Thank you for being a reader of Transition Edge. Please feel free to forward it to friends who you think
might enjoy it too.
I’m Grant Symons. I convene Transition Edge to help us understand how we can transition to a low carbon
sustainable world using leading thinking and practices.
For those of you who read last week’s article, where we described
getting ‘Caught on the MAT’ or ‘Frozen in front of the LOCOMOTIVE’ (read here). Today we have a new and much more positive term we hope you consider adding to your vocab.
Transition SOS+
TRANSITION
Is of course a part of our identity at Transition-HQ. It speaks to the power of vision, mission,
interdisciplinary teamwork and progress. It is all about purpose, movement, energy and results.
You know when you are in a state of transition because the people around you are energised, learning, cooperating and overcoming obstacles. And there is minor wreckage along the way – which is OK; there always is when change is real. (The Beachboys hate this because it doesn't fit their view of the world)
Unfortunately, in much of mainstream climate change activity our
language and behaviour are dominated by general terms, such as:
- Triple bottom line reporting (ESG)
- Sustainable development goals (SDG)
- Climate Risk Reporting and management (CDR’s)
- Horizon scanning
- Green Finance
- Emissions Mitigation
- Adaption analysis planning
- And so it goes on!
Notice how some of these have acronyms, which is a red flag as they
become normalised memes that are virtually in-actionable, (let alone recognisable).
Can you imagine someone in the PR department saying…
“Oh John, can we publish the good news story about the latest ESG report that also includes the outsourced
contributions we are making to the SGD’s and carbon offsets? And please drop the CRD report bit as it has a couple of red flags in it. We might not get the next round of Green finance.”
Which bit of this sounds like a transition?
Not convinced?
Here’s another test…try asking yourself who is qualified to make
regular, pragmatic and incisive decisions about any of these generalised terms? Is it clearly Government? …Business? …Local Govt? …or is it us - individuals? The answer is, that on the whole, no one really can. We have a problem, Houston. THINK SOS.
A small detour to look at SOS. Often described as acronym
for SAVE OUR SOULS or SAVE OUR SHIP, it was the Morse code message you didn't want to have to broadcast or receive - 3 dots, 3 dashes, 3 dots.
