1. Why saving our world is so difficult

1. Why saving our world is so hard

Is this the best we can do?

Is this really as good as it gets?

The good news is, we really can do better than this. But then we, ordinary citizens, have to take action. Five to twelve has passed. Waiting any longer is no longer an option. We must now roll up our sleeves and start to make a difference!

Citizens of the world, unite!

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There’s no shortage of challenges

There is plenty to worry about:

• Ecological challenges such as global warming and climate change, loss of biodiversity, pollution, over-consumption...

• Economic challenges such as globalization, increasing income inequality, economic crises...

• Social challenges such as poverty, ageing, individualism...

The list of challenges seems endless. The situation sometimes hopeless.

How do we tackle these challenges?

Finding solutions is difficult because these challenges are “wicked problems” : • Complex problems that are intertwined

• Constantly changing • Unclear and multifaceted

• And where cause and effect are difficult to untangle.

What’s typical of wicked problems is that they interact with each other. The ecological, the economic and the social are inextricably linked. Global warming is driven by economic growth and globalization, which has an impact on how we live. As such, each domain is influencing the other and the various challenges reinforce one another. Contrary to what we often think, there are no grand, instant solutions to wicked problems: • Such problems require long-term effort and intensive cooperation. • They’re best viewed from different angles simultaneously. • We will have to work with a very wide range of smaller, more manageable projects.

In order to achieve this, we need new ideas. The current ideas have failed to lift us out of this quagmire. But the present way of thinking and acting is deeply ingrained in us. Leaving that behind is not easy.

Current solutions

The problem with current solutions? They are primarily political and technological in nature: • We want to solve global warming with more green technologies and international climate treaties.

• We want to solve major economic and social challenges by focusing on more technological innovation or smarter political decision-making.

But the current solutions are no longer sufficient.

Politics and technology alone will not save our world. While they have an important role to play, their aptitude to change is too limited considering the great challenges we face.

We need new ideas and new solutions.

New solutions

Current ideas like...

• Economic growth is the only way out • Big problems require big solutions • Technology will save the world • There Is No Alternative (TINA)

… mainly provide us more of the same and they often seem to aggravate the wicked problems rather than remedy them.

New ideas such as ...

• Ordinary people can create extraordinary impact • Everything is constantly changing and each of us can help shape that change • We, ordinary citizens, are the most important lever for change • There Is Always An Alternative (TIAAA)

… give us the opportunity to start working on solutions ourselves. When we, ordinary citizens, participate fully, we really increase our chances of success.

Why it is so important to save our world

Because we risk losing what it means to be human if we continue along the current path. In a world where...

• Ecological problems totally disrupt our ecosystem • Our humanity is subordinate to a one-sided economic logic of "always-more" • Social problems are putting large parts of our societies in turmoil ... our sole future is one of disintegration and dehumanization.

Almost all plausible scenarios concerning global warming point into a catastrophic direction and the dynamic behind it is inextricably linked to how we organize our economies and how we live together. That can and must change. Waiting on the side lines and hoping that things will go in the right direction on their own is no longer an option. We are destroying our world and now we have to save it too.

To preserve that which makes us human. By coming up with new, sustainable ideas ourselves and realizing them together, we not only save our world, we also give our humanity a booster.

NARDIS helps with that.