Are we any closer to understanding the world than the Sumerians were?
Western thought has come to accept the pursuit of individual interest at the cost of collective wellbeing as an inexorable reality. Eastern cosmology, by contrast, has for the most part been dominated by a holistic ethic from which communal norms have evolved.
Current cultural and scientific models are rooted in the underlying assumption that organic relationships are dominated by competition. Theories on survival of the fittest and zero-sum game have emerged from this polarized world view.
Such a worldview could be traced to Newtonian Physics, which assumes a direct connection between cause and effect. This direct correlation is based on the assumption that systems are closed, change is slow, interdependencies are low and certainty is high. The complex global systems of the 21st century stand in firm contradiction to this assumption.
Globalization, migration, and communications technology, amongst many other factors, have rendered boundaries permeable, exposing their existing biological, cultural, and economic interdependence. Robert Wright, author of Nonzero: The Logic of Human Destiny, argues that as complexity in human society increases, so does potential for collective gain. Similarly, biologists and scientific theorists alike are challenging Darwin's competitive evolutionary model as incomplete. They argue that symbiosis, the mutual dependence and interaction of life has resulted in cases of cooperative evolution.
Climate sceptics point to uncertainty as the linch pin upon which the scientific consensus on climate change is built. They cry heresy, no different than the medieval masses stubbornly refusing to believe that what they take for granted might be false. Granted, change is uncomfortable, but shooting the messenger is an ineffective approach. Today's scientific community has tried in vain to explain the concept of uncertainty due to the multitude of interacting anthropological and biotic factors. And yet, complexity is proving difficult to explain in a soundbite.
The world's ecosystems and human communities do not operate in water tight containers but rather relationships characterized by both negative and positive feedback loops. In other words these interactions are cyclical. For instance, the hydrological cycle does not act independently of the atmospheric cycle, this means that an increase in average global temperatures, would affect the movement of air masses, displace normal rainfall, and increase precipitation in one area while inducing a drought in another. So a change to one system echoes throughout, which is precisely why the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) forecasts a temperature rise in a range between 2.5 to 10 degrees Fahrenheit over the next century. Because of the complexity of these systems perfect knowledge is impossible, as is certainty. Arguments for either are merely stalling tactics of reactionaries.
Climate change is one of many critical issues which we as a whole will have to confront but traditional organizational models are not structured to adapt to the social, economic and environmental fluxes we will experience. The first step is acknowledging that external and internal environments of organizations, governments and the Earth itself are neither closed, stable, isolated nor predictable. Solutions to the world's emerging complex problems will require working across many disciplines.
It is time for the global community to start focussing on our similarities rather than our differences. By finding common ground we can take an integrated cooperative approach to the coming challenges facing our planet. For too long the neo-liberal push for specialization has been breeding intolerant ideological views. Students focussed solely on entering professional trades or academia lack exposure to other fields. By pursuing a single track education, students miss out on opportunities that arise from understanding how to cross-pollinate and graduate without the ability to relate their career. Luckily over the past few years the realization is beginning to sink in that business is not inherently antithetical to the environment. The clean-tech sector is an example of this.
The environment is not a threat to the economy or vice versa. Value judgments must be set aside in order for an exchange of expertise and knowledge to take place. It is through open and fluid dialogue that humanity can innovate to adapt to an increasingly interdependent and consequently changing world.
We are coming to understand that simple answers do not exist.
Published in The Strand: Thursday, April 1, 2010
Original title: "The shifting global paradigm: understanding interdependence"
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