Solving climate change

A "Holution" to the climate crisis

What if all of humans could come together as a wise and responsible new entity, "We the People", where We OWN this impossible-seeming issue and address it creatively? ... where We discover shared clarity on what is the truth about this issue? what We want? and what strategies We want to pursue? ... And were We provide thoughtful leadership to national governments, to the economy and the culture? ... If there was some way to set this up, it wouldn't be a "solution" exactly. We call it a "holution," because it gets to the heart of the problem ... that there is no owner of this global issue because our System divides us into factions and drives us to continued consumption and disregard for the public well being. And note: If we could do this it would dramatically impact all the Monster and many other impossible-seeming existential issues. (i.e. Monster Issues).

We think there is a way to facilitate humanity to come together in this way. We call it "Society's Breakthrough," the application of the Wisdom Council Process to the global population. This involves a simple set of actions that don't seem like they would do that much ... It's breakthrough, remember ... but which will facilitate our System to transform itself as well as many of society's Monster Problems. This is good news.

More good news: This strategy is accessible, something a few of us can set in motion-- 8 accessible steps.. ... More good news: Each step is a benefit to society and there are no identifiable risks! ... More good news: This breakthrough is already proven to work at large scale! ... More good news: We (just us) don't need anyone's permission to begin. Nor do we need to sell it first to a massive number of people. Of course, we'd love for lots of people to understand ahead of time what this is, how it works, its benefits and why it must happen. But it's not necessary. And, of course, we'd love for many people to support this effort financially so we can get started sooner.

To understand more about how this Holution differs from ordinary Solutions, see the articles published by MAHB (Millennium Alliance for Humanity and the Biosphere of Stanford University) ...

Three min video trailers

#1: How to solve the Climate Crisis ...

See the whole 45 min informal talk... "How to really solve climate change" .

#2: Climate scientist discovers Society's Breakthrough

"I believe this is the solution that will save us."
-- Robert Holden, former climate scientist

You can see the 1 hour 18 min video, "Climate Scientist finds the solution".

#3: "Society's Breakthrough" considered in the light of "Post Doom"

In this short trailer Michael Dowd, a best-selling religious naturalist who currently focuses on helping people to understand and adapt to the coming collapse of our civilization (See his extensive website www.PostDoom.com), talks with Jim Rough about the potential impact of "Society's Breakthrough" on the climate crisis.

The full video is available at https://youtu.be/nUKmtugRkRM

How would Society's Breakthrough impact climate change?

1) Re-solving the PROBLEM

Getting humanity to Act—with collective intelligence... Society's Breakthrough facilitates "all the people" to get involved, face Monster Issues like climate change and co-create shared understandings —i.e. what is the Truth; what we want (i.e. Vision); what we need to do (i.e. Strategy) and to coordinate progress toward those goals.
Removing the blocks to existing solutions ... Many solution strategies to climate change are blocked by the limitations of our System. For example, entrenched interests block new technologies and the absence of some form of global governance blocks our ability to do something about this. Our current System is set up as a competition among special interests with no emphasis on the public interest or collective thinking. Society's Breakthrough generates a clear sense of the public interest so that existing solution strategies can gain a foothold and be put together into a strategy to serve human values more importantly than profits.
Sparking breakthroughs ... Many scientists are saying that it's too late for us to avoid horrible impacts of climate change. But We haven't started thinking yet. Especially, we haven't started thinking in a heartfelt creative way by which breakthrough progress is normal. What's missing is for us (just us) to facilitate one ongoing global conversation in the spirit of choice-creating. Choice-creating is the quality of thinking by which to create a legitimate "We the People" and by which breakthrough progress starts happening. It's also the quality of thinking by which breakthroughs can easily gain a thorough hearing and the chance to be widely accepted.
Changing policy ... The Wisdom Council Process is not focused directly on gaining policy changes like other citizen involvement approaches. A number of Citizens Assemblies on climate change have been conducted, for instance, where the Assembly seeks to influence decision-makers about selected policy options. The Wisdom Council Process acts differently, seeking to spark all the people to come together, including decision-makers, as a global "We the People," the OWNER of this problem. And where we all co-create the strategies going forward, including policy choices when appropriate.

2) Transforming the the SYSTEM

Establishing "We the People" as the problem "owner" ... Using the Wisdom Council Process it's possible to facilitate all the people to come together as "We the People." By itself, this new conversation is a form of global self-governance. Since it is an ongoing conversation it is a structural addition to the current System.. In addition it's a way of establishing a more conventional form of global governance, like what happened in the U.S, where "We the People ... ordain and establish" ... a Constitution.
Transforming the System to stop creating the problem .. Our System is the ultimate cause for the climate crisis. It structures the dynamic of special interests competing for profits, where this game mindset naturally undermines the commons. Plus in this structure, there is little provision for achieving the common good. Or even addressing it. "The ToBe Project—Global" promises this level of change. There are three possible "Dynamical Systems" 1) Triangle (i.e. autocracy) or 2) Box (i.e. what is called "democracy" but which is really a "constitutional republic") or 3/ Circle (i.e. a Wise Democracy where we all participate as the new "We the People" conversation, which is the ultimate authority). See the article: The Circle System.
Transforming global economics ... Our civilization is designed for a situation in which a competition of merit generates collective benefit. We are no longer in that situation. Today we are in overshoot, consuming the commons faster than it can replenish itself. We must transition to a new kind of economics where we face these collective problems collaboratively, serving the public interest. In this new environment capitalism will drive us to self-destruction. But with the global Wisdom Council Process in place we preserve the independence and freedoms of capitalism. There is no coercion to this. We just add the missing conversation where people think together about what's going on and co-create collective choices. Periodically we just step back and ask ourselves: "How are we doing? What are the Big Problems to address? What do we want? How do we best go forward?". And in time we will notice that the results of this thinking has a deeper priority than the simplistic motivations of the marketplace.
Overhauling sub-systems ... Society's Breakthrough provides a way to reestablish and renew existing global organizations like the UN. or international treaties. Here's a way "We the People" can re-orient these organizations to address and managing issues like climate change and address its unfair impacts.. Here's how we can collectively assess or choose global ideas like geo-engineering, fusion research, green energy technologies, weapons of mass destruction, etc.

