[OSList] OST as a way to go in addressing climate change and other perils

Mon Feb 18 17:51:43 PST 2019

Wonderful questions.  There are some wonderful people who have done
interesting research in and around this issue of paradigm change. Their
voices are not invited onto the national network chat shows. They are not
interviewed on TV or radio. Newspaper editors do not include them. Is it
possible to convene marginalized voices in OST to generate some real new
knowledge?

Has any paradigm ever changed from the center? Is it not the edgewalkers
and outsiders who bring change to systems?

Here are some marginalized views to consider.

Jared Diamond posits a useful theory about why elite decision makers and
their "vassals" fail to respond to the signals about ecological degradation
caused by the dominant economic practices.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IESYMFtLIis

   - He seems to say the pressure to keep up on obligations to elites keeps
   everybody running in place and not responding to what becomes obvious.
   - He asks the question how is it that the last tree was cut down on the
   Easter Islands?
   - It turns out other civilizations degraded their ecology and collapsed,
   mostly due to overusing water for intensive agriculture to support vast
   civilizations supporting urban division of labor.
   - The North African breadbasket for Rome may have been one such place.
   Mesopotamia, once a fertile crescent is now a dry land, salt water invited
   in by the removal of the ground water. There is a pattern here.

Another wonderful voice who links debts to the race to the bottom "lower
limit morality" because economic actors need to "avoid bankruptcy" in the
current system as it is is Karl Homann. The economic actors may wish to do
something different ethically, but they are compelled to play along or face
destitution.

http://www.wcge.org/download/DP_2006-5_Homann_-_The_Sense_and_Limits_of_the_Economic_Method_in_Business_Ethics_o.pdf

https://www.wcge.org/images/wissenschaft/publikationen/DP_2006-4_Homann_-_Competition_and_Morality_o.pdf

In our modern world, we might look carefully at the financial balance
sheets that force firms, families, individuals (and most of us) to continue
on in our daily economic activities in the fossil fuel age without
stopping. And, even resisting losing our place in the hierarchy.

The major stake shareholders of fossil fuel corporations are also
cross-shareholders of banks. They aren't in a position to pull credit from
their fossil fuel assets only to bankrupt themselves.

There's been 40 years for them to do so. We see only small projects, and
mostly in countries where fossil fuel owners are not politically powerful.
Denmark, Germany show it can be done. But those are not economies dominated
by corporate stocks like BP, Exxon, Chevron, Halliburton, etc. and the
banks who have $Bs in credit lines extended to them for decades. And,
cross-shareholdings at the apex of control.

Instead of diving into the opportunity for a new industry with potential
for ever rising EROEI, what we have seen is tremendous efforts to stop the
tide, create confusion in the public about climate change, and continue
with ever harder drilling and coal removal despite obviously diminishing
energy returns on energy investment and moribund economies in the West
stuck on fossil fuel infrastructure.

Tim Jackson wrote recently about diminishing EROEI as the explanation for
our stagnating economies in US, EU, etc.
https://www.cusp.ac.uk/themes/aetw/wp12/#1475182667098-0328ae0f-4bcb3691-b07686d5-d83f5228-4386

These views are not part of the voices in the dominant discourse. They are
counter-narrative voices, marginalized by the academy, journals, and media.

There is also a lot of brain science about denial of in VUCA situations.
Rebecca Costa wrote about this in The Watchman's Rattle. We the collective
operate from a place of denial and dissociation, evidently.  Elites (and
their "vassals") operate from a place of repaying their debts so not to
bankrupt themselves.  Everyone knows it needs to change.  Nobody can see
the solution because it means stepping out of the looking glass, breaking
through the coloring book lines, changing systems for which we have no
vocabulary words, and raising taboos.

On Mon, Feb 18, 2019 at 7:52 PM R Chaffe via OSList <
oslist at lists.openspacetech.org> wrote:

