2020people co-creating a sustainable world

2020people.com aims to evolve the process of innovation itself. I feel that decision making is often of a very poor quality even when all participants have the best of intentions and no matter how inclusive the process I am not confident that organisations such as government, NGOs and businesses identify, define and analyse problems competently, work to understand causes, effects and the root of the issues, linkages to other problems and positive and negative feedback loops.

Wake Up, Freak Out – then Get a Grip - is a wonderful 10 minute film which explains systemic climate failure and its consequences.
http://wakeupfreakout.org/film/tipping.html

On September 23rd this year we mark an unfortunate milestone: As of today, humanity will have consumed all the new resources the planet will produce this year, according to Global Footprint Network calculations. For the rest of 2008, we will be in the ecological equivalent of deficit spending, drawing down our resource stocks  in essence, borrowing from the future.

I came across an article today which I think embodies many of the assumptions and myths I believe underpin some of the wretched state the human world is in at this time.

The article begins:
Tribal war drove human evolution of aggression

Wars are costly in terms of lives and resources so why have we fought them throughout human history? In modern times, states may fight wars for a number of complex reasons. But in the past, most tribal wars were fought for the most basic resources: goods, territory, and women.

"It has been used time and again to justify stealing indigenous peoples' lands, privatizing health care and other social services, giving corporations 'tradable permits' to pollute the air and water, and much more."

http://www.socialistproject.ca/bullet/bullet133.html

Copied in full here:

The Myth of the Tragedy of the Commons
by Ian Angus

Sir Martin Reees, Pres of The Royal Society holds 50% probability of human extinction this century (Our Final Century).

Democracy Now 17Jul08

There’s one issue that President Bush and presidential hopefuls John McCain and Barack Obama all agree on: expanding the use of nuclear power. We speak with Amory Lovins, the co-founder, chairman and chief scientist of Rocky Mountain Institute in Colorado, who has been described as “one of the Western world’s most influential energy thinkers.” [includes rush transcript]
Amory Lovins, co-founder, chairman and chief scientist of Rocky Mountain Institute in Colorado.

Rush Transcript

On the 22nd December, 1964, Captain Henry Kerby, MP, placed the following Motion before the House of Commons.

THE EMISSION OF ALL THE MEANS OF EXCHANGE

1. HE THINKS THAT MONEY IS CREATED BY THE GOVERNMENT, THROUGH THE MINT AND THE BANK OF ENGLAND, AND IT CONSISTS LARGELY OF NOTES AND COINS.

FACT – Only 3% of money is in the form of notes and coins created by the government.

2. HE BELIEVES THAT WHEN BANKS LEND MONEY THEN THE MONEY WHICH IS BORROWED IS THAT WHICH OTHER BANK CUSTOMERS HAVE DEPOSITED.