Can we get past "The Big Stuck"?

In the 1970's The Club of Rome identified a new sort of problem that arises once you recognise that everything is connected to everything else. Dennis Meadows and his associates identified resource shortages as imposing "Limits to Growth", an ideal economists like to say is unlikely given changes in technology and innovation.
Now in the early 21^st Century, we see limits to growth arising in a quite new way, because the environment is unable to process the amount of waste modern economies are producing. The problem is visible in water pollution, acidification of the oceans and in climate change.

Getting to 350: Solutions when the Solution is the Problem
Michael Woolcock is a Senior Social Scientist with the World Bank's Development Research Group. He asks,"What is wrong with the architecture we use for solving problems in the world? He believes we can learn much from reading history.

We are using 20^th Century architecture to resolve 21^st Century problems. Gridlock is common, hence "nothing changes" while the problems get worse. Woolcock nicknames this as "The Big Stuck".

Woolcock explains the system of international decision making. This is complicated by language and belief systems and laws and political traditions. People look for "experts" who seem to have a "solution", someone who can recommend a best practice to follow. This allows people to "cut and paste", "best practice" from one problem to another only to keep on repeating failure. Agents are stewards of "best practice" and the seek to "comply" with the standard, so that not much bad stuff occurs while we are here.

Woolcock explains an attempt to implement a system that might work better. A new system that allows people to suggest and try novel ideas. There is a method for evaluating novel ideas, and choosing the best. The work that is done, needs to be seen to be legitimate by the community. The community should develop and empower new leaders. The front line staff must have the capacity to do effective work. There has been some success, but there's still a class of problems that refuse "solution". Political and legal reform, or poverty reduction, for instance.

Climate Change is another example of the hardest class of problems which have no obvious technical solution. Mankind has no framework for resolving such a complex problem. That's why, with climate change, the political wheels grind on an on, but nothing effective gets done. Our task is create a system that can solve the problem of "Getting to 350ppm".

Reflections on the Analytics, Politics and Practice of Getting to 350
A problem like climate change requires a collective solution. It's not a technical problem.

Some progress can be made by learning by doing. That process applies to both individuals and to organisations. Learning to learn within open systems. Adapting to the modern world. Learning to talk about issues in a way that allows you to learn what others are thinking and that informs the participants about the situation. This cannot be a debate, it needs to be a deliberation. The objective is not to "win". The objective is to find out what might work.

With the most complex problems there is no obvious way to proceed, and no certainty that a solution can be found. At this time the "answer" is not knowable.

The way forward is the "endless journey" of talking and trying things and negotiating again. No amount of money and no amount of expertise can solve this sort of problem, because the "solution" when it arises must be seen a legitimate by the whole community. The most common leadership error is failure to recognise the complex social beliefs that prevent a technical solution from being applied. In this situation no amount of evidence can win the battle. The solution needs to be crafted. This is a learning process, for individuals, for institutions and for all the communities involved. People need to "fight fair" and to be honest towards each other.

Gund Institute for Ecological Economics