Thursday, December 08, 2005

Fearmongers- worse than useless

Is Fear the best medicine- the best motivator?( The eleventh hour after the blockbuster on rising sea levels. TAC ads etc )

It seems to me that if you are going to use fear to motivate, you really have to know your stuff, or you stuff the whole thing up - instead of vigilance you get indifference . Instead of real fix, we get quickfiz .

Risks do harm - there is no doubt at all BUT Teach the horizons of resilience - otherwise the effect will be more, not less, rubber edge dancing and more casualties from a lack of real respect for ecosystems actual capabilities and capacities. Focus on flexibility and avoid the fear of everything and the realk risk of engendering the real demotivator of impotence . The failure is about a lack of competence

Single issue focus is the inappropriate industrial world imperative that wrongly models too much action in the complex world of interrelated reliance factors that is ecosystems. If we drill on all fronts in one direction, rather than just one , we will continue to reduce the level of stress on natural systems. But if in our ongoing haste "to do something", we only deal with water or industry policy, we will most certainly not cut where it really counts .

Assuming it is the Eleventh hour, we still have several decades at least to continue the progress made to date . Most importantly we must not use the blunt instruments of quick fix currently glued to our cultural baggage - that will only continue to waste the opportunity to right the balance and recognise genuine resilience ( which does not need fixing) in rural areas in particular. Land managers can change if they have friends who know their territory; but fear , panic and projection are increasing alienating those who respect big picture focus and can act in all of our interest long term . By making films about sea level rising and skies falling in 'you may win the battle for the audience this year but lose the war of the decade - Overstatement and poor focus creating the impression that in the long term there is " nothing to worry about " .

Friday, December 02, 2005

HOW did we forget those who TRAIN to implement ?

Ecosystem service concepts are fine - what's changed from when I started work is not the idea, but the way in which those services are provided . As engagement is again being recognised as the key to effective change , how sensitive and responsive are the new models proving to be -in the areas where they are being applied ? Thats the key question .