> Alan,
> It is time for us to think why has the system rejected action on dealing
> with human influences on climate?
>
> I suggest that we might think of the opportunities ie money making things
> for the greedy,  that the current and projected climate in our area of
> operation?
>
> Somehow the wider community needs to face the current reality.  So far
> there have been a suite of threats thrown at the community with very few
> opportunities apparently.
>
> The ABC (National Public Broadcasting organisation in Australia) reported
> that based on the current investment over 60% of reticulated power will
> come from wind farms.  Some people have read the tea leaves and invested
> heavily in wind power as the area in Victoria covered by very high voltage
> distribution power lines just happen to pass through an area where
> increased wind is predicted in some of the new climate models.  Good news
> and who knows and who cares?
>
> I am sure there must be similar stories around the world, might we use
> this list the make March a celebration of things being done to make the
> best sustainable use of the current climate and reduce green house waste?
>
> We then could use our shared experience to validate positive action to
> work with nature and reduce our pollution and unsustainable practices!
>
> What do you think?
>
> Regards
> Rob
>
> On 19 Feb 2019, at 10:36 am, Alan Stewart via OSList <
> oslist at lists.openspacetech.org> wrote:
>
>  G’day Fellow Spaceniks and other Kindred Spirits
>
> The items below may be of interest to you.
>
> They are about the looming perils of climate change and associated ways to
> consider and act on them, recently come to my attention.
>
> I have followed such matters keenly since I attended a presentation by James
> Hansen
> <https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/jun/19/james-hansen-nasa-scientist-climate-change-warning>
> while living in Hong Kong a decade ago.
>
>
> My question: Could bringing *Open Space Technology (OST
> <https://openspaceworld.org/wp2/>*) approaches be a vital means to
> address constructively the issues we face as global humanity in the now
> *Anthropocene* with its perils and opportunities?
>
> See:
>
> *Opinion | Time to Panic - The New York Times
> <https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/16/opinion/sunday/fear-panic-climate-change-warming.html>*
>
>
>
> *Using Open Space to address climate change matters*
>
> *https://jembendell.wordpress.com/2019/02/08/deep-adaptation-retreat-uk-2019/
> <https://jembendell.wordpress.com/2019/02/08/deep-adaptation-retreat-uk-2019/>*
>
>
>
> *We need to have a paradigm shift in how we view society and life.*
>
>
> *https://americanminion.blog/2018/12/16/we-need-a-paradigm-shift/
> <https://americanminion.blog/2018/12/16/we-need-a-paradigm-shift/>*
>
> *Also:     **Fourth National Climate Change Assessment*
> <https://nca2018.globalchange.gov/#sf-1>
>
>
> <https://nca2018.globalchange.gov/#sf-1>(To add:  Here is a report,
> entitled
> <http://www.multimindsolutions.com/?page_id=41&preview=true&preview_id=41&preview_nonce=1f89ef96f3>*Vision,
> Values and Vibes* <http://www.multimindsolutions.com/?page_id=41> which
> illustrates my credentials as a Spacenik!)
>
>
>
>
> *Tall orders indeed*! Yet are there any means at hand other than *OST
> <https://openspaceworld.org/wp2/>* with its underpinning premises and
> highly practical approaches to addressing complex issues - now needed
> urgently to create a viable living for succeeding generations of we humans
> and other inhabitants of our tiny, fragile planet home?
>
> With young people, particularly school children, crying out for necessary
> action:
>
>
> https://www.euronews.com/2019/02/07/this-is-the-climate-generation-thousands-of-students-join-netherlands-protest
>
> Next such events are happening all around Australia on March 15, 2019.
>
>
> *To conclude:*
>
> While I feel a need and associated responsibility – given the particular
> experiencing I have had over nigh on eight decades of being an earthly
> denizen (including participating in seven 'World Open Space on Open Space'
> gatherings, beginning in 1998) - to bring these perspectives to your notice
> …
>
> It is, in my mind, for you younger *Spaceniks* to make what you will of
> them. Given that what I have drawn attention to here is likely only another
> way of expressing what you are already aware of.
>
> Bearing in mind that,  as with great works of art, "Which cannot be taken
> in at a glance" *Linguist I.A. Richards*, so it will be in your grand
> adventuring ahead.
>
> Looking forward, indeed.👍
>
>
>
> *Al  *
>
> Al (formerly Alan) Stewart, PhD
> Process Artist
> Facilitator of conversations that matter and participatory fun
>
> Senior Fulbright Scholar
>
> Blog:  www.conversare.net
>
> Member:  American Society for Cybernetics <http://asc-cybernetics.org/>
>
> *Member: **National Trouble Makers Union* <http://www.ntmu.com.au/>
>
>
> *Residence: Adelaide, South Australia, since 1975 With time away in the
> USA (1981) and Hong Kong (2005-2011)  *
>
> *_________________________________*
>
>
>
> *"Whenever we treat each other well good things happen." Al Stewart*
>
>
> PS. If you feel in need of inspiration, you may wish to look out for  -
> perhaps through your local library - a book of photographs entitled* 'The
> Family of Man'. *"The greatest photographic exhibition of all time ..."
>
> This was published in the early 1950s. And was subsequently exhibited in
> many countries. I saw one of these, at age 14, in what is now Harare in
> Zimbabwe. It had a profound influence on me.
>
> You may also find this little story
> <http://www.multimindsolutions.com/?page_id=537>to be uplifting. ☺
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> OSList mailing list
> To post send emails to OSList at lists.openspacetech.org
> To unsubscribe send an email to OSList-leave at lists.openspacetech.org
> To subscribe or manage your subscription click below:
> http://lists.openspacetech.org/listinfo.cgi/oslist-openspacetech.org
> Past archives can be viewed here:
> http://www.mail-archive.com/oslist@lists.openspacetech.org
>
> _______________________________________________
> OSList mailing list
> To post send emails to OSList at lists.openspacetech.org
> To unsubscribe send an email to OSList-leave at lists.openspacetech.org
> To subscribe or manage your subscription click below:
> http://lists.openspacetech.org/listinfo.cgi/oslist-openspacetech.org
> Past archives can be viewed here:
> http://www.mail-archive.com/oslist@lists.openspacetech.org
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.openspacetech.org/pipermail/oslist-openspacetech.org/attachments/20190218/03283845/attachment.html>