Citizen engagement can deliver a better future
January 15, 2023•324 words
As we face an escalating convergence of compounding risks, we find ourselves at an inflection point:
We might shift human industrial systems onto a sustainable path, and so we can reliably achieve human health, wellbeing, and security, and the cooperative stability and prosperity of nation states.
Or, we might fail to make the necessary changes quickly enough, and continue to see devastating costs rise, while our ability to address shocks and disasters is diminished.
We need systems change—across food, energy, finance, and industry.
We need human systems to learn to work in harmony with nature.
Industrial systems need to operate within planetary boundaries—not destroying what we cannot create.
Money needs to honor the sacred duty to store and provide value to all who touch it; this entails a major shift away from extractive business models, where billions of people are treated—by industry, finance, and law—as sources of cash.
We need to connect people to process to drive systems change that is rooted, relevant, fast-moving, and sustainable.
We need open processes that allow stakeholders to weigh evidence and participate in the design of better and more livable futures for their communities.
We need food, energy, and finance interventions that connect to ecological and human health benefits in concrete, measurable ways.
We need investment vehicles that honor the need for ongoing benefits across society and to natural systems.
We need to put a price on pollution everywhere, so biosphere destruction for profit is no longer a viable business model. And, we need those costs to be borne by polluters, not by the majority of people who cannot afford to see their cost of living rise.
Climate income policies should be part of that facilitated energy revolution. Similar delivery of resources connected to systems transformation in food, agriculture, and land use, can also play a role.
Read the full article at Resilienceintel.org/connect or get involved at CitizensClimate.earth/volunteers