Sustainable Development Network

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Comment by Bruce Cornock Nixon on March 29, 2012 at 5:04

Hi Friends and Colleagues,

A Better World is Possible

Some of you may have seen my e-mail “At Last my new book is out”.  Others may not. The book’s launch in November proved premature. To cut a long story short, the book had to be re-edited. Now it’s back as paperback and E-Book form Amazon via http://www.brucenixon.com/betterworld.htmland http://www.changemakers-books.com/index.php?id=99&p=1320.Reviewed in the Ecologist: http://www.theecologist.org/reviews/books/1218844/a_better_world_is...

 

You may also be interested in these blogs:  http://www.neweconomics.org/blog/2011/11/04/the-economics-of-wellbeing http://www.compassonline.org.uk/news/item.asp?n=14895

 

As a friend says: 

It's a strange kind of economic system that over consumes natural resources, and yet leaves millions without jobs. A Green New Deal could address both points by putting people back to work fixing the appalling energy and resource inefficiency of our infrastructure. If the financial system deems this impossible, then there is something wrong with the financial system. Tony Greenham nef

 

Any help in telling your friends about it will be much appreciated. Ratings and reviews on Amazon are said to work.

 

Apologies for any cross-postings.

Warm wishes,

Bruce

Comment by Penny Walker on January 19, 2011 at 4:45

SDN is looking for a new coordinator!

Find out more here...sdn%20coordinator%20role.pdf

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Penny

Comment by Bruce Cornock Nixon on October 14, 2010 at 3:48

My New Book is Out
First - apologies if this is not the right place to post my message. I am learning as usual!
Greetings all!
I thought you might like to see my new book, just out on my website, but not in printed book form until next year.
If you like it and think it might do some good, please help by passing the information to friends and colleagues.
Those of you who are interested in what happened at Copenhagen and want to incluence COP16 may find chapter 15 and the last page of the book of special interest.
With best wishes,
Bruce
Here is my message that you may pass on if you wish:
Dear Friends,

New book - A better world is possible – what needs to be done and how we can make happen

I thought you would like to know that my new book is now available on my website http://www.brucenixon.com/ and direct http://www.brucenixon.com/betterworld.html as a free PDF. It will be published by O-Books in about six month’s time. I decided to get it out now as a handbook for people who want to influence the outcome of UN Climate Summit COP 16 in Cancun, Mexico starting 29 November and the critically important decisions of the UK’s new coalition government and governments in other countries. Basically the message is:

We face the biggest challenge in our history. Climate change is just one symptom of our failure to live in harmony with the earth and all life on it, including each other. These 5 big issues are inseparably linked:
• Climate change – possibly out of control and irreversible with only 75 months before we reach a tipping point
• Peak everything – not just Peak Oil
• We are destroying the ecosystem on which all life depends, poisoning the air all creatures breathe, the water of which life is made and the earth
• Poverty and economic injustice
• Violence, war, terrorism and the threat of nuclear annihilation

We need to transform the system. Rather than trying to fix it, we need to bring about whole system change for the benefit all. To achieve this we need to make democracy, from global to local, far more representative and inclusive. Above all we need the hope and inspiration of a great new endeavour combined with practical action. I think many people know that something is deeply wrong and have had enough. They need to know that there are alternatives to an unsustainable, unjust system, fuelled by debt. Alternatives that focus on the wellbeing of all are offered in A better world is possible.

If you like what you read and believe getting the book to as many people as possible could make a difference, please help spread it about - through your networks, campaigning organisations you support, newsletters, websites, social networks or in any way you think of. Tell me if you have time to pass it on please. Doing so could help create an even bigger momentum for change.

Best wishes and thanks,
Bruce

Comment by Caroline Rennie on March 9, 2010 at 4:51

Love Richard Nugent's answer! It takes a peculiar distance from common sense to set up a society that so systematically violates the rules of nature.

And love the thinking shift proposed by Andy that the focus be on top line, not (just) bottom line. In fact, if many CEOs were just to ask - "How can we make sustainability profitable" instead of "prove to me Sustainability won't lose me money" we would have an enormous unleashing of ideas that would help move our current system in more sustainable directions.

