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As Stewart Brand said in the introduction to the Whole Earth Catalogs,

"If we are going to act like gods, we might as well get good at it."

And Biomimicry is one key, and in a sense, one of the legacy's of the Whole Earth movement. Like Buckminster Fuller's comprehensive antipatory design science, Biomimicry is (1) the exploration and understanding of nature, i.e., the environment, as the technology and economy of an exquisitely evolved and designed regenerative life support system (living machine) that has been tested and developed over 3.8 billion years of evolution (see-the time line of evolution) and then (2) applying those battle-hardened principles to all aspects of human activity--designing, creating, and managing of society, from industrial products, to urban and regional systems, to public policy, business, the economy, etc., i.e., Sustainability 2030 and the leading edge of the sustainability response.

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Sustainability 2030's (S2030) research/practice program addresses the following key questions:

1. How can you/we become effective, powerful, even transformational forces for sustainability?

2. What is the program required for ultimate sustainability success--the end game?

3. Who has part of the answer now (current sustainability champions), how far do they take us, and how can we harness the state-of-the-art leading edge sustainability to an innovative research/practice program that gets us to ultimate success in the limited time remaining?  (more)

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Advance, accelerate, and amplify an accurate understanding of the sustainability challenge and how to harness the power and potential of sustainability for an effective response before time runs out. The Strategic Sustainability2030 Institute  (S2030I) is a web-based think/do tank (more).

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as Buckminster Fuller observed, is

"to make the world work for 100% of humanity, in the shortest possible time, through spontaneous cooperation without ecological offense or the disadvantage of anyone."

This goal is the essence of sustainable development! The Buckminster Fuller Institute (BFI) provides access to Bucky's legacy, including his comprehensive anticipatory design science revolution. Check out their website, their programs, and engage.

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Caption: "Sadly, the only proven way to achieve global GHG reductions so far has been economic recession." Comment: Fortunately, shifting to 100% renewables would catalyze the global transition to durable prosperity and community well-being in a way that would eliminate GHG production AND grow the economy <<continued>>. (See also: strategic sustainability, natural capitalism, its four strategies, and RMI's Reinventing Fire [energy] Program.) 

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Tuesday
Jul142009

Eco Econ - Costanza's Story

DateJuly 14, 2009 at 07:00PM

SOURCE: The Encyclopedia of Earth

Herman Daly Festschrift: Toward a sustainable and desirable future: a 30 year collaboration with Herman Daly

Lead Author: Robert Costanza (other articles)
Article Topic: Ecological economics
This article has been reviewed and approved by the following Topic Editor: Joshua Farley (other articles)
Last Updated: July 10, 2009

Abstract. This chapter is the story of my 30 year collaboration and friendship with Herman Daly, from our early days together at LSU, the formation of the International Society for Ecological Economics (ISEE) and the journal Ecological Economics, our time together in Maryland while he was at he World Bank and I was at the University of Maryland, and subsequently while we were together at the University of Maryland, and up to the present. The story describes our joint quest to create a more sustainable and desirable society by understanding and managing our world as an integrated whole and acknowledging humans’ role as a part of the ecological systems that support them. Understanding the complex linkages between ecological and economic systems and reinventing economics as a life science are topics that we both pursued, separately and together. We coined the term “natural capital” to capture the important contributions of ecological systems to human well-being. The world may finally be ready to listen to these ideas and use them to create a more sustainable and desirable future.
Scott Edmondson AuthorSustainability 2030 | CommentPost a Comment |
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