***Please read the articles linked to this post.

How can we achieve "Smart Growth"?

Science and technology won’t be our savior, and yet we can think of science as The Revealer. Science is the best way we have to understand our world. The processes, methodologies and tools in the science tool kit allow us to find solutions to challenges we face, and to create the ability to have a better and longer life, but it is philosophy that will heal our soul and allow us to behave better than we currently do. Progress requires us to be philosophic and consider carefully our ideas, thoughts and feelings. What we do and create really does matter. All human choices are a complex balancing act with inevitable trade-offs.

We need a new wave of 21st Century political and moral philosophers that can synthesize the many domains of social, psychological, and physical sciences and uncover sets of values that will allow us to continue to evolve on earth. Scientists, technologists, engineers, politicians, and business leaders not informed by a good liberal dose of deep philosophy are potential threats to human existence. Innovation is great, but it's not a panacea, and is best served only when carefully thought through. Needless to say these are complex issues. We all must now become philosopher kings.

philosopher Peter singer — philosopher Peter singer

Earth is our home, we come from the earth, we are part and parcel of it, we are part and parcel “of this living breathing collection of organisms (mostly microorganisms) that are evolving every second — a ‘self organizing, complex adaptive system’ (the strict term).”

In all humility we must recognize that complex systems have emergent properties that are impossible to predict.

Therefore let’s take our time and learn how to exist here in a cross species community with love and respect. All living things are our relatives and should be treated as family. Even deadly viruses - love thy enemy so we might understand them and learn how to live with them. We must learn from "small systems", and even those far away and humble indigenous cultures of the past. It's time to move away from being Homo Hubris and move back towards wisdom.

virgin forest - a home to many living things.

Let’s stop making war on life!

We have to get busy rethinking growth, our social, economic and political system, global consumerism and capitalism. We must be the ones, each one of us, that do the work. We all need to take responsibility for the future.

It will be extremely hard to shift the current paradigm towards something more sustainable.

It’s time to really piss off BIG MONEY. The kind of people who only care about short-term financial results and lining their own pockets. There are ways that a tough guy can have more than most and still conscientiously consider the concerns and rights of stakeholders, not just shareholders. We need to improve our culture. There are things more valuable than debt, and mortgaging our future by burning ancient sequestered life forms just to make some people powerful. There are other ways to heat our houses and get to work. There are other forms of compensation that lead to greater and longer lasting happiness. And what about conservation and preservation? Should we burn fossil fuels to desalinate water to pour on our lawns and mega-farms, or should we look for more sustainable solutions to creating beautiful environments and feeding people? What do we think will work long-term? Can we think long-term or are we too greedy to care about future generations? Is the ethos: Leaving this place better than we found it still in our consciousness? If not then we need to bring it back now.

We know what's coming, at least we should know, and we know it's going to be the toughest transition humanity has ever had to make, but we must turn this ship.

We live in a world of abundance and amazing technologies, but that is going to change if we don't get busy.