3) Supporting our PEOPLE to "own" the problem and act

Educating al the people and establishing shared values ... Here's a way that people can begin to understand the nature of Monster Problems and the human capabilities of addressing them. It's also a way to co-create a shared mythology about what is happening and a new hierarchy of values from which to redesign society.
Facilitating a new quality of thinking . Our current System imposes a subject-object, individualistic, reductionist style of thinking best labeled "decision-making." Think of voting. It's where maybe we think deliberatively about possible options, but ultimately we use judgment to decide on which option is best. This is valuable of course, what we need to do most of the time. But also important but largely ignored is choice-creating, where we face big "HOT" impossible-seeming issues like the climate crisis with heartfelt creatively, seeking breakthrough progress. It's this kind of thinking that yields breakthrough progress and where experiential wisdom arises. The global Wisdom Council Process can spark this needed new capability in our collective and individual thinking processes, where we start thinking more holistically—including all people, other species, the planet, and future generations.
Overcoming the impact of the competitive mindset ... In our System Special Interests dominate and corrupt collective decision-making. There is little shared sense of the "public interest". Once we all start thinking together in the spirit of choice-creating the Public Interest can be identified and become a priority for governments, corporations and the culture.
Elevating collective consciousness ... Many people think that increased consciousness is the answer to climate change and other Monster Problems. But educating and transforming individuals, even a critical mass of people, is not enough to generate collective consciousness. There must be one ongoing whole-system choice-creating conversation if that is to happen. The "magic sauce" for achieving this is our ability to reliably evoke choice-creating (i.e. Dynamic Facilitation). And the Wisdom Council Process can be used to facilitate it at large scale.

"What can I do?" ... to REALLY help solve the climate crisis?

In any conversation about climate change people will likely start discussing solution possibilities, often starting with this phrase: "We need to ..." ... e.g. "We need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions". Or "We need to enact a global carbon tax." Or "We need to understand that climate change is just a symptom'" Or "We need to get serious and demand action." ... These statements often imply the existence of some global, conscious "We the People," capable of facing this challenge, working out the best strategies and acting coherently in the public interest. Currently, there is no such "We." So instead, it's natural to substitute other, smaller "We's" that do exist and can act. Consider these We's that can act.

We (#0) — First, this is us right now considering this crisis. If you want to really impact climate change what is it "We need to do?" ... Well, we might get involved with the options of one or more of the first three We's. These are available in our System. Or—and hopefully this is what you will choose—help us to implement Society's Breakthrough, where We(#4) comes into existence. WE(#4) is "We the People," all of us owning the problem, thinking and acting together.

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We(#1)--us as individuals—We need to ... e.g. demand change, raise our consciousness, educate people, lower our carbon footprint, adopt a particular paradigm religious belief system, love our neighbor, do acts of random kindness, etc. The idea is to educate others or model for others what's needed, until there is a "critical mass" that would bring about a "culture change".
We(#2)--us as organizations—We need to ... e.g. develop new battery technologies, model the new way of being in our co-op or eco-village, become more forceful in affecting politicians, etc.
We(#3)—us as official actors—We need to ... e.g. enact new treaties, new laws, new policies; breakup the partisan gridlock; get money out of politics, etc.

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We(#4)—us as a new, powerful actor "We the People" ... This is the "we" that doesn't currently exist, that people often speak about wishfully, like in saying "What are we going to do? We need to resolve this problem!!" Currently there is no global "We" to do any of this. But if there was, it would be a structural change to our System, so that our System could stop generating this and other Monster Issues.

The We(1,2,3) "solution-approaches" are largely blocked from working because our System ultimately causes the Monster Problems. Even all together these system-provided "solutions" cannot stop the collapse of our civilization because the underlying Human Predicament remains unaffected. For us to become sustainable as a society We(#0), just us, must spark We(#4) into existence. This transforms our System from Box to Circle so that our society can thrive. The ToBe Project, applied globally, can accomplish this.

Please support "Just Us" to make this happen. Or join with us.

More resources

To understand more deeply how this new-paradigm process works see:

The free 5-part video Seminar on "Essential Wisdom for Solving Society's Biggest Issues"

Also for more information see:

Video of the national Citizens Assembly in Austria on Climate Change (Really good stuff but what's needed is a global Wisdom Council Process). See the contrast between the Citizens Assembly and the Wisdom Council Process.
Proposal to Together1st.org This describes our proposed strategy for establishing global governance to the Global Challenges Project. More and more we are thinking "we should just start this project" and stop waiting for some established organization to take it on.
Society's Breakthrough to Climate Change ...Handout (with audio notes) about solving climate change ...
Chart of Solutions to Climate Change ... There are many SOLUTION strategies for climate change. The global Wisdom Council Process is a "HOLUTION", which releases many blocks to these solutions