Anyone who has attended one of my presentations or workshops over the last 10 years or so will be aware of my attachment to a great quote from Albert Einstein “we cannot change today’s problems with the same patterns of thought that created those problems in the first place”

Initially this was used to rethink the way we collaborate or integrate (or dont)within the industry, but now of late has more relevance to the way we are addressing environmental and carbon issues.

It was good to see this paradigm  in two recent articles:

Satish Kumar, editor of Resurgence commenting in the Guardian yesterday ‘Cutting carbon is a rich fool’s errand’ makes the point…Focusing only on carbon emissions without protecting ecosystems is simply treating the symptoms rather than the causes of global warming.

It has been said that “the economy is a wholly owned subsidiary of ecology”, but the economic paradigm now sweeping the world operates as if it were the other way around. Governments, industries and businesses everywhere, apart from a few enlightened exceptions such as in Bhutan, believe the economy comes first; that with economic growth it is possible to manage ecology and clean up the environment. This is at the root of the climate crisis

What does it matter if the forests have gone and the biosphere is polluted?

With money, we can fix these problems.

Our efforts to reduce carbon emissions, although necessary, are of secondary importance. Carbon trading, finding alternatives to fossil fuels and other technological solutions should not be the reason for failing to take steps in protecting the biosphere or of finding ways of living that encourage climate security.

And secondly in the FT Weekend, in an interview,architect Rick Maher, when questioned on his thoughts on ‘current green thinking’ responded  that “you don’t create a problem and then high tech methods to solve it. You need to design the need for energy out of the building in the first place. And it really works”  (my ideal house is a wreck)

All good stuff…