Hi Alex here. How can we help people understand how important sustainability
is
in a good in useful way? Well one of the things
I use is a funnel metaphor to illustrate the fact that there is no better time
than now
to act on sustainability. So let's get drawing!
In the previous video about our ecological footprint
we found out that the Earth's capacity to provide what we need
is declining. There are fewer forests and fish today
that there were a hundred years ago and this affects the ability of the planet
to supply what we call 'ecosystem services' things that are necessary to
support life
and on which we rely like climate regulation,
water filtration, soil generation and so on.
At the same time the race at which we consume resources
and generate waste is going up
but that's not all this is not only about offer and demand
growing consumer awareness makes consumer
expect new behavior from corporations and governments
governments are changing laws
there are getting stricter, trust between people is declining
prices are going up, abuse of power
leads to growing inequality around the world resulting in more social tension
the world's population is growing et cetera
et cetera all in all there's more and more pressure
on individuals, communities and businesses
It looks like all these trends are converging right?!
and we don't want to see what happens if
or when they meet. It is as if we were going forward in the funnel
the pressure is increasing over time and we have less and less margin to maneuver
so everybody has their own pet issue
maybe it's an environmental one save the forests,
save the whales, stop climate change or maybe
the issue in the social one: deal with the gap between rich and poor
get children off the streets, changing public policy,
create more jobs et cetera. The fact is
all these issues are related to the key issue of sustainability
our capacity to survive and thrive as a race
and they all impact our ability to live, work and play on planet Earth
There isn't one business or person I know
doesn't feel these pressures one way or another that's why the funnel metaphor
is helpful in explaining why we should act around sustainability
we need to relieve the pressure. There are hundreds of examples of countries
and businesses hitting the wall to the funnel, some recovered
like Nike after core labour practices in sweatshops were exposed by
Greenpeace
some did not like the Easter Island civilization
that collapsed after destroying their own environment, some are still trying to
recover
such as Greece or the city of Detroit
who are facing bankruptcy. The funnel metaphor
also suggests something else: there is no better time to
act then now. Waiting only limits
our options even more. So
when someone asks "how do I help people understand how important sustainability
is in a good and useful way?" consider
the funnel metaphor. What we we need to do is stop the convergence
all those pressures and find a way through then ideally
begin to 'open the funnel' and to create a resilient,
fulfilling society that can thrive within nature's limits. As
usual here are the key points:
pressure on society, individuals, businesses and communities
increases over time; there is no better time to act
that now, the more we wait the less margin to maneuver;
and the funnel metaphor can be useful to help people understand how important
sustainability is
and that we need to find a way through and ideally 'open the funnel'
So I will bring more videos about how to make sustainability relevant for your
audience
so stay tuned and thank you for watching