Becoming crew
Why everybody now is needed to take action in the face of this existential crisis unfolding rapidly on our watch.
“Will we be the first species to monitor its own extinction ?’’
9 years ago I saw Caroline Lucas speak on a panel at a sustainable business event in London, at the end of her talk she said these words ‘will we be the first species to monitor its own extinction ?’ — it was such a profound statement, it knocked me sideways , and I’ve never forgotten it.
At that time I was spiralling into grief, my own ecological breakdown, personally awakening to the realisation of what this industrial way of life, the pursuit of ‘infinite economic growth on a finite planet’, now so pervasive , was doing to the very earth systems that without which we cannot survive.
Starting to see that our comfortable, convenient, materials based culture, operating on selfish design principles, was completely out of wack with the operating system of the biosphere, which creates the conditions for all life, humans included.
Remember ecology owns economy.
This ‘great acceleration’ chart was introduced to me by Stephan Harding while studying at Schumacher college in 2010, look closely at it, it kind of tells you all you need to know, why this model of organising humanity that we are all operating from, is no longer appropriate, our economic systems are destroying earth systems, so the very conditions that enable life are collapsing through the pursuit of this industrial growth economic model. It’s beyond madness.
Yet this quite simple scientific reality is nowhere in our culture, surely as it threatens our future survival it should be daily headlines, it should be at the core of our learning institutions, or our business institutions, as the central political challenge/lens to develop all policies and legislation from.. but no, why not?
Stephan would say — ‘ We are at war with nature’ . And N.B this is happening so fast now, that the future of human civilisation is in the balance, not years down the line, but now, if you have children this is going to start unravelling in profound ways during their life time.
Yet this model of unchecked industrial growth, (where nature and ecosystems are a resource for humans to do what they like with), continues to be preached by schools, universities, business schools, politicians, governments, media and corporations as ‘the core idea in our society’ etc
I would argue today that anyone who supports this model, with all the scientific evidence we have, should be seriously questioned from a sanity perspective.
What a crazy time to be alive.
Our ocean health on which all life depends is in freefall, carbon emissions are rising to record levels in the atmosphere, the Amazon and other major rainforests are burning, critical ecosystems are collapsing, water systems are choking on plastics, the air we breath is toxic, artic ice is melting faster than scientists predicted, we’re living in the 6th mass extinction.
This is profoundly sad, distressing and upsetting and the need for grief is a vital part of enabling visions for a new and different future and a healed and renewed earth.
Alongside this children are striking from school in their millions and next week Extinction Rebellion kicks off the international autumn rebellion, a mass initiative of non violent direct action and civil disobedience to demand political leaders tell the truth about the climate and ecological emergency, take the urgent action that the science is screaming out for us to follow and bring citizens and experts together to co-create the new policies and radical shifts needed through citizen assemblies.
So what’s my story in all this right now?
One of the ideas that has began to dominate my thinking over the last decade, is that of waking up to/becoming aware of existing on a living planet, interconnected, alive, where everything is in relationship, a vast web of life which actually co-creates the conditions for life. This is how James Lovelock saw it with Gaia theory, the Earth actually self regulates to maintain the conditions for life, and through a vast web of relationships and interactions across plants, soils, ocean, water, gases, minerals, rocks, forests, wetlands, climate and an array of species — all participating in co-creating the conditions for life. This is not something that was ever taught to me or discussed in any part of my professional journey in the commercial world. But this ecological illiteracy, this total disconnect from the earths’s operating systems is arguably the key driver of our destructive ways of being on the planet.
Bucky Fuller’s — Operating manual for Spaceship Earth — connected me with the idea of ‘crew’, where all life is playing a role in the ongoing operating system of the SpaceShip Earth, not just the engineering species that create and maintain habitats and ecosystems, but widening to include all human life .— this has been the inspiration for me through much of my co-design work, where we might all participate in the co-creation process.
But life as crew on the Spaceship Earth, where everything must be in co-operation with all life and adhering to the regenerative principles and ‘limits to growth’ dynamics of how the Spaceship operates are in complete contrast to the narratives of our current economic system and human operating systems that we live our lives by.
