Dear Partner,
In daily life we belong to our constitutions, to strategic plans, to budgets, to established frames of reference and applied models of political and economic behaviour. W&W allows us to, in parallel, move to another space; a space as open as vague, as nebulous, as uncertain, as only our imagination allows us. W&W offers a model where we can each have conversations with ourselves, each free to debate with our self on what could be instead of what is. Doubt is a useful exercise. It is even richer when shared with others taking the same journey, and we thank those who have joined us at the sessions to date.
The first two workshops on planetary boundaries and on the failure of global governance gave us one fundamental conclusion: We are facing problems for which we do not have solutions at our disposal.
The escalating amount of scientific evidence and personal observations confirm that the complex and interdependent network of eco-systems are in a rapid process of destabilization. The scientists are sharpening their diagnoses. They are also sharpening their forecasts of how the ailments of the earth’s systems could play out. However, we lack “Earth system therapists”, and those therapies that have been clinically tested and proven to restabilize ecological conditions and eco-systems’ effectiveness. The medical profession has thousands of years of accumulated knowledge and therapeutically experiences. Earth systems science is about a hundred years old and still very immature. It challenges our human capacity to deal with complexity on a large scale and reveals our governance systems as not only inadequate but part of the disease.
Humanity has in blind faith given priority to economic productivity over eco-systems’ effectiveness. Naively, we have assumed that natural resources of any kind were limitless and not interdependent. We have consciously ignored all evidence to the contrary.
Our economic and political models applied through centuries were not based on systems understanding or a true desire for equity. The organizing principle of governance has been sovereignty over territory, national independence and defence of national interests. The history of formal global eco-systems management told by Ambassador Engfeldt at the Global Governance Workshop ended in a dire and pessimistic conclusion. Despite all the efforts over the last 60 years, with over 500 international agreements, three major
The upcoming
Defining the point of departure of Whence & Whither in these terms will generate a number of important questions to address in our future activities.
An important next step is the workshop on the central role of the financial systems in enabling change – through freeing up investment in the “untested therapies” for stabilising the global environment. However, we have had to delay this until we find a date where our desired top experts will be available – and will announce this as soon as possible.
On 15 December we will discuss “the meaning of security” in this context, in January we discuss “Interconnectedness”, and early February will be the conversation on Economy. More details follow. We are also starting to stage and record the hearings. Please visit the website to read the first two reports, and more information on the project planning.
The Project Team
Rebecca, Alexander, Bo and Joanna
