sustainability 651 October 6 reading
what is biominicray?
connection with Braiding Sweet Grass idea that western culture that favors scientific objectify, tends to diminish the subjective connection to nature. #
“Every year we lose three to five trillion dollars’ worth of natural capital, roughly
equivalent to the amount of money we lost in the financial crisis of 2008–2009,”
The value of ecosystem services typically goes unaccounted for in business and policy decisions
and in market prices.
climate change amplifies uncertainties
Ecosystem services are valued, ideally, by how much human welfare they can provide. The most convenient measure of welfare is dollars, although at this early stage of development of the science, that is not always a practical measure
methods to value ecosystems
Many ecosystem services, such as scenery, recreational value, and most regulatory services,including those moderating infectious disease, lack a market price. One way to address this problem involves asking people what they would pay for a particular service ( stated preference )
“replacement cost: This is the cost of the least
expensive technical fix as a replacement for an ecosystem service.
revealed preference : determining values from related actual purchases,
Analysis of Linkages (HEAL): systematic attempt to
measure the human health impacts of changes in a variety of natural systems
wetlands as a setting for human health
wider recognition of the meaningful relationships that exist between the well-being of people and the quality of their surroundings, including food and water sources.
There has been a modern tendency to assess the condition of natural resources and the human well-being associated with those resources separately #
Table 2, column 1 falls into the upper right hand quadrant of integral analysis, and columns two and three lower right quadrant
what is a healthy wetland?
How is health being measured
The Right of Nature Concept
biodiversity loss, ecosystem
disruption, and disease transmission
how do wetlands relate to human health
Supply of freshwater
Food ( seafood, rice come from wetlands
infectious disease vector
help with erosion control
If wetlands play an important role in sustaining human health and well-being and if wetlands continue to be lost and degraded at rates more rapid than are other ecosystems (MA 2005b), it is possible that something is wrong with the way we are negotiating these sorts of trade-offs
Nature has rights just like humans
balancing what is good for human beings against what is good for other species, what is good for the planet as a world. #
Braiding Sweet grass connection: nature has a life force of its own. And isn't just an object for people to use.
Chapter 3 Emerging from the Future
Mastering System Change
economy and nature
Tools #
Integral Theory analysis
Stakeholder mapping
Similar to theories in business organization
collaboration introduces additional complexity and requires aligning resources, competencies,strategic priorities, and ideologies about effective and legitimate means and ends across partners from different sectors.
In practice many organization esspeically non profits don't want to collaborate because they don't want to share the PR. Which is all non profits have to drive funds. Where as in for profit companies the compensation would come from getting paid.
Also uses the same ideas in that are used in operations management to do root cause analysis . Flow charts with recognition of bottle necks would be useful.
Systems change is an innovation process
small transformations can lead to big changes
econmics has turned the planet into a commodity
economic theory arises from and returns to nature
bio-mimicry: how would nature design the economic process #
Money isn't the commodity, the service of moving it from person to person is.
transparency about how capital is created
investments should be links with societal needs
essence of leadership is presencing
missing mechanism is sensing and prototyping
how to move away from consumerism
material consumption doe not create well being
feedback the loop no longer separates
consumers from one another
consumers and production
consumers frin their selves