1. Why We Won’t Act Bruce Lourie

2. The basic idea is that it is necessary to balance ecology, economy and society without compromising the future for generations to follow.
Climate change is the greatest current problem facing humanity but we keep on with business as usual. A key example is that half of the property values in Florida will be under water unless we act, and we are not.

3. We are seeing massive collapses in fisheries and species extinction as E.O. Wilson reminded us. With respect to the society component, the country and the world are failing to deal with income and equality.
The key issue is given what we know, why do we not act?
How much more information do we need?

4. We show sad wildlife images
We show scary images of upcoming hurricanes fueled by warmer seas
We see images of extreme poverty
We see images of human tragedy
We see images of system failure leading to unspeakable living conditions in slums
We present deadly health conditions such as extreme smog in China
We show local conditions of unseasonable floods

5. We show beautiful images of what we are going to lose
We show convincing evidence from science
Collectively so shocking is that everyone should act, so why don’t we?
The graphs of billions of dollars in damages from extreme weather events go unheeded
There’s a ten-fold increase in extreme weather costs

6. Is corporate social responsibility working
Is corporate social responsibility working? “Traditional corporate responsibility is failing to deliver, for both companies and society.” McKinsey and Company
Corporate social responsibility is a big fraud.

7. Palliative Care
“To relieve the symptoms without fixing or repairing the underlying condition.”
“The study and management of patients with active, progressive, far advanced disease for whom the prognosis is limited and the focus of care is on the quality of life.”
Palliative Care is where we are with the notion of sustainability.

8. Palliative Sustainability
“To relieve environmental symptoms without fixing or repairing the underlying ecological, social, or economic conditions. The focus on policy and corporate action is maintaining the status quo.”
Problem: maintaining the status quo is a big motivation for people.
What is behind the action choice of not acting?

9. Cognitive dissonance
“The discomfort experienced by an individual who holds two or more contradictory beliefs, ideas, or values at the same time, or as confronted by new information that conflicts with existing beliefs, ideas, or values.”

10. We don’t want to believe things that don’t fit with what we already believe in.
There are people representing the status quo who play on this fact of human thinking.
There is an effort to exaggerate the inconsistency.

11. Culture of Contentment by Harvard Economist John Kenneth Galbraith (1992)
You can get away with a lot in a culture when the majority of people are happy. The rules in the society are built for the people who are happy. The economic advantages go to the people who are content.
“…there is now a resistance to the state action that is necessary to insure an economically successful and socially tranquil future.”

12. Social unrest comes when more than half the people think they are ripped-off.
Galbraith predicted more income inequality. He was also predicting greater civil unrest.

13. A risk view of the world
When we have a more risk view of the world we tend to favor the precautionary principle.
A type one error is when we error on the side of precaution. We would regulate a chemical even if we find out later that it is not bad for us.
A type two error is the opposite: we fail to regulate something that turns out to be quite bad for us. The hallmark is minimal regulation which is the defacto U.S. model.

14. The Lourie Assessment
We are too afraid to trust the science
Individuals in business tend to be far less precautionary
Given the information we have, we are not acting rationally.

15. We do not act if:
Our friends for cultural group aren’t acting or don’t believe
Acting contradicts a fundamental belief or value
It costs too much
It will be inconvenient
It will not affect us personally
It will not happen for a long time
The solution is unclear

16. Returning to the fundamentals of sustainability: ecology, economy, and society
We have done an excellent job of making sure that economy is number one.
We have done a very poor job of balancing ecology and society.
Ecology, society and economy are not three separate spheres with an area of overlap, but economy and society exist within the broader frame of ecology.

17. You cannot have an society that exists without air, water, food and fish.
You cannot have an economy that exists without a society. Economy is just a construct of society.
This whole model was broken from the start.
Thirty years ago if we had come up with a big picture that showed something more like economy and society exists within ecology, we would have recognized that nothing else will matter if we have destroyed ecology.

18. Economy in this model becomes third. It is just a social construct
Economy in this model becomes third. It is just a social construct. Economy helps us trade resources around the world.
Economy should be what we have the most control over. We should make sure that economy is subordinate to the other two.
Economy should not undermine society. And society should not undermine ecology