In this current narrative( which is clearly starting to wobble) where you put your head down and get on with it, where we all try and get ahead of everyone else, gain as much material wealth as possible, withdraw ourselves from community to focus on our own goals, view nature as a resource for humans, and create huge negative planetary impacts as we pursue a hi-carbon, hi-material lifestyle.
It’s a story where we see ourselves as passengers on the spaceship earth , passive bystanders, where we are removed from the operating system, oblivious to our impacts, with no responsibility to the collective now or interest in the future health of society. More on that in a talk I did in April this year if you’re curious.
So where I’ve got to is the need for a mass awakening to seeing the world as a complex, interconnected, intelligent and sacred living system, to start to move into relationship with all life, and a shift from consumerism to participation and regenerative culture, where co-creation, connection and community is at the heart of what it means to be alive.
A creative reimagining of our entire operating system at every level, to ensure restoring and healing of the planet, of each other and the communities as a core and central design principle of how we might live. Oh and what we can learn from indigneous cultures here if we just had the humulity to stop and listen.
Without this shift in consciousness across culture, we’re unlikey to make it.. Without joined up strategies across sectors and networks to accelerate this shift, we won’t make it.
And for that to happen, it’s going to require rapid and intentional radical collaborations of unusual suspects working together, not for money, not for brand purpose, not for organisational gain, fame, or individual ego recognition but purely for love, care and responsibility for life, of the extraordinary awesomeness of our planet, and a chance to redesign the operating principles to help humanity and all life have a future worth living for.
Because the billions of years of evolutionary magic that have created the awe and wonder of the earth and the systems that support our ways of life are set to be destroyed by a *spell* cast a few hundred years ago which has really only been ramped up in the last 3 decades.
Literally we risk everything because of a few ‘earth minutes’ (in the greater evolutionary time frame) of hubris, of a logic and way of thinking about the world that we now know is threatening the future for humans and all life.
Are you willing and OK to accept that ?
7 million people, predominately young people took to the streets last week to demand urgent action on this crisis, they are not going to stop until things change.
The generation in power and leadership today are going to be held accountable for their inactions, who really wants to look at their children and other young people in the eye down the line when asked ‘what did you do when you knew about the overwhelming scientific evidence?’
So as Extinction Rebellion put it — we need everybody now.
My own flavour of focus right now is on ‘becoming crew’ — how to instigate, convene, provoke, encourage, inspire and support networks and communities of talent, energy and influence to become crew, to connect emotionally with this crisis, this existential threat to life, and to fully step into it and start to participate in what Joanna Macy calls ‘ The Great Turning’ — the shift from the destructive, extractive, polluting, industrialised way of being on this earth to something regenerative, life-centered, creative, community focussed, in relationship with all life,
One of the missions I’m currently exploring is the creative response to this challenge, with a particular focus on commercial and grassroots creative sectors and networks.
You can read more about the experiment I was immersed in during the summer around creative mobilisation of the advertising sector to support the youth climate movement. And if you’re curious to know more, have a listen to my recent podcast episode which frames up this moment in time, this specific experiment and what is emerging next and references other initiatives and networks who are galvanising the change within this sector,
One of the things I often hear people say to me is they feel powerless, they don’t have the time, or what can they do, the system is screwed, or they can’t change the model, it’s too late etc.
Seriously if one courageous teenage girl from Sweden can create a global movement with a smart phone and by striking from school, what could we all do together?
The thing I’m really interested in, is that there’s so much that skilled and influential networks could be doing, all it needs is some commitment, intention, emotional connection to the problem, willingness to experiment and collaborate, and regular dedicated time, and critically working in a joined up way with a strategic focus that is grounded and informed by the science and what is driving the crisis.
This is where I’m starting to deepen my work.
One practical barrier I’m seeing is that those of us who can, will need to let go of some of the obsession with money and income, (btw money will become useless if we don’t sort this out rapidly)
So it requires some thinking as a business, as employers and employees, as freelancers, partners and families.
How much money do you really need?
I’m especially interested in more senior folks who’ve probably got a bit more room for maneouvres and in an organisation could create the space for more people to play and participate.
How much can you lower your costs and therefore start to free up time to start doing what you’re good at but pointing it at this collective problem — not your problem, not your customers problem, not your clients problem, but the problems that are going to destroy all our futures if we don’t collectively pull our fingers out.
We literally have 18 months to start the transformation or the slim chance of keeping the climate rising beyond 1.5 degrees is gone.
