Living Your Purpose in the Social Age by Simon Inglis

Author:Simon Inglis
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Kultcha
Published: 2018-02-27T16:18:23+00:00

INTERCONNECTIVITY

The Tipping Points driving environmental instability are interconnected. By changing the conditions in one ecosystem, you affect ecosystems in other parts of the world.

Paul taught Simon how to observe the interactions between different parts of different systems, enabling him to draw relevant connections. Paul taught Simon about the butterfly effect: where one action in one part of the planet can have adverse consequences in another part of the world.

The story of separation says, “I am separate from you and we are separate from the earth and our actions do not matter.”

To transcend this sense of separation, Simon allowed himself to feel sadness and depression at how industrial systems are destroying the planet.

Simon needed to feel the pain of the what was happening to the Arctic, the Amazon, and the Great Barrier Reef in-order-to connect with what was important to him. This cleared the space for him to take on more perspective and to change his behavior.

In his book ‘Reason in a Dark Time’, Dale Jamieson highlights the severe perils of climate breakdown and why we have, up until now, failed to do anything about it.

Jamieson sets out seven concrete ways to deal with climate breakdown. With all of its non-linearity, climate breakdown poses a threat on a scale humans have yet to comprehend. Simon considered how climate policy – or lack thereof – is an example of interconnectivity in action.

Integrate adaptation with development

Developing countries have done the least to cause climate breakdown, yet they will be the most affected. The Millennium Development Goals focused on eliminating poverty, yet failed to link the needs of developing countries with climate breakdown.

Meanwhile, developed countries have failed to comprehend the climate crisis in the context of growing inequality. No climate mitigation policy is complete without also addressing developing countries in South America, Africa, and Asia.

Conserve, regenerate, grow carbon sinks and value the environment

Almost one-third of carbon emissions come from poor land use, such as deforestation.The industrial model of short-term growth allows governments and corporations to decimate tropical rainforests for profit, the costs of which are externalized for future generations to bear.

Use full-cost accounting for the lifecycle of a unit of energy

Full-cost accounting must span the cycle of producing and consuming a unit of energy. This includes the extraction of raw materials, processing, manufacturing and transportation, as well as waste disposal and recycling.

Up until now, it has been too easy for corporations to dodge full-cost accounting because the metrics have been too vague. Regulators must enforce companies to take ownership of the full-cost of energy throughout its lifecycle.

Increase the costs of emitting Greenhouse Gases to a level that reflects their costs

There are two ways this can be done, including:

Cap-and-trade: setting a ceiling on emissions and allowing companies to trade permissions on the market.

Carbon taxes: fixing the price for carbon emissions, which governments then capture and reuse for ‘greening’ projects or renewable energy.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.