¨What If¨ thinking
As we are interested in non-traditional thinking, we will continue this series about Global Warming and Sustainability with ¨What If¨ thinking.
Would it not be exceptional fantastic If.….
Put forward a fantasy or a wish, knowing in advance its impossibility to achieve. It is important that it is provocative, that is causing anger or another vehement reaction, especially on purpose. It is much too weak to just put forward a normal desire, aim, or task.
It is utopian thinking, that enables us to perceive the big picture, including the things that upset or even repel us, in a usefully optimistic light, in terms of what could be. It gives us the courage and confidence to see the distance between reality and our dreams as a space of opportunity rather than an ipso facto defeat.
Our Efforts …. and some stolen
Water
Deforestation
Can we develop trees that are not so dark?
Planting more trees typically makes the land darker. Since dark surfaces absorb more heat, a dark tree-covered surface will trap more of the Sun’s heat–and warm the local climate.
How to select trees that emit volatile chemicals into the air?
These chemicals stick together to form tiny floating particles called aerosols, which have complicated effects. For example, the aerosols create a faint haze. This scatters sunlight back into space, cooling the planet. “Probably the more important effect is those particles act as seeds for cloud droplets,” says Spracklen. This creates a more low cloud, or thicker low cloud, which also bounces sunlight back to space.
Intensive Farming
Social Change
What if warehouse workers, labor unions, environmental activists, and other social movements create a Global Security Operations Center that heavily rely on social media intelligence to spy on companies massively that undermine or obstruct anti-global warming and sustainability policies?
What if we get rid of the most influential organizations working in sustainability today and all national and international bodies that have developed since the publication of the report The Limits to Growth report about exponential economic and population growth with a finite supply of resources? (The Shirky Principle: “Institutions will try to preserve the problem to which they are the solution¨.
Economics
Collaboration
Scientific approach
In a complex crisis, it is common and necessary to appoint a red team to provide contradictions. What if we set up a Red Team parallel to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)?
Move forward
Take some ¨What If´s¨ and move forward to a practical idea.
Can we design other ways to realize the underlying principle or concept?
What is the difference with the existing situation? What could be possible now?
Imagine what happens from moment to moment. Flashes of insight?
Can we build the positive points of the What If into the existing situation?
Under what circumstances or conditions could we realize the ¨What If¨ situation?
Related posts
Symbiotic Biomimicry. Sustainability is an approach where we try to create and maintain conditions under which humans and nature can exist in productive harmony. But is the approach enough to make sure we have and will continue to have water, materials, and resources that can protect our health and the environment? Innovations using symbiotic biomimicry as an inspiration offer a way to create a symbiosis between humans and the environment.
Nature Spotting Inspires Wild Ideas. Join Theo and Tuva on their nature walks and inspire yourself by their observations using a biomimicry lens of the natural world. Imaginative play is important for creativity, and a walk in nature could inspire so many ideas.
Remedies Against Groupthink. There are several answers for groupthink. In formal debate, you may appoint a Devil’s Advocate. To build in considerations about public safety, the legislature can subsidize a critical social movement, i.e. environmentalism. Prosecutors and police may set up contradiction teams to prepare alternative hypotheses about suspects.
Group Obedience. Groupthink is a phenomenon where the desire for group cohesiveness and a quick decision cloud the judgment of the people in the group. The decision taken is often less than ideal. Identifying warning signs of groupthink is vital.
Rethink Investment Strategies–What can Nature Teach us about Money? Traditionally, people see the economy and nature as opposites. Yet investors might learn from nature and this approach may lead to more socially responsible investing that may help society. In addition, investment strategies may also be beneficial for the investor.
Plants and Robots working together. A symbiotic relationship and robot support and controls the biological plants at the same time the biological plant guides the robotic plant through growth towards for example light. The plant also provides support for the weight of the robot during the later growth phases.
A sad tree. Trees communicate by using smell. They send out chemicals to warn predators. The acacia tree on the African savannah that is being eaten by a giraffe gives off a warning gas that warns other neighboring trees, so they immediately start pumping toxic substances into their leaves. The giraffes ignore the neighboring trees and move to another area, or to an area where the wind had not transported the message.
Global Moral Development, Global Elitism, and Global Institutions. While they have studied human group decisions for millennia, animal groups have to decide collectively about communal movements, activities, nesting sites, and enterprises, such as cooperative breeding or hunting, that crucially affect their survival and reproduction. Group decisions in animals pose many similar questions to those in humans.