A new form of civic and planetary participation where we begin to start rapidly working together to stop the destruction of earth systems and start to birth the new stories, visions, ideas and ways of being on this planet that might regenerate life — for all individuals, communities and the non human world.
Again I’m using Joanna Macy’s model to frame this up. The three dimensions of the Great Turning, because I think it’s simple, useful and bang on as a frame, that when we step back and observe life from a more systemic view, we can all start to see a role for what we can do, in how to make the cultural shifts necessary.
The First Dimension: Holding Actions
Stopping or slowing down the destruction of what is left of earth systems and ecosystems and slowing climate breakdown from the impacts of industrial growth society and ‘business as usual’. As well as the frontline direct action, campaigning, protest and more — I’m really interested in strategic activity which can include creative storytelling, culture jamming, and mobilising networks of influence to help raise awareness and accelerate culture shifts and policy change and this is where a strand of my work is deepening.
This could be working off decentralised briefs and challenges as we did with the climate strike mobilisation , in teams, crews and self organising networks as well as at an individual level there is so much we can do — for example I love this from Andy Middleton recently as an example of speaking the truth, acting courageously, focussing on *the* problem not ourselves, honouring our children and the future for all life.
Imagine if we started working in joined up ways, using decentralised crews and teams to start rapidly halting the destruction of ecosystems focussing on highly targeted issues, networks and sectors, through creative mobilisation, strategic interventions and smart tactics to change the game, to make toxic policies, business and sectors no longer acceptable on this planet.
Second Dimension: Life sustaining systems and practices
Re-imagining and re-designing the systems that support human and non human life. Now this is huge and there is enormous amounts of things happening here, from transport, to energy, food and how we live. Today we have brilliant solutions, innovations, and ideas that can help us shift to a new way of being, many include nature based solutions as we recognise finally the proven technologies of nature are of an intelligence way beyond the industrial mindset. Unfortunately what is missing is the speed of change and adoption of these new ideas, and the political and corporate willingness to get behind this transformational shift.
What I’m really interested in currently is the role of creative business, grassroots creativity, culture, media, activism, ecological design, wellbeing, indigenous wisdom and professional networks more broadly radically collaborating in changing the ideas, stories, visions and narratives that we peddle daily to help culture see the urgency, possibility and beauty of a different way of being on this earth that works for everyone.
So imagine if the creative powers that infiltrate every part of our daily lives to tell us we’re not good enough and we need more stuff to be someone, started to pulse love, empathy, generosity, connection to nature and each other, encouraged us to creatively express ourselves, that less is not loss, and that community and caring is cool. What might be ?
I’m just about to start working in collaboration with a brilliant network on new stories and visions beyond consumption, industrial growth society and perpetual economic growth. (Hit me up if you’d like to know more.)
Third Dimension: Shift in Consciousness
What drives us to act now on behalf of something bigger than ourselves, beyond companies, nations, political parties, our own species ?
As we recognise and start to wake up to that deep uncomfortable feeling that we know in our hearts as our political systems are failing to act rationally in the face of overwhelming scientific evidence, as children and the young are rising up in huge numbers demanding the adults to act.
When we step into our courage and vulnerability, when we connect with others and the wider web of life, the possibilities are endless, and action itself becomes powerful medicine for the most challenging of times.
I’ve recently been working with one of my favourite brands on the planet, Patagonia with the launch of their Action Works platform in Europe, a way to connect more people with environmental activism near them.
In Yvon Chouinard’s words, ‘if the destruction of our planetary home is getting you down, the best cure for depression is action so ‘Answer with Action’.
So this is what is deepening for me right now.
Since Caroline Lucas mentioned those words 9 years ago, we as a species have continued to monitor with increasing accuracy and cleverness the rapid path to our own extinction.
I never imagined I would be on the streets climate striking with my own children listening to terrified teenagers talking about human extinction as a possibility in the coming years.
But here we are. It’s happening on our watch.
We need everybody now.
And by Becoming crew. We can all act.
Do reach out to me if you’re interested in stepping into any of these emerging missions or curious about how your organisation or sector can become crew.
Join Good for Nothing
Join the Purpose Disruptors
Join Extinction Rebellion
Explore Stories for Life
Whatever you decide to do, do something.
Peace and Out