This post is all about developing a plan for resolving the many sustainability issues that are threatening our future as a species. We have the requisite knowledge and skills, but without a comprehensive plan and effective leadership, we could be in trouble.

In my public presentations, I am now using some new slides to convey that message as simply as possible. This is the first slide of that presentation...

The next slide likens our current situation to a "runaway luxury train." One or two billion of us are already on that train--and the Earth's other five or six billion citizens are trying to climb aboard just as soon as they can. 

And guess what?  NO ONE really wants to get off the train. Including me. Where does that leave us? Read on...

 

In a serious pickle. Unfortunately, Mother Nature hasn't got the resources to keep that train going for much longer. Further, with millions of new passengers each year and no one wanting to get off, our situation continues to worsen. 

And the worse things get, the less we can depend on an eventual "grassroots revolution" to drive enough change soon enough to make much of a difference. So, what must we do? Jeremy Rifkin calls it the Third Industrial Revolution, a "green one."

There are lots of exciting solutions in his 2018 documentary ( 2-minute trailer) but they just won't happen nearly soon enough to slow climate change before it's too late. What we need right now is what I call...

"Planet-Management." To convey what that means, I tell my audiences an imaginary story about a huge ship facing a survival problem with 6,000 people on board.  

Everything hinges on a plan (developed by the captain) that requires the full-time active participation of every passenger for a minimum of twenty days. Without urgent action, all on board will perish.

Disaster strikes on Day 2 of a 30-day luxury cruise

4800 Passengers, 1200 Crew

Will those 6,000 people comply with the survival plan devised by the captain? Can we do the same on a global scale--involving all 7.6 billion citizens of planet Earth? 

Dr. E.O. Wilson believes that we have the knowledge and skills to handle our looming environmental crises. But...

  

The Bottom Line. I agree with Dr. Wilson about his conclusion that we are an innately dysfunctional species.  So how can we expect such a species to develop and execute a workable, global solution to our situation?

Exactly what can we do to resolve so many unsustainable issues on an already overcrowded planet with an exploding population coupled with ultra-sensitive cultural issues, widespread religious bias, racism, greed, political discord and social differences? 

We simply have to do whatever it takes, we're just going to have a figure out a way to make it work. Read on...

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If Dr. W. Edwards Deming were alive today, perhaps he would be collaborating with Dr. James Lovelock , the 98-year old visionary behind the Gaia Hypothesis . As he stated:

"Mother Earth functions as a self-regulating system...If she improves as a result of human presence, then we will flourish; if she doesn't, then we will die off."

Together, Deming and Lovelock could have worked to save our species by promoting "planet management" to the world's most powerful governmental, industrial, academic and religious leaders.

Then, working on humanity's "operational contract" with Mother Nature, those leaders would develop a global plan for how we can return to living in harmony with the natural world. And then we must urgently execute that plan. 

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In my public presentations, I offer a few details as to how all of that might work. It won't be easy, but we must never give up H.O.P.E. -- helping our planet environmentally.

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