Our Global Puzzle
2009 September 28
There are, obviously, a lot of issues of the world today. But one of the biggest issues that is not being addressed is our capacity, as a society, to deal with all of these issues. All of the problems that exist today are outpacing the capacity of governments and institutions to deal with them
Countries are unable to resolve the sorts of planet-wide challenges now arising. There needs to be cooperative international institutions capable of dealing with the many interactive effects of global change — and enforcing compliance where necessary.
Unfortunately, there are very few institutional structures to achieve cooperation globally on the sort of scales now essential to avoid very serious consequences.
Energy, food and water crises, climate disruption, emerging diseases and increasing antibiotic resistance are examples of serious, intertwined global-scale challenges spawned by the accelerating scale of human activity, but still they are managed as separate phenomena. This is not only illogical, but more importantly, it’s a dangerous approach to have give that most, if not all major issues are directly related to each other.
And until this root cause (Clobal Crisis “Eco System”) is considered, there will continue to be inefficiency and failure regarding our fight these problems. New collaborative platforms for how to deal with these interactions are needed amongst existing institutions, and new institutions, to help construct and maintain some sort of global-scale social contract that we all abide by.
The challenge of climate change is closely linked to the capacity of ecosystems worldwide to generate services and the well being of any economy rests on this capacity. Such interdependencies have to be tackled through regional and global cooperation.
The core of the problem is promoting cooperation in situations where individuals and nations will collectively gain if all cooperate, but not all need to necessarily participate in order to benefit.
Everyone must realize that nothing will change unless…EVERYONE changes.
