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Thinking Sustainably ? Ecological Thinking
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by Kathryn Alexander
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Posted by Kathryn Alexander on Tue, Feb 15, 2011 @ 04:47 PM
How can we think sustainably when we do not understand ecological thinking? Most people have no idea about how ecologies work, and they take them for granted. I believe that one of the issues for climate change deniers is that they do not understand how the world works so it is hard to, 1) see the interconnections, and 2) most people spend almost no time in nature so they don't see the changes already happening.
The other HUGE issue is the normal understanding of cause and effect. Ninety nine percent of people view cause and effect as linear. So people see cause as where you ?push' and effect and the movement created by the push. For living systems that is absolutely NOT TRUE. With living systems cause and effect are NON-linear, and that difference is huge!
For a quick and entertaining journey into non-linear cause and effect, read Freakonomics by Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubmer. That book is filled with examples of non-linear cause and effect. I have a strong background in what used to be called, Total Quality Management (TQM). Many of the tools we use and teach have to do with finding the root cause of issues in a business setting. A business is a complex, living system, so many of the problems have non-linear causes and are therefore hard to diagnose and solve.
My favorite story about non-linear cause and effect using the 5 Why tool, has to do with the Ritz Carleton. They offered $125 compensation for anyone who received a cold meal from Room Service. They noticed that they were paying out a lot of these so they decided to research the issue.
The first cause they found was that the delivery people had to wait for elevators. Quickly - what's your solution to this problem?
Then they asked ?why? The elevators were slow because the maids were using them when they cleaned rooms. Quick - now what's your solution?
Then they asked ?why? The maids were using the elevators to get towels to put in the clean rooms.
So, the meals were being delivered cold because there were not enough towels ? THAT is non-linear cause and effect. Is buying more towels cheaper that your solutions? Would you solution have ?solved' the problem? Would your solution have gotten at the root cause of the problem? The real solution was very inexpensive and only used three of the five Why's.
So what is making the planet warmer? What is causing the huge influx of beetles that are killing trees? Why is a warming planet having colder winters and more rain? None of these answers is simple and one fix won't be the definitive solution. Living systems are messy and complex making them hard to understand and confusing. If you use ecological thinking, then sustainability begins to make much more sense.
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