IMPLEXI MUNDI: International Arts and Sciences Complexity Worlds

I Am Sustainability: How the Human Body can Save the Planet
By: Enrico Wensing on: Sun 25 of Nov, 2007 [12:37 UTC] (3102 reads)

Is the search for a sustainable world really our search for utopia? Or, as Evan Eisenberg suggests, our collective quest for our return to the Garden of Eden? What is the mythology of such a quest? Are the steps to The Garden of Eden the hidden agenda within the UN Millennium Project goals (Lancet, Sachs & McArthur 2005)?

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Is such a quest for a global utopia best guided by a non-partisan environmentally active independent government. For instance, in the United States, one perhaps currently best led, say, by an Al Gore and Michael Bloomberg alliance as publisher Steve Forbes has predicted? Is the capitalism in such a utopia best managed utilizing a Eupsychian Management framework, or more recent/modern versions thereof, where the focus is on the fulfillment of our hierarchy of needs, as described by humanistic psychologist Abraham Maslow years ago? Is there enough utility in the new metaphors emerging from complexity science to satisfy the magical ideation’s of the romantic dreamers, more or less in all of us? Are the formal connections between the human body and all of nature, as evidenced in novel embodied cognition and sympoietic dynamical systems theory enough to satisfy the pragmatists, again, more or less in all of us, that a quest to a global utopia is more important to the continuance of human life than the current common practices of exploitative globalization?

To date, environmental education for adults and children has had what appears to be a limited impact on generating global sustainability, or fulfilling the goals of the millennium project, or creating a utopia. My “about to be” published first book, I Am Sustainability: How the Human Body can save the Planet” and our work through Ecosphere Net (www.ecosphere.net) is the beginning of a new conversation that seeks to develop a cross-cultural curriculum for global sustainability. It proposes identity formation in sustainability utilizing a social constructivist pedagogy framework, with the individual human body as the grounding/focal point for that identity.

This presentation will be an example of the informal conversation that is “I Am Sustainability: How the Human Body can save the Planet”

The Ecosphere Net Project will also be introduced. That is, the creation of a global network of sustainability education centers that co-develop a cross-cultural curriculum for global sustainability.

Is there something more fundamental we can consider in our lives than our impact on this planet simply in terms of local consumption, energy conservation, and carbon trading?

Whether studied formally, or considered metaphorically complexity science offers something for everyone with regard to a deeper change and a greater impact.

"I Am Sustainability" is about the application of complexity science for a deeper ecology and a greater chance at saving the planet for all of us.

"A human being is a part of a whole, called by us ‘universe’, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest... a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty." - Albert Einstein

addenda 2/18/2007

Just a note on format and content:

Following a brief introduction, this presentation will be conducted as an open generative conversation. We will utilize our conversation at the 2008 Winter Chaos meeting to continue to co-create a curriculum for sustainability that will help save the planet. This conversation will be a continuation of the one initiated at Ecosphere Net that we call I Am Sustainability. Based out of St. John in the US Virgin Islands, Ecosphere Net (www.ecosphere.net) is a multi-disciplinary group of teachers, academics, and scholars from around the world. At Ecosphere Net we assume that education and social action research can be interfaced effectively, that this interface can have a valid sociopolitical agenda and that this interface within a constructivist participatory research methodology utilizing a global network of sustainability education centers (SEC’s) and a continuing pluralistic conversation is the best cross-cultural approach to shift human values and behaviors toward global sustainability.
Ecosphere Net will carry the results of our conversation at the 2008 Winter Chaos meeting forward to other venues involving different cultures that include young and adult learners, corporations and scientific groups. For instance, Ecosphere Net will bring the results of the Winter Chaos conversation to an upcoming scientific meeting at Queens College, Cambridge University. We will also publish the results from the conversation in an upcoming book tentatively entitled Ecosphere Net: Global Conversations for Global Sustainability.
As many of you know the complexity sciences have much to contribute toward a curriculum for global sustainability. The following are questions that will be posed to the 2008 Winter Chaos group and will form some of the topics of our conversation following a brief introduction to the I Am sustainability conversation thus far:

1. How can the formal and metaphoric aspects of connectionist network models help people find deeper meaning, belonging and identification in sustainability; both personal and global? (aka. the autopoietic and sympoietic systems reconciliation)
2. Which education systems are currently available to connect dynamical systems sciences with education for sustainability?
3. How can the complexity sciences best be utilized the cross- cultural I Am Sustainability curriculum for global sustainability that seeks to generate a balance between social belonging/identity and an embodied self-belonging/identity?

which is also the format of the I Am Sustainability curriculum.

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davidgibson

All action is local - eh?

on: Wed 30 of Jan, 2008 [15:41 UTC]

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I'll be very interested in hearing Enrico. We're working to get young people to think bigand work together across the globe while doing so. I'm fascinated by the possibility of "starting at home" - even with one' self - as a global strategy. It really captures the idea of "agent-based complex systems" in a new way!

