john thackara: how to make less, more
DESCRIPTION
A green, restorative and steady-state economy is not a future vision - it already exists, at least in embryo. Social innovation is all around us in a million grassroots projects. Connected citizens, and new kinds of business, are taking practical steps to re-make our cities places, and tools. By innovating services for daily life that use far fewer resources, they help to rebuild natural and social assets. Many of these projects use new technologies in creative ways - but their positive energy derives most from the skills and imagination of the people involved. What is the opportunity here for Leicester? John Thackara is a writer, speaker, and event producer. Described by Business Week as "one of the great voices on sustainability", he is the author of In The Bubble: Designing In A Complex World (MIT Press) among thirteen books, and of a widely-read blog about design for resilience, doorsofperception.com. As director of Doors of Perception, John organizes festivals and encounters around the world in which communities imagine sustainable futures – and take practical steps to realize them. John Thackara lives in France. Useful Links: http://www.doorsofperception.com http://www.sustainable-everyday.net http://www.energybulletin.net/node/16859 http://www.transitionnetwork.org/about http://www.openfarmtech.org/weblog/ http://www.steadystate.org/discover/organizations-that-support-steady-state-principles/ artsandecology.rsablogs.org.ukTRANSCRIPT
1the economy does not need to be fixed
it needs to be replaced
A Doomsday Machine Economy
Climate change = sea level rise60 centimetres - or 25 metres?
Peak Oil
< < “net energy cliff”
Renewable Energy
Peak credit
Peak Food
WHY?
Peak Food = Peak Fat
1 kg Rice: 3,400 litres
1 kg Beef: 15,500 litres
1 kg chocolate: 24,000 litres
[ Hoekstra ])
Peak water
Resource extraction
“US ICT industry to quadruple its consumption of electricity between 2009
and 2020”
[Institute for Sustainable and Applied Infodynamics & Rice University, 2010]
Climate change
Biodiversity
Energy
Water
Materials
Food
Fat
Doomsday Machine Economy [Adbusters]
Living Planet Index
GROWTH
"A thief who tells a judge he is stealing less than before will receive no leniency. So why do companies get environmental awards for ‘polluting less’ - even though they are still polluting ? ".
[ Gunther Pauli ]
!
so, what is the alternative?
a green economy
a restorative economy
a solidarity economy
a happiness economy
a steady-state economy
green, restorative, solidarity, happiness, steady-state ....
four design principles:
Design principle 1:
From human-centered to l ife-centered
Design principle 2:
From extractive to restorative
Design principle 3: from productivity to solidarity
Design principle 4: focus on system, not on symptoms
nice sermon, john - but:
what work will people do?how will it be paid for?
answer: prosperity based on
what we’ve already got
2
5% SOLUTIONS
BY
CHANGING THE QUESTION
5% mobility
“how are we to pay for transport infrastructure and subsidies?”
1,000%
5%
existing infrastructure
Load-management
via ICT
£7k
smart paratransit
5% schools
“what are we to do now the government has cancelled new school building projects?”
45,000 euros per classroom seat $1 per child per year
5% food
“how will the government stop us eating the junk food that is making us all ill?”
foodsheds
resources...
resources...
resources...
resources
DOTT £100k > > MEC £4m
[12/10/10]
FINALIST, BBC Food & Farming Awards 2010
5% health
Text
“Cubans achieve the same
level of health with only 5%
of the health care
expenditure of Americans."
(SCIENCE, 30 April 2010)
Text
clean drinking water
low-income, high well-being
primary health care
maternal care
nutrition
5% health
HelloHealth
(Brooklyn, USA)
C ACTIONS
Map existing value
Connect the actors
Services for sharing
Social innovtion labs
Five Days Halifax : mapping the territory
map resources...
Ingrid Koivukangas
MARA ADAMITZ SCRUPE
talent-spotting
socialassets
“we love our mash-up city” [10/10/10]
= social wealth
Dance of the BIG and the SMALL
Connect the actors
Open Space meeting
[Connecting the actors]Explorers Clubs
SOCIAL INNOVATION LABSeg Designs of The Time
SOCIAL INNOVATION LABS
City Eco Lab (France)
LAB
LAB [Secret Garden Party]
THANK YOU
THACKARA.COM