Rio Summit 2012 - Leadership Thoughts In Adventure - What Matters?

Wake-Up World: A Non-Destructive Economy - Ian Lewis

So instead of creating more, greater and faster, we use less power, less raw-material, less transport and thus sustain our one world.

Michael Gove is right. More intellectual, more artistic, more philosophical education which leads to greater scientific, greater discrimination, higher artistic enjoyment and with this lower environmental costs.


We do not have to be shallow, values-free, over-the-top, media-hyped, fashion followers. We can be deeply committed beings of great self-worth who self-lead.

The artistic, the intellectual, the healthy, the creative, the highly rewarding are just a few examples of what makes up a sustainable economy within worthwhile lives.

For instance, nuclear and oil-based power are sad reflections of collective creativity, for whilst we can send oil across continents, cannot manage nuclear-waste economically yet know 0.3% of Saharan sun can power Europe. This takes awhile for energy companies to see the opportunities, yet a mindful attitude to lower power usage as a values-base in education and learning could have immediate effect. Who actually enjoys driving anyway? Hours/days of lives wasted?

For food issues read sensible carbon- and conservation-conscious farming, eating healthy (low-fat, -sugar & -meat diets), and using land well.

For manufacturing common-sense consider items being used for extended times – pictures & picture-frames last centuries, as does, for example, some furniture, buildings, art, parks/forests/gardens and musical instruments. All have a remarkably high value-to- raw-material ratio - and they accrue value whilst supplying great enjoyment.

Yet even these are left standing by the mental and physical (let alone the spiritual) attributes of being fully human and the low-carbon economic value available here. The intellectual arts, performing arts (reading, writing, dance, comedy, drama), visual arts, sporting excellence, hobbies and crafts and all the fun areas of being which celebrate the human capacity are virtually ignored in favour of high-carbon un-stainable living. Time for a gentle change?

Come on world, wake up. Teachers, listen to Gove - part of what he says is right even if for the wrong reasons: Rio 2012 Environmental Summit matters, but it must be creative and we should be active in self-leading change.