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Garnaut: good news or bad? Yes! |
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Written by Jan Lee Martin
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Wednesday, 09 July 2008 |
Whether we see Professor Garnaut’s report on climate change as good
news or bad depends entirely on the lens through which we see the
world. Those who are anchored in the industrial realities of the 20th
century see it as an unwelcome interference with the basic task of
exploiting our natural resources, turning them into goods and services
and selling them to sustain the economy within which we live.
They have forgotten that we don’t live in an economy. We live on a
planet that has been seriously wounded by our activities. If we want it
to provide a home for our children and theirs, we must create economies
that conserve and sustain instead of those that prey and exploit. We
know it’s possible: it’s been done before, by indigenous peoples all
over the world. Admittedly the global population overload increases
the magnitude of the challenge, but we have more tools now to apply to
the task, including the capacity for instant sharing of what we learn.
Nonetheless, climate change is a formidable challenge. How can we possibly see it as good news?
Those of us who have been working hard for many years to warn of coming change may be delighted by
the Garnaut Report. Finally the facts are emerging from the cloud of
disinformation created by powerful vested interests. With the collapse
of their info-blockade, perhaps the innovators will at last be free to
get on with it.
Now at last we can concentrate on fixing problems, turning climate
change around, redesigning the way we live and work so that we can do
it without destroying our habitat.
The good news is that there are already millions of people around the
world ready and willing to make the changes we need. The hardest part
of tackling climate change will be changing our inherited ideas. But
it’s time we did: the age of materialism has damaged more than the
planet.
In responding to the climate crisis, we and our children and theirs
have an opportunity to imagine new futures that are better for
everybody.
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Last Updated ( Wednesday, 09 July 2008 )
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2020 Summit “a great start” |
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Monday, 04 February 2008 |
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The Rudd Government’s plan to hold a Vision 2020 conference in April is one of the most intelligent moves seen from government for a long time, according to Charles Brass, chairman of The Futures Foundation. “The choices we make today are the choices that create the future,” he said. “ For too long, these choices have been made for the wrong reasons -- for short term gain, and for limited beneficiaries.
"It is encouraging now to see the Federal Government make a positive effort to consider the future more wisely. This conference makes an excellent starting point, but let’s remember that on any map of the future, there be dragons. It would be reassuring to know that the organisers have included this awareness in their planning.”
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Last Updated ( Thursday, 26 June 2008 )
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Beyond “CSR”: are our managers joining the dots? |
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Written by Jan Lee Martin
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Monday, 30 April 2007 |
It was only a small failure. And you don’t work as an advocate for the future without surviving plenty of small failures. But now and again there’s one that causes deep despair, and this small failure was one of those. Because if it is typical, it signals a huge loss of opportunity for Australia.
Let me explain.
As a long-time member of a credit union, I was aware the organization was growing and prospering. I wasn’t surprised. Its culture, born of its origins as a friendly society, makes a good fit with the visible directions of change in the marketplace. But suddenly I noticed, to my surprise, that the credit union was moving away from that culture, becoming more like a bank. Including actively promoting the use of credit.
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Last Updated ( Monday, 30 April 2007 )
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My Dot-Green Future Is Finally Arriving |
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Written by Bruce Sterling
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Thursday, 15 March 2007 |
I was standing among a crowd of radical Serbs in front of the U.S. Embassy in Belgrade last week when it dawned on me: As a futurist, things are really going my way! It's 2007, and the old world has backfired so comprehensively that a new era is truly at hand. I actually knew this would happen. I guess, for a prophet, this is what victory feels like!
Back in 1998, the Mexican state of Chiapas caught fire and the smoke from its rainless "rain forests" stretched all the way to Chicago. In Austin, my home town, the sky was the color of a dead television channel. Living under that hideous gout of smoke, I realized that the much-anticipated greenhouse effect was as real as dirt. Most people didn't grasp that at the time. That's okay by me: If everybody got it about issues of that sort, I wouldn't get paid for being a futurist. As it happened, though, five years earlier I'd written a science-fiction novel about climate change. So I was fully briefed.
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Last Updated ( Thursday, 15 March 2007 )
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Is this the year we will change the country? |
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Written by Jan Lee Martin
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Thursday, 08 February 2007 |
 What will follow Westminster-style democracy in Australia? That’s a question futurists have been asking for years. Now, perhaps, we are seeing the seeds of the future in an emergence of the long-predicted electronic democracy.
To some extent the significance of this deep shift in political process is being masked by the urgency of current content. And that's not surprising: even the attention of futurists has been diverted lately from the challenge of inventing better systems of governance to a more defensive focus -- the need to protect and rescue the democracy we thought we could take for granted (see Future News March 2002).
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Last Updated ( Friday, 16 February 2007 )
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Written by somebody or somebodies, somewhere/s
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Wednesday, 20 December 2006 |
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We acknowledge the infinite wisdom of the world wide web in offering the following seasonal greeting.....
Please accept, with no obligation, implied or implicit, best wishes for an
environmentally conscious, socially responsible, low stress, non-addictive,
gender neutral, celebration of the winter/summer solstice holiday (tm),
practised within the most enjoyable traditions of the religious persuasion
of your choice, or secular practices of your choice, with respect for the
religious/secular persuasions and/or traditions of others, or their choice
not to practise religious or secular traditions at all...... and a fiscally
successful, personally fulfilling and medically uncomplicated recognition
of the onset of the generally accepted calendar year 2007, but not
without due respect for the calendars of choice of other cultures whose
contributions to society have helped make this world great (not to imply
that this world is necessarily greater than any other world or is the only
"world" in the universe) without regard to the race, creed, colour, age,
physical ability, religious faith, choice of computer platform, or sexual
orientation of the wishee.
By accepting this greeting, you are accepting these terms.
This greeting is subject to clarification or withdrawal. It is not transferable,
it implies no promise by the wisher to actually implement any of the wishes
for her/himself or others, is void where prohibited by law, and is revocable
at the sole discretion of the wisher. This wish is warranted to perform as
expected within the usual application of good tidings for a period of one
year, or until the issuance of a subsequent holiday greeting, whichever
comes first, and warranty is limited to replacement of this wish or issuance
of a new wish at the sole discretion of the wisher.
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Last Updated ( Sunday, 24 February 2008 )
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Confessions of an economic hit man: must-read |
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Written by Jan Lee Martin
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Friday, 30 June 2006 |
"Economic hit men are highly paid professionals who cheat countries around the globe out of trillions of dollars. Their tools include fraudulent financial reports, rigged elections, payoffs, extortion, sex and murder."
Somebody told me years ago not to miss this book, but it took a delay at Canberra airport to make it happen. Now I can’t believe I waited so long. I finished it with the conviction that it should be required reading for every voting-age citizen in any democracy – and part of every high school and university curriculum.
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Last Updated ( Monday, 03 July 2006 )
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