Interesting and difficult question? Good answers are often balances? How is Madrid climate summit tackling this? Here is Ecological Solidarity Economy article 5, with 10 beliefs and mental frames from diverse of our brain networks:
1)Growth in long distance transport
Transport society, or wheels and diesel-society, may describe the idea of global division of work – where the result is growth in global long distance transport. Is all this airplane, ship, truck transport a sustainable organising of material circulation between man and nature? Which of it is a good idea? Could it be done in a more natural friendly way? We may view accounting it as transportation cost, energy consumption that could have alternative use, and CO2 climate footprint.
2)Perspective to see separate details – or the whole system
A perspective is that each commodity has a very small cost of transportation, because there are so many commodities to devide the cost onto. Sharing costs on a large volume is a good economic idea. Especially for special and smart products. But when the goods may be produced local as well as global? For instance food, that may be prodused on biological resources of biological diversity in a variety of ecosystems.
But tap into your brain network to see the large picture: All these global goods air planes, container ships and trucs – isn’t it a very large climate footprint? For each giant container ship freigth reduced, guess if the environmental impact will be reduced? How much could be reduced?
3)Belief and mental frame about complex nontransparency
It becomes difficult for people to understand, assess consequences of complex nontransparent sentralised systems. Difficult to understand who is responsible for what in the systems. Difficult to understand the division of work and your own role and identity. We may associate to Franz Kafka «The process». May transparency be easier with more local economic cycles?
4)Information and receipts global – and resources, materials, production local?
Tap into your «what if» imagination: Visualise that information and receipts were global accessable. And the natural resources and working forces locally were urged to satisfy more of the local needs. Could the negative impact on climate and nature be reduced?
5)Avoid either-or awfulising
Visualise it is a both-and balance like: Each nation should have the right and obligation to produce basic foods for its own population and use quantitative import restrictions and domestic support to obtain that. First mandatory use local avalable resources and water to produce satisfy domestic needs – and secondly voluntary in addition - import foods that are domestically difficult to produce from other countries.
6)Blind competition or plan to solve common challenges?
With competition focused mainly on profit – it may be blind for negative consequences for nature and most important needs of people. A conscious plan may involve the thinking, emotions and creativity of many people to solve common problems. A good thing is that those that are involved may more easy be entusiastic and engaged employees and users. Egoism or common goods may be a polarity.
7)Waste of scarce resources
Sometimes free market competition is waste of scarce resources. Parallelle initiatives do double up work. If they had cooperated and co-created, they may have reduced total resource consumption. And they may have inspired each others to reach a next level solution. Abundance, share and co-create may be a next level strategy and solution.
8)Competition as egoism
Egoism is when something is mainly useful for own self. It may be an alternative to - share, cooperate, co-create, solutions for the common goods. Market competition mechanism is inherent a race towards the bottom of standards of environment, wages and workers rights. Race towards the bottom standards and prices of costs of resources, labour and consequences for nature. History shows that market forces first race for cheapest. If it is a problem, the political, juridical, health, environment, wage regulations – are coming secondary and after problems emerge.
9)Centralised or local economic cycles
In free global market competition will often small producers in poor countries lose in the competition with mighty multinational companies. It may be more justice in sharing of values and goods.
Small is beautiful perspective: Short economic cycles and transport between production and consumption. In stead of centralisation and large scale – it is possible with cooperating, co-creating, decentralised networks, small scale production for local economies and local economic circuits.
10)Experiment with different kinds of competition
When is it problem? In what situations are competition fruitful?
What feelings, thoughts and sensations pops up in your mind?
Read more in my book: Kreativ i ekstremvær
https://www.helgechristie.com/butikk/helge-christies-15-bok-kreativ-i-ekstremvr-e-bok
Do you want to experience a test session on how you may shift brain networks and be more creative in climate and biodiversity solutions, contact helge.christie@gmail.com