Comment by Andy Middleton on March 1, 2010 at 13:35

Great thinking. We need to apply a design-led approach to this, not one that's driven by measurement. This means shifting from triple bottom line, to triple top line. Doing this means asking the question from multiple perspectives, at the same time - not in sequence, which tends to happen now.

As soon as we start asking better questions, we'll find it easier to move away from status and security-driven, but dumb, actions!

Comment by Penny Walker on March 1, 2010 at 7:08

When I read Richard Nugent's blog about transformational coaching, I posed the question to him too. This is what he sent back to me in an email:

From Richard Nugent of Kaizen Training:

I have been considering my response…and asking my self the question 'what would have to happen…'

Here are my thoughts - by the way I'm not saying it would be easy or even possible at this stage, but if it was my game here’s how it would play.

The responsibility lies with the leaders and experts, but the assumption is that they answer lies with them. It probably doesn't. One of the causes of the recent financial situation was in my view that too many of the leaders of these institutions are experts in their fields. The HR Directors have largely worked in HR, the FD started as accountant etc, etc.

When you have this environment, it's much more difficult to 'lead' rather than manage.

Perhaps it's similar with the environment. I suspect that if we got together one hundred 8 year olds from across the globe, and offered them £100M to save the planet, they would probably with some coaching, come up with a great way forward - and with some change.

Similarly with footballers. Let's offer 20 footballers, £100M to save the planet. Oh and suggest that they can keep whatever is left from the project - I bet they would make a difference.

So there's my project as far as I'm ready to take it. Get the politicians and ecologists to take responsibility for delivery, but get the solutions from children, coalmen, fishermen, footballers, in fact anyone who doesn't know enough to let what is possible get in the way of creating a great solution.

It's been an interesting thought project for me - thank you.

Richard Nugent
Kaizen Training

Comment by Chris Grieve on February 2, 2010 at 12:47

Thanks for the suggestion. Tim Ferriss was very inspiring.

Comment by Andy Middleton on February 2, 2010 at 12:03

One other approach, which can be both fun and effective, is to practice the art of being strategically unreasonable. The way it goes is like this: state a goal that make sense, has emotional appeal (do you want to be recognised as doing something truly great) and is so much bigger than current thinking. I tried it with the Welsh Assembly Govt as part of some climate change work I'm doing with them; they have six climate champions, so I suggested that we upped the number a bit, to 30,000, which would put two climate advocates in every class in every school.

It won't be an easy thing to do, and the reasons for not increasing the number to 9, 12 or 20 will be completely different - which gives breathing space for new possibilities to slip in quietly....

Watch Tim Ferriss at the 2008 Do Lectures to get more of a sense of this. If you like what you see, come along in 2010!

Comment by Chris Grieve on February 2, 2010 at 11:30

Great question Penny!

What sprang to mind immediately was that old joke about changing a light bulb:

Q: How many psychiatrists (coach/facilitators) does it take to change a light bulb?
A: Doesn't matter, the light bulb has to want to change.

My experience sadly, in these arenas, is of the absence of collective political will to achieve long-term, sustainable outcomes. As these are not facilitated dialogues but more brutal marketplaces where the world's resources are traded off for political expediency, perhaps the greater challenge is to transform them somehow into real dialogue rather than political swap-shops.

So, the interesting part of your question for me was the "world's most powerful people". Therein lies the challenge - power and people's desire to control and maintain it (either for their own ends or the alleged ends of their nation). Any intervention, on my best day, would have to take into account the power dynamics at play within the system: the political jostling and maneuvering, the defending of positions, interests and needs etc. Dialogue, such as the earlier suggestion about focusing on shared outcomes, might be a way to overcome some of this.

But I wonder whether the participants might be emotionally mature enough to engage in some critical reflection and dialogue about their own dynamics as a group of internationally powerful people with the planet's resources at stake and the real politics that are at play that are preventing agreement. Awareness is curative, says Tim Gallwey of 'inner game' coaching. Would awareness about what is really going on help break through the shadow dynamics? A naive wish perhaps?

Comment by Fiona Ellis on February 2, 2010 at 8:18

I love the back casting approach.. holding the future and present together...and getting very practical about actions. Working with transition scenarios live in the room first would add to this so people can see the range of options we face.

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