[Pil-pc-oceania] Small and Slow Solutions Doctrine

[nicholas at themediasociety.org]

I'm all for 'small and slow solutions' that synergise to create 'global and rapid solutions' . 

We all know the Paul Kelly song.. 
it was played at APC9 during the Mollison tribute, 'from little thngs, big things grow' 
http://unionsong.com/u036.html

I am concerned that 'small and slow solutions' could become a piece of doctrine that insulates one from the reality of 'global and rapid problems'

here's another one from Einstein "everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler". 

Perhaps we should extend that to 'everything should be made as slow, small and simple as possible, but not so that it is a reductionist reationalisation for not tackling the large, rapid and complex nature of the problem"

personally, all my 'slow and small solutions' are working towards 'rapid and global solutions' to 'accelerating global problems.

accelerating climate change ? 

ice-caps melting ? 

nuclear proliferation ? 

widening gap be rich and poor ? 

energy security ? 

etc etc etc

From George Monbiot's "Sudden Change of State"

The IPCC predicts that sea levels could rise by as much as 59cm this
century(2). Hansen's paper argues that the slow melting of ice sheets
the panel expects doesn't fit the data. The geological record suggests
that ice at the poles does not melt in a gradual and linear fashion,
but flips suddenly from one state to another. When temperatures
increased to 2-3 degrees above today's level 3.5 million years ago, sea
levels rose not by 59 centimetres but by 25 metres. The ice responded
immediately to changes in temperature(3).

http://www.monbiot.com/archives/2007/07/03/a-sudden-change-of-state/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Hansen#Fast-feedback_effects

http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5hJFKUs07Gv2gFRI9O9xArvj6tkyg 


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