Wide View and Natural Steps
March 30, 2008
Peter Salonius is a soil microbiologist with the Canadian Forestry Service. I recently received from Mr. Salonius some information to post on nextparadigm. The first is an article written in 1998 called Population Growth in Canada and the United States: A Role For Scientists
In the article, Mr. Salonius makes the point that part of the reason for lack of progress on many of our current ecological problems is a result of fragmentation within the scientific community, with each discipline focused on a small subset of the larger problem. Also, he argues that the time has come for scientists to become actively involved in the political process.
I’d add to these points that it is in the public’s benefit to become more aware of the larger set of problems and how they are related to and influence each other. Also, I think it is important for people to become engaged with the political process by doing more than just voting.
The danger of course is that by focusing on too broad of a spectrum of issues people become overwhelmed and too discouraged to take any action. Which would be extremely unfortunate as the actions of an individual or small group focused on a single problem can produce fantastic results.
Case in point, I have just finished reading David Suzuki’s “The Sacred Balance” (which I heartily recommend). In the final chapter Suzuki relates the story of Karl-Henrick Robert, a Swedish doctor specializing in cancer. Robert came to realize that many of the cancer patients he treated were sick because of environmental causes. Robert also seemed to realize that fragmentation in the environmentalist movement was counter-productive. In his own words…
up to now, much of the debate over the environment has had the character of monkey chatter amongst the withering leaves of a dying tree - the leaves representing specific isolated problems … very few of us have been paying attention to the environment’s trunk and branches. They are deteriorating as a result of processes about which there is little or no controversy; and the thousands of individual problems that are the subject of so much debate are, in fact, manifestations of systemic errors that are undermining the foundations of society.
Robert took it upon himself to draft a document to be reviewed by 50 of Sweden’s top scientists. After 21 iterations of this document, he finally had a consensus. The document outlines Robert’s “Natural Step” ideas and has been endorsed by the king of Sweden, is taught in all Swedish schools, has been adopted as policy by more than 50 corporations and has spread around the world to other countries including Canada, The United States, Britain and Australia. Robert’s Natural step consists of 4 key ideas:
- Nature cannot withstand a systematic buildup of dispersed matter mined from the Earth’s crust (minerals, oil, etc).
- Nature cannot withstand a systematic buildup of persistent compounds made by humans (pcb’s etc).
- Nature cannot withstand a systematic deterioration of its capacity for renewal (harvesting fish faster than they can be replenished, converting fertile land to desert).
- Therefore, if we want to continue, we must (a) be efficient in our use of resources and (b) promote justice - because ignoring poverty will lead the poor, for short-term survival, to destroy resources (e.g., the rain forests) that we all need for long-term survival.
A broad view helps get to the root of the problem so that not only are symptoms addressed, but the fundamental causes of the problems can also be understood and dealt with.
I think Robert’s Natural Step is an outstanding example of a wide vision without becoming overwhelmingly complex.
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