The IPCC describes its synthesis report as ‘a survival guide for humanity’. This moment is called ‘an emergency’ for a reason. Conventional top-down, linear, incremental strategies are wholly inadequate responses. To change the entire system we need everyone working on everything, everywhere, all at once. Nothing short of a movement for change.
System change to rescue ourselves and our planetary system is not someone else’s job. It’s everyone’s job. Most of us think the fate of the living world has nothing to do with us. We couldn’t be more wrong. Our professional work is right at the heart of the ecological crisis.
What are we to do when our formal organisational and political systems are unable to speak the truth or act fast enough to bring about the level of change we urgently need? As Nature is the ultimate boss, the intelligence of living systems is where we’ll find the answers we’re looking for. And our response to Covid-19 is the pilot.
We’re at a cultural crossroads and the road ahead is a choice. We can walk into the future weighed down by the baggage of beliefs and assumptions that have brought us to our knees. Or we can walk away from business as usual and use our work and workplaces, skills and talents to shift the pattern of our entire culture.
Human beings only change when we learn something new – and this is a teachable moment. When the Covid-19 crisis has passed, can we build on this moment? Could a virus teach us about the true relationship between people, the economy and our environment… and how life really works?
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