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Blindspots - what is being missed? The world's response to major problems is defined by not seeing these blindspots. This is why most major problems keep getting worse. Local, national and international movements to address this are well intentioned but mask a world-wide state of inertia that is now tipping into states of emergency. The worst effects of this may still be avoidable if people are capable of a response defined instead by seeing blindspots. Blindspot #2: The possibility that as a global society we are set to fail. The world prefers not to think how bad things could get or how fast this could happen or how soon. It is assumed that unsustainability can keep on going on and only really affect others. Blindspot #3: The possibility that global failure scenarios can be prevented. The world imagines that sustainability is a long slow jouney into the unknown. The potential for quickly switching to a reversal of all major problems remains unexplored. Blindspot #4: The indivisibility of all major problems. The world finds it more convenient to 'manage' problems separately with different experts and departments looking at problems largely in isolation. Considering problems as a whole is assumed to be too hard. Blindspot #5: Non-obvious causes. For example the world sees climate change being 'caused' by emissions and driven by economic growth. Simplistic pro and anti-growth arguments ignore how both growth and emissions cuts could be supported by re-examining causes. Blindspot #6: Systems. The world seeks to constrain systems (such as the economy) that don't seem to be working, rather than to redesign them. This doesn't solve the original problems (such as climate change) but it does bring extra unintended problems. Blindspot #7: Complexity. Global complexity is infinite and cannot be 'managed' by trying to follow and predict the detail of every impact of unsustainability. However nature's complexity is managed by nature and the complexity of unsustainable impacts only applies so long as we run an unsustainable society. Blindspot #8: The 'conveyor belt' of resources moving from nature to products to wastes. In talking about efficiency or economic growth people consider the speed of this conveyor but not whether joining up the ends (to make resource cycles) would be better for economic growth, problem prevention and co-operative values. Blindspot #9: The potential of a 'circular economy' to create wealth whilst preventing problems. Practically all attempts to make things better within the historical 'linear economy' are futile. Accumulations of wealth and local examples of sustainable practice would be wiped out by a global failure. Blindspot #10: How to provide for a switch to fully sustainable corporate, national and local decision-making without telling people what to do. The tools to do this are here but humanity's blindspots makes them easy to miss. This presents a challenge to all who seek a safe and stable future. Will we see them in time? Want a world that works? Return to: top of page, home page, BlindSpot reviews, BlindSpot tools. | |
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