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fredabraham

Regarding Dietary Strategies

on: Wed 30 of Jan, 2008 [11:29 UTC]

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I found the O’Keefe et al. paper on glucose response curves is very important and illuminating. While it proscribes dietary advice much in line with prevailing other prevailing literature on healthy diets, it has some additional specifics. In addition to glucose response, there are other measures of inflammatory response of interest, presented with clear graphics and I found these useful to compare with quite a bit of my own data that I get by being a guinea pig in a long term research project for a drug that attenuates these curves. They report the results of dietary items that attenuate these response curves, which can be useful especially when you slip off yoour diet with that occasional high glycemic meal. These items include vinegar, moderate alcohol, fiber, calorie restriction, high quality protein. Exercise and weight-loss are also mentioned of course.

I might point out an additional reading that covers a few specifics beyond the usual. Inflammatory response is caused by the immune system, and there is a book on diet as it relates to the immune system. It is Win the War Within, by Floyd H. Chilton with Laura Tucker. I leave the health research in our family to my wife, but just happened to wander into this book. It starts out with a kind of overly lay chapter kind of in keeping with its hokey title, but as a research biochemist, they quickly get down to some scientific nitty-gritty. Not only coronary artery disease of the O’Keefe article, but note that several other diseases of our modern society such as allergies, eczema, arthritis, asthma, and IBD (aka IBS) are caused by an overactive immune system which in turn is cause by the poor quality of modern diets. Inflammatory omega-6 fatty acid (arachidonic acid—AA) is a major building block for inflammatory messengers high in eggs and salmon (farm-raised only). The list will grow. One form of AA is actually good for you, dihomogammalinolenic acid (DGLA). It helps block the conversion of AA to inflammatory messengers. I won’t go on, but the dietary recommendations that result are more specific and sometimes contrary to other common dietary recommendations (e.g., fish recommendations) that reading this book I consider important for myself.

While most dietary discussions are not cast in dynamic language, they are clearly dealing with dynamics systems.

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fredabraham

Re Dietary Strategies, submitted by Enrico

on: Wed 30 of Jan, 2008 [11:24 UTC]

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This is an abstract from an article sent me by Enrico. I don't know if he will tie this in with his presentation on the dynamics of ecological restoration and preservation, but there is an obvious connection between our treatment of our planet and of our own bodies. If you can't fish the article off the net, ask me or Enrico for a copy. It is short and clear.

Dietary Strategies for Improving Post-Prandial Glucose, Lipids, Inflammation, and Cardiovascular Health

James H. O’Keefe, MD, Neil M. Gheewala, MS, Joan O. O’Keefe, RD, Kansas City, Missouri

The highly processed, calorie-dense, nutrient-depleted diet favored in the current American culture frequently leads to exaggerated supraphysiological post-prandial spikes in blood glucose and lipids. This state, called postprandial dysmetabolism, induces immediate oxidant stress, which increases in direct proportion to the increases in glucose and triglycerides after a meal. The transient increase in free radicals acutely triggers atherogenic changes including inflammation, endothelial dysfunction, hypercoagulability, and sympathetic hyperactivity. Post-prandial dysmetabolism is an independent predictor of future cardiovascular events even in nondiabetic individuals. Improvements in diet exert profound and immediate favorable changes in the post-prandial dysmetabolism. Specifically, a diet high in minimally processed, high-fiber, plant-based foods such as vegetables and fruits, whole grains, legumes, and nuts will markedly blunt the post-meal increase in glucose, triglycerides, and inflammation. Additionally, lean protein, vinegar, fish oil, tea, cinnamon, calorie restriction, weight loss, exercise, and low-dose to moderate-dose alcohol each positively impact post-prandial dysmetabolism. Experimental and epidemiological studies indicate that eating patterns, such as the traditional Mediterranean or Okinawan diets, that incorporate these types of foods and beverages reduce inflammation and cardiovascular risk. This anti-inflammatory diet should be considered for the primary and secondary prevention of coronary artery disease and diabetes. (J Am Coll Cardiol 2008;51:249–55) © 2008 by the American College of Cardiology Foundation

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ejwensing

Deep ecology meets deep psychology

on: Sat 01 of Dec, 2007 [00:38 UTC]

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Soon you may have me in Vermont as well.

Thank you Fred. Is it too late? It depends on your definition of an acceptable endpoint I suppose, which will in fact really just be a new beginning. And, some suggest, it might be an act of arrogance on our part to knowingly choose to not to do anything because, in our judgment, we think the end is imminent and we know what that looks like.

You may have to shift your paradigm, but, its never too late.

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fredabraham

education for global sustainability

on: Fri 30 of Nov, 2007 [20:22 UTC]

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These are great ideas of Enrico's. Others also address this issue, see David Gibson's use of the web for school projects. Enrico is concerned with the rate of the escalation of our crisis, as does Gore whom he cites as a leader (remember Ehrlich's opening graphs in The Population Bomb?) In Vermont here, we have McKibben as well as Gibson. McKibben leads the way in focusing on how the individual can make a great impact with local consumption, energy conservation, and carbon trading. But is it too late?

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