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    Our Historic Moment: Purpose, Planet, And Places to Intervene
    Our Historic Moment: Purpose, Planet, And Places to Intervene
    Our Historic Moment: Purpose, Planet, And Places to Intervene
    Ebook138 pages1 hour

    Our Historic Moment: Purpose, Planet, And Places to Intervene

    By David Jaber

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    About this ebook

    How do we create the world that works for all? What do we understand that means? And how do politicians, business leaders and non-profits best work together on this front?

    Our Historic Moment articulates the vision for our activity across the globe and dives into a rich exploration of the root causes that block us from achieving our vision. Whether simply inertia, lack of information reaching the right people, or other factors, pitfalls abound.

    We then put the focus where it should be – on the solutions – offering paths forward toward the vision and stressing that our time to act is now. Whether looking to science, religion or other wisdom, many sources hold lessons that we can draw on in this quest. Moving forward has real implications for:
    - political leaders
    - business managers
    - policy makers
    - ecology advocates
    - those working for social justice

    Those in these roles have a real opportunity to maintain what's working as well as drive positive change. Critical to this work is understanding the best leverage points for intervention, so we are as effective as we can possibly be. Without understanding those leverage points, our efforts can be wasted.

    With vision defined, leverage points clear and mindset properly attuned, our actions naturally flow from there. All can contribute toward the many solutions that are articulated here, and even more importantly, define their own solutions using the Our Historic Moment framework.

    At less than 100 pages, Our Historic Moment is a manageable read to help you see the path forward.

    No matter whether you're new to tackling solutions for your community, country and planet; feel frustrated by the state of affairs, but are not seeing how to proceed; or already consider yourself an actively engaged change agent, welcome.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBookBaby
    Release dateMar 1, 2017
    ISBN9780998642017
    Our Historic Moment: Purpose, Planet, And Places to Intervene

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      Book preview

      Our Historic Moment - David Jaber

      © 2017 David Jaber. All rights reserved.

      For reproduction permission or to order more books, please contact the author via http://www.ourhistoricmoment.com

      First edition. The print version of this book printed on 100% post-consumer recycled paper with soy-based ink. E-book also available. Infographics by Design Action Collective. Cover art by Lisa Duba.

      ISBN 978-0-9986420-1-7 eBook

      TABLE OF CONTENTS

      Preface

      Why Should I Care? Why Should I Read this Book?

      What Can I Do?

      Surveying the Landscape

      The Vision

      What’s Working and What’s Not Working?

      Renewable

      Non-Toxic

      Ecological

      Equitable

      Why Are We Not Where We Need to Be?

      The Seven Barriers

      1. Inertia Grips Our System

      2. We Lack Feedback

      3. Political Donations Block Feedback

      4. Non-Responsive Bureaucracy Blocks Feedback

      5. Feedback Recipients are Disempowered

      6. Wealth Concentration Hinders Equity

      7. We Devalue Diversity

      How Do We Drive Change?

      Mindset and Goals

      Science

      Indigenous Ways of Knowing

      Teachings from World Religions

      Synergies

      Enhancing Feedback

      Localization

      Transparency

      Life-Cycle Analysis

      Making the Change

      Government:

      Business:

      Non-Profits

      Individuals:

      Redesigning the System

      Preface

      We are at a historic moment. We swirl around the confluence of global awareness, ubiquitous technology and international opportunity. Yet, we are caught up in battles that have been waged for decades. Stories of resource struggles, escalating habitat destruction, suffocating pollution, trampled human rights and global warfare are rampant. The good news is that many people are ready and motivated to act, and apply their skills and energy to transform these stories into stories of hope.

      Renewable resources, ecological integrity and habitat preservation have been the focus of my adult life. In my world, we must act on these fronts that are critical to the health of the planet and the life it supports. What has become clear to me in this pursuit is how fundamentally these fronts connect to business management, foreign policy, indigenous rights, social equity, and trade agreements. In some ways, our momentum has been amazing and we have come far. For many of us who have been working on solutions for years, however, it is discouraging to see not only limited progress, but also limited agreement – at least within a couple of small but key audiences – that our issues are worthy of serious investment and thoughtful strategy. What’s at least as discouraging is the level of resources that have been deployed to counteract our progress. We need a broadly shared, big-picture view to break through to victory. We need to literally and figuratively clear the air.

      Why don’t we have vastly greater understanding that we need to act? Why do good people advancing good work encounter obstruction? Ultimately, no matter what the answer to these questions, we need our efforts to focus on real root causes to problems, rather than false solutions. If we can clearly identify the barriers to making advances, and effectively address the barriers with real solutions, we are on the path to having a world that works for all.

      Why Should I Care? Why Should I Read this Book?

      The importance of this work transcends political party, job title and creed. We are talking about the survival of higher forms of life on this planet. My intent in writing this was to make it accessible to all, without being overcritical of any one sector and without threatening reader worldview, beyond how the facts present themselves. Challenge yourself to keep an open mind.

      If you have not yet felt a call to action, I would not expect you to immediately dive in now. There has been a litany of evidence presented in mainstream media on the global challenges and crises that confront all businesss, communities and nations. The vast majority of people have some awareness of at least a few, and probably several, of our challenges. However, there is a spectrum of reasons why people might not act:

      - Not believing the above are actually issues to address

      - Having belief, but not the will to act on those beliefs and/or other beliefs and distractions in conflict.

      - Having will, but not the means (or time or energy) for better action

      - Having means and time and energy, but not a clearly better choice of action. Either better choices don’t exist; multiple choices exist, but it’s unclear which are better; or better choices seem clear, but there is no feedback to know whether a choice is actually better.

      No matter where you fall on this spectrum, I encourage you to at least read the Surveying the Landscape chapter, which formulates the goals of human activity on the planet.

      I’ve personally experienced the conceptual power of those goals, and that is exactly why I’m sharing them with you.

      On countless occasions, it’s helped me discern what really matters. And we have to agree on goals to effectively move forward together, except where you see other tactical value in any goal-oriented efforts.

      In considering whether or not to author a book that grapples with these issues, shows the interconnections, focuses on root causes and charts a path forward, I weighed several questions:

      Hasn’t plenty of written material already been published on barriers and solutions?

      Shouldn’t the focus be on art, video and imagery, since it’s often more moving than written word?

      Shouldn’t the focus be on experiential learning, since it’s generally more powerful than reading?

      Don’t people just need easier avenues to do the right thing? Or do they just need to be inspired to put forth more effort for the right thing?

      How do we effectively drive change, given a host of past efforts and their varying levels of success?

      The answer to the first question is an unqualified yes. There is much great writing that’s been done by many authors to address why business and government need to address renewable resource and ecological concerns (David Orr, Joel Makower), how indigenous rights and habitat preservation are interconnected (Starhawk, Wangari Maathai), and more (Sharif Abdullah, Rudolf Steiner and more). They provide a great deal of practical advice for those seeking solutions. What I seek is deep analysis that 1) provides insight on system dynamics, 2) frames where we need to be at the big-picture level, 3) uses that frame to enable citizens to drive change through informed solutions, and 4) ties the themes of all this great work together. The questions to answer: In our economics, politics, ecological stewardship, and organizational management: 1) what’s working and how do we maintain it? 2) what isn’t working and how do we fix it?

      Regarding experiential learning, video, and easier avenues of action, our efforts necessarily need to go

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