Sustainability Principles Online Dialogue

Hi, Which big boys are these? Last i checked The World Bank had found connecting electrical grids was a so called Third World Investment that actually worked paying back both interest and principal in electrical currency ( front burner ) what was enitially lent out in monetary currency ( back burner ).If you check it out
The United Nations has put together an Executive Summary ( four pages)of a large study detailing all considerations for any condition of nation state to pursue in aid of actualizing connectivity.Have noticed it has been the experience of GENI in communication with Nation State Leaders that these big boys actually rely on the think tanks like GENI to form policy (!).

Smaller organizations are preferable for many reasons. For instance, they make the relationships between the people involved in the organization more responsive and more responsible. Many small organizations providing the same service allow greater choice for the consumer of the organization's services, there by making the market mechanism more efficient, by increasing competition.

How does this affect sustainability? What correlation can be drawn between sustainablity and system size? I think this is an important issue for the creation of an economic system, but am not sure how to tie it directly to sustainability.

Joshua:

Your suggestion is a good one for inclusion in the P&O I for the Economic Domain. The question in my mind then becomes "How do we operationalize it?"

It seems to me that, in this Post-9/11 World, the economic forces at play are striving towards more-and-more hierarchical structures. For example, as you know, there was a recent uproar in the press regarding the use of the SWIFT accounts by the Bush Administration for tracking international wire transfers of funds to members of the Al Qaeda network. Regardless of one's position on this issue, this exhibitied a conflict between a hierarchical/command-and-control system (the U.S. Executive Branch directing the military/industrial complex) and a networked system (Al Qaeda).

I recognize that you are seeking the application of the network concept to beneficial societal use, rather than the nihilistic abberation we are seeing in the Al Qaeda domain. Nonetheless, I bring up this example for its illustritive value in demonstrating the conceptual battle bewteen these competing models. The historical impetus toward command-and-control structures plays out in both military and civilian contexts.

You mention the food supply and electric grid. The increasing mechanization/corporatization of the means for food production is often hailed as a great success in the debate on world hunger. Indeed, when you look at the efficiency of food production in the developed world versus the developing world, this argument makes a lot of sense. The failure here comes from the distribution side, rather than the production side (not accounting for the negative environmental effects of large-scale production such as soil erosion and depleted water tables).

In a similar vein, the advocates of 'Small is Beautiful' in electricity production argue that the use of small-scale solar and wind units closer to the demand would be more efficient and more resilient when taking into account the long-term implications of continued dependence on petrochemicals as an energy supply. These long-term implications include not only the global warming phenomenon (and all that entails), but also the societal instability that stems from the current unilateralist positions taken by the U.S. in the Middle East. At the same time the (hierarachical) power structure has, until recently, suppressed both overtly, and covertly, most serious efforts to decentralize the power supply sources. This has occurred even though it is most logical to proceed with small-scale electricity production. Apparently, a 'Small is Beautiful' approach is not in alignment with the existing global energy power structure. Here again we see the conflict between a static, rigid hierarchical structure and the more dynamic networked system.

So given these considerations this brings up another even more pressing question in my mind: How do we begin to address issues such as threats to the system in a decentralized redundant/diverse/networked world? These threats stem from both terrorist acts (from below) and from conflicts with the existing global power structures (from above).

Any suggestions anyone?

Jane Ginn