Post by Stefan Pasti on May 26, 2012 15:21:55 GMT -5
List of Ten Critical Challenges Ahead
[and: "IPCR Critical Challenges Assessment 2011-2012"
(draft) Table of Contents]
(also Appendix A from “Calling ‘the better angels of our nature: A Multi-Angle View of the Debt Crises”)
[Note: “IPCR Critical Challenges Assessment 2011-2012” project webpage includes drafts for four sections;
see www.ipcri.net/Critical-Challenges-Assessment.html ]
Introduction
1. Global warming and reducing carbon emissions
2. “Cultures” of violence, greed, corruption, and overindulgence—which have become so common that many of us accept such as inevitable; which are a significant part of the current crises of confidence in financial markets; and which are in many ways slowing the restructuring of investment priorities needed to respond to an increasing number of other critical challenges
3. The end of the era of “cheap energy” (particularly in reference to “peak oil”)
4. The increasing world population and its implications relating to widespread resource depletion (with special focus on the increasing number of people who are consuming material goods and ecological resources indiscriminately)
5. Current trends indicate that we are creating more and more “urban agglomerations” (cities with a population of more than 1 million people—more than 400), which require more and more complex and energy intensive infrastructures, where it is more and more difficult to trace the consequences of our individuals investments of time, energy, and money—and which are the least appropriate models when it comes to implementing resolutions to many of the other challenges in this ten point assessment
6. The U.S. and many other countries will enter the next 15 to 20 years burdened by substantial public debt, possibly leading to higher interest rates, higher taxes, and tighter credit
7. A marginalization of the treasured wisdom associated with religious, spiritual, and moral traditions
8. Global inequities and the tragic cycles of malnutrition, disease, and death
9. Community building associated with responding to the above eight challenges may or may not be accompanied by an exponential increase in compassion for our fellow human beings. In such circumstances, shortages of goodwill in times of unprecedented transition could tilt already precarious systems into further disarray, and thus erode established systems in even the most stable communities and regions
10. Sorting out what are real challenges and what are sound and practical solutions is becoming more and more difficult, as there are now, in most communities of the world, a multitude of ideas of all kinds coming to the fore in personal, family, community, and cultural life—all at the same time
Concluding Comments
[and: "IPCR Critical Challenges Assessment 2011-2012"
(draft) Table of Contents]
(also Appendix A from “Calling ‘the better angels of our nature: A Multi-Angle View of the Debt Crises”)
[Note: “IPCR Critical Challenges Assessment 2011-2012” project webpage includes drafts for four sections;
see www.ipcri.net/Critical-Challenges-Assessment.html ]
Introduction
1. Global warming and reducing carbon emissions
2. “Cultures” of violence, greed, corruption, and overindulgence—which have become so common that many of us accept such as inevitable; which are a significant part of the current crises of confidence in financial markets; and which are in many ways slowing the restructuring of investment priorities needed to respond to an increasing number of other critical challenges
3. The end of the era of “cheap energy” (particularly in reference to “peak oil”)
4. The increasing world population and its implications relating to widespread resource depletion (with special focus on the increasing number of people who are consuming material goods and ecological resources indiscriminately)
5. Current trends indicate that we are creating more and more “urban agglomerations” (cities with a population of more than 1 million people—more than 400), which require more and more complex and energy intensive infrastructures, where it is more and more difficult to trace the consequences of our individuals investments of time, energy, and money—and which are the least appropriate models when it comes to implementing resolutions to many of the other challenges in this ten point assessment
6. The U.S. and many other countries will enter the next 15 to 20 years burdened by substantial public debt, possibly leading to higher interest rates, higher taxes, and tighter credit
7. A marginalization of the treasured wisdom associated with religious, spiritual, and moral traditions
8. Global inequities and the tragic cycles of malnutrition, disease, and death
9. Community building associated with responding to the above eight challenges may or may not be accompanied by an exponential increase in compassion for our fellow human beings. In such circumstances, shortages of goodwill in times of unprecedented transition could tilt already precarious systems into further disarray, and thus erode established systems in even the most stable communities and regions
10. Sorting out what are real challenges and what are sound and practical solutions is becoming more and more difficult, as there are now, in most communities of the world, a multitude of ideas of all kinds coming to the fore in personal, family, community, and cultural life—all at the same time
Concluding Comments