Parts always dwell inside larger wholes, and the larger wholes are themselves parts of even larger parts or wholes. Nothing and no-one is separate from this simple reality… everything is an integral part of a larger whole or holon. Everything and every form of life on our planet is intimately dependent, and interconnected, with the larger wholes they are part of. This is why small changes in a complex system can result in massive unintended consequences!!!

When we talk about living a sustainable life, it means we acknowledge that we are intricately interconnected, and interdependent on all of nature and the life support systems of our planet. Sustainability will not happen without systemic thinking. A wholeness thinking that acknowledges that nothing, including ourselves, exists in isolation from the larger wholes that we are part of.

Let me say it as clearly as possible. Creating sustainability on our planet will be achieved only when systemic thinking… the ability to see the interconnected and interdependent wholeness of reality has successfully entered the collective human consciousness.

To think in complex, systemic, interconnected, holonic perspectives and talk about living sustainable lives, we are acknowledging that

• nothing is simple.
• there is always truth on both sides of every issue!!!
• we have to avoid simplistic, black and white thinking.
• we have to look for the interconnections!!!
• we have to be an independent, critical thinker!!
• we are called to do our own thinking, not simply accept the opinions of others as “truth”.
• we need to keep asking questions and digging deeper. To think systemically. To embrace other points of view. To dig deeper in order to understand for yourself how things work, and how they are interconnected, and intertwined.

The result of this systemic approach to reality is called wisdom. And a sustainable world will not be possible until this kind of wisdom has entered the collective consciousness of humanity. 

Taming the primitive ego of its childhood illusion of separateness will happen only through the spiritual practice of intentional self-awareness. Systemic thinking is a powerful spiritual practice into the wholeness of nature, and the simple reality that all things are interconnected and interdependent.

Otherness is a dangerous unconscious illusion born in the childhood conditioning of humanity. It births hatred, violence, conflict, and is nurtured in the silence of separateness. It is the destroyer of community, cooperation, empathy, compassion, and love. It thrives in the darkness of isolation and tribalism.

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A Personal Note to My Readers

Thanks for hanging in there and reading to the bottom of this long article. I am hopeful that you are beginning to see why I believe middlepath, systemic thinking is so critical to the future survival of human civilization and our human species.

Only through systemic thinking and preparation for the changes that are coming will we create the resilience and wisdom that will be needed to survive those changes and the life-altering challenges they will create. Challenges that will impact our lives and change human civilization as we know it.

Can humanity change enough to embrace systemic thinking? Many will laugh and say it’s not possible, that it’s ridiculous to think that our world could change that much. Perhaps they are right.

But what I do know is that the changes that threaten human civilization are coming. If you doubt that statement, take another look at the list above. We can’t stop the threats embedded in that list in time to avoid the massive challenges they will create for us.

If we are to survive, we will need to embrace systemic thinking and the compassionate, cooperative, interdependent, sense of community that whole focus, systemic thinking will create.

Only whole systems and middlepath thinking will increase our ability to cooperate with the needs and points of view of others.

The challenges that are coming will be more intense than you or I as individuals will be capable of dealing with alone. Survival will require the skills needed to be a compassionate, functioning part of a community that is interconnected and interdependent. We need to become part of the community I described above as “the future of humanity”. The more of us that are willing to join that community, the better our chances of creating a viable, sustainable human future. 

Going it alone will not be an option.

In the next Stonyhill-Nugget of this “what if” series of articles, we will look at the changes that are coming in more depth and explore more of the personal skills that we will need to cope with those changes.

We will continue to explore the simple reality that the life you are living has not always been the life that others lived. For example, we are living in an energy-rich world that has been created by a non-renewable “pulse” of petroleum. But that petroleum is rapidly running out, becoming rapidly unsustainable, and polluting our world.

In this universe, things will change. The world we take for granted today will not exist tomorrow. Human civilization is a complex, ever-changing system. Therefore, don’t pour concrete on the way you see the world! It won’t be around that long!  

Learn to embrace change… it’s coming whether we are open to it or not!!!! Learn to prepare for a future that is different than the one we are currently living, and think more systemically about the long-term consequences of our current actions.

Remember… the changes and challenges that are coming…are not the end of the world!! They simply represent the end of life as we know it. If we can embrace those changes and prepare for the impact they will have on human civilization, the possibility for humanity to create a resilient, high quality of life in that new future, is significant.

Introducing CitizENGAGE: How Citizens Get Things Done

by Open Government Partnership: https://www.opengovpartnership.org/stories/introducing-citizengage-how-citizens-get-things-done

MAYOR CARLOS GIMÉNEZ LEADS THE MUNICIPAL DEVELOPMENT COUNCIL

In a world full of autocracy, bureaucracy, and opacity, it can be easy to feel like you’re fighting an uphill battle against these trends.

Trust in government is at historic lows. Autocratic leaders have taken the reins in countries once thought bastions of democracy. Voter engagement has been declining around the globe for years.

Despite this reality, there is another, powerful truth: citizens are using open government to engage in their communities in innovative, exciting ways, bringing government closer and creating a more inclusive system.

These citizens are everywhere.

In Costa Rica, they are lobbying the government for better and fairer housing for indigenous communities.

In Liberia, they are bringing rights to land back to the communities who are threatened by companies on their traditional lands.  

In Madrid, they are using technology to make sure you can participate in government - not just every four years, but every day.

In Mongolia, they are changing the face of education and healthcare services by empowering citizens to share their needs with government.

In Paraguay, hundreds of municipal councils are hearing directly from citizens and using their input to shape how needed public services are delivered.

These powerful examples are the inspiration for the Open Government Partnership’s (OGP) new global campaign to CItizENGAGE.  The campaign will share the stories of citizens engaging in government and changing lives for the better.

CitizENGAGE includes videos, photo essays, and impact stories about citizens changing the way government is involved in their lives. These stories talk about the very real impact open government can have on the lives of everyday citizens, and how it can change things as fundamental as schools, roads, and houses.

We invite you to visit CitizENGAGE and find out more about these reforms, and get inspired. Whether or not your government participates in OGP, you can take the lessons from these powerful stories of transformation and use them to make an impact in your own community.

It’s time to open up. It’s time to change. It’s time to engage.