Our Choice: Extinction or Regeneration
David Hodgson
Founder, The Gaian League - an ecosystem of innovators working towards a regenerative global economy. Founder, Mycelial - an AI-enabled platform for running regenerative innovation ecosystems.
2019 was the year in which the concept of human extinction went mainstream, an acceptable topic of conversation in polite society, driven, of course, by Extinction Rebellion. Before this it was a taboo subject - quietly and apologetically whispered, held at the fringe, dismissed. But given the realities of our shared experience, a world on fire, methane bubbling from the seabed, a loss of oxygen in the ocean, the vanishing of the insects, and an estimated 500 million animals dead in the Australian fires, and microplastics showing up everywhere we look, it takes a special kind of willful blindness to hold that extinction is not a possibility - and that we are well along the path.
And we can see, if we zoom right out, that this is, of course, all a function of how our economy interacts with the natural world.
Our economy, the way humanity meets collective our needs, is degenerative of the natural world upon which all life depends.
So at root, we must transform the way we meet our collective needs to instead become regenerative of this natural world.
It is an imperative for humanity to transform the global economy to become regenerative, and in an accelerated time frame - or else we will go extinct.
The UN has declared this next decade as the decade of ecological restoration. However, I think we should instead think of it as the Decade of Regeneration, of which restoration is just a piece. We need ecological restoration, but we also need a transformation of the economy or else the work of ecological restoration will be fighting the tide of ongoing economic degradation.
And this is the inquiry that we must maintain laser sharp focus on, if we wish to avert human extinction:
- what can we each do to transform the global economy to be regenerative of nature?
What is your role in this quest?
🎥 Award-Winning Filmmaker | Self-Shooting PD / Edit Producer | Co-Founder @ Tusko
1yDavid, thanks for sharing.
Towards regenerative cultures through dialogic collaboration.
5yWith permaculture lenses on, "economy" is a system with a function of satisfying human needs. In permaculture we "design from patterns to details". Currently dominant pattern in economy? Industrial consumerism. On top of that there is enormous systemic inertia, woldwide, because dominant human culture on the planet is... industrial consumerism.
Story-teller, thinker and creative
5yDavid Hodgson, helping join the dots establishing guilds operating by sociocratic principles in large corporates, regenerative networking
Assistant State Conservationist (Partnerships)
5yI will simply share a quote by an employee of the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service: “Once you learn how to read, you cannot unlearn it; once you learn how to read soil health, you realize what we really need to focus on.“ - Ray Covino, NRCS, Connecticut. This is my life role...helping others to learn about our landscape and the importance of healthy soil.
I am a Sustainability Award Winner, Certified & Chartered Environment Expert across sectors: Agriculture, Biodiversity, Climate, ESG, Energy, Humanitarian, Natural Resources, Ecosystems Restoration, and Tourism
5yThis post poses a great question. I am of the opinion that both concept: restoration and regeneration should go hand in hand because of their relevance and interdependence. As an advocate of environment-society-economy sustainability, my key role is to promote environmental best practices wherever I work, live and socialize. It is important to think of simple actions that are precursor of big differences. And this could be first changing oneself behavior towards environmental resources - leading by example. Others, by default would follow up on good environmental practices - they observe, they learn and ultimately they change and become environmental sustainability activists.