January 4, 2012
We issue environmental blurbs like many of our posts because those leading a normal life can’t keep up with the state of the earth. Full time environmentalists can’t keep up either.
Compression refers to squeezing human consumption back within the limits of a finite earth supporting it. Compression also refers to the mental squeeze coping with the complexity of our world. (Has anybody combed word-for-word through a prospectus lately?)
The objective of Compression Thinking is simple enough: Improve quality of life while drastically reducing our consumption of natural resources and eliminating the use of known toxins.
While these objectives are simple, they clash with business orthodoxy and maybe human instinct to “grow.” Industry affected will scream that it’s the end of the world.
And it is the end of the world we know – but not the end of the world. It’s the beginning of new human challenges. Ingenuity coping with Compression presumes ability to integrate a greatly expanded scope of factors into our thinking – a different kind of complexity trying to make systems simpler instead of bigger and woollier.
The missing link is seeing how we can live in a world in Compression by doing things that are dramatically different locally. Global issues are the sum of local issues.
So to that end, we are looking for volunteer pioneers in local learning action groups. A bigger push on this is starting within weeks.
To help, we’ve added two other advisors: Frank Dixon who has a strong finance background and is coming out with a book that embellishes the book Compression, and Ashwani Vasishth, who is Director of the Masters Program in Sustainability Studies at Ramapo College in New Jersey and is a partner in developing our certificate program.
Hope to hear from you.