In other words, it's a systemic process more so than a dictatorial one.
Storm Cunningham, author, speaker, consultant, and magazine publisher, is one person that is helping us to foster such a systemic approach. Since 2002, Storm has been a leading advocate and planner of community revitalization, economic resilience, and natural resource restoration. Storm says that tearing down the old hasn't worked, but restoring and revitalizing it with our new technologies does.
Storm's unique talent is to inspire evidence-based optimism about the future of our world, based on the growth of projects, programs, disciplines, and technologies that revitalize communities, restore natural resources, and boost economic/social resilience. He speaks to the 99% and the 1% alike. George Ochs, Managing Director of JP Morgan, says "Storm Cunningham is the world's thought leader on community revitalization and natural resource restoration."
Storm's vision includes a path to revitalizing our economy, restoring our environment, and renewing the quality of our lives. His magazine appeals to entrepreneurs, CEOs, activists, and visionaries alike:
http://revitalizationnews.com/
The focus of "Revitalization News" is a system's approach, allowing for resilience in the face of change. As stated on his website a systems-orientation reflects:
"The capacity of a system to absorb disturbance and re-organize while undergoing change so as to still retain essentially the same function, structure, identity, and feedbacks".
In this country, Storm states that our infrastructure is falling apart. For example, he speaks of people in Flint, Michigan who are being poisoned by their drinking water!
In relationship to Storm's realization about water, Jeannie Stewart used Facebook to create a protest in Flint, MI. Jeannie stated her concern enveloped drinking water that had been tested positive for excessive trihalomethane, a byproduct of the heavy chlorination of the treated river water. (See: http://www.mlive.com/news/flint/index.ssf/2015/01/clean_water_is_a_right_and_a_p.html)
Storm's work is imperative in this day and age of global warming and the high rates of extinction of various creatures throughout the Earth. As such, Michael Scott of Progressive Urban Management Associates states: "S torm is the world's cheerleader and strategist for resilient, revitalized futures. And who knows more about creating effective teams than a former Green Beret?" http://www.pumaworldhq.com/index.php
How does he seek to do this? In one simple word: empowerment. Storm's online magazine gives us information regarding: Current research and events; Career Training; Projects/Funding; Brownfields and vacant land; Downtown Restoration; Catastrophe Recovery; Agriculture/fisheries; Watersheds/biodiversity; and Infrastructure/energy.
Storm discussed our modern day issues of fragmentation in the interview he did with this author and his wife. By this he means we don't see how the parts effect and define the whole and vice versa. We need to see holistically. The interview was informative and provided optimism for the future. In my opinion, Storm's work and my insights indicate that we need to focus locally while looking at the macroscopic view of our planet. We need to address the need and opportunity at hand and, at the same time, be alert to the impact on the whole, integral, living planet.
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