Theory

The challenge of our time is to transform the system that drives our destruction. We would do well to go beyond our habitual thinking. Here are ways of thinking that we believe can make the environmental-progressive movement orders of magnitude more influential.

Aligning to magnify our influence

This article outlines an administratively simple strategy and tactics for groups to align to affect public consciousnes.

The most influential places to intervene in a system

Systems thinker Donella Meadows posed an interesting question. What are the most influential leverage points for changing any system? Her answer was that changing the paradigms (the ways of thinking that shape the system) and changing the goals of the system are the most influential.

The power of conversations

People rarely take in new ideas in social settings – especially if the ideas are complex.

Thoughtful conversations give people an opportunity to slow down, consider new ideas, and possibly modify their views.

Steps to ecological responsibility

A majority of people are concerned about climate change. This is the stage of becoming alarmed.However, being alarmed isn’t enough. The next step is to grasp the system that drives our destruction. To be useful, this insight needs to translate into commitment to transform our destructive system. Evolutionary Catalysts have made this commitment. We do well to help other people do the same.

DesignShop Thinking and Social Change

DesignShops have been used for forty years by large companies with problems so severe that if they did not come up with a new approach, they might go out of business. This article shows how the three steps in the DesignShop process – SCAN FOCUS ACT – can make our social change thinking far more effective. DesignShops typically run over three days. The process starts with the group looking at their situation from many different viewpoints. They develop a comprehensive big-picture understanding. This is SCAN. This leads to an innovative new FOCUS that seems promising. The group then designs everything needed to make the new focus work. The approach is sophisticated, and aims to produce real-world results. The environmental progressive movement would become far more effective if we adopted it.

Read more- DesignShop thinking and social change | by Andrew Gaines | Medium

Partnership-respect relating

There are two styles of relating: partnership respect and domination-control. Partnership-respect relating leads to a benign future. Embodying benign collaboration to deal with our ecological emergency and back off from the prospect of nuclear annihilation is essential for our survival. We have ways to act on this.

Cultivating emotional well-being

Nothing is more critical for dealing with climate change and war than improving emotional functioning. This statement may seem odd to folks who are focused on technology and politics. It will make perfect sense to those of us who understand the connection between trauma, rage, and outer behavior. This video by Bessel van der Kolk is an excellent introduction. The good news is that we now have highly effective ways to reduce trauma and improve emotional functioning.

The Natural Step

How would we know if a business or a country is ecologically sustainable or not? The Natural Step principles provide a clear way to understand the essence of sustainability.
This is important. Sustainability can seem like a vague concept. If we are to get through an ecological crisis, both regular people and politicians need to ground their thinking in physical reality.

The limits of renewable energy

Renewable energy is a growth industry. Many hope that it can keep our current economic and industrial system going. But our current economic-industrial system is ecologically disastrous. We should not aim to keep it going. We should aim to reduce it.
In addition, there are serious resource constraints on actually building out the renewable energy system.
Therefore, as a culture we would be wise to design for frugality, rather than be blindsided by a combination of sudden energy constraints and ecological collapse.

Cooling the Earth naturally

Forests, and algae on the surface of the ocean, provide a natural cooling system for the Earth. They do this by creating cloud cover, as well as by sequestering carbon. Forests also transport heat to the upper atmosphere through transpiration – in effect, sweating. This is important! By investing massively in regeneration we could begin to reduce global warming within two decades.
Read more- https://app.box.com/s/ll9p1yrxemfz15gopem395ibnjgk21nf

Workshops

Here are workshops that raise the alarm (critically important!)
and help people connect the dots about the system that makes ecological trends worse.

Climate Fresk

Climate Fresk uses carefully crafted cards to enable participants to connect-the-dots between the industrial causes and consequences of climate change.

The Week

Coming to grips with the reality of climate change is strong stuff. The Week is a three-module short course done over one-week. People do it in groups so that folks can process their thoughts and feelings together.

LINK: https://www.theweek.ooo/

Awakening The Dreamer

Awakening the Dreamer is a self-paced course looking frankly at the state of the world.

https://pachamama.org/courses/awakening-the-dreamer-online-course

THEORY