Date: 2024-08-16 Page is: DBtxt003.php txt00016875 | |||||||||
People / Thought Leaders | |||||||||
|
Burgess COMMENTARY Peter Burgess | |||||||||
| Fresh Furrows Taking care of the Earth Frontiers of ecospace (Part 1) City and technology. Computer graphics. Industrial collisions There are times when the logic for business as usual (BAU) becomes so shaky that the old way collapses, seemingly spontaneously, and a new way is able to break through. The 1990’s was one such time, when the economic logic for being the national telephone monopoly or for being the world’s dominant supplier of mainframe computers became suspect. For example, by 1993 IBM was losing more money than any company had ever lost in U.S. history because its core mainframe business had been disrupted by the advent of the personal computer and the client server. IBM could not compete with smaller nimbler less diversified competitors. Similarly, the world of the giant telephone monopolies began to disintegrate as their once-protected markets for the Plain Old Telephone Systems (POTS) were opened to competition. A new world of business and industry came about as the internet was rolled out at scale. Economies were rewired, industries collided into each other through the wires, and people gained access to all sorts of computing, communication and multimedia capabilities. New forms of commerce emerged, virtual worlds proliferated, and new industries were created. That period was often referred to as the ‘internet revolution’; it was a period of great change and tremendous opportunity with the main impact happening over a small number of years. People used to refer to things running at ‘internet speed’, because events were happening noticeably faster than they used to. For many enterprises, the revolution was about creating and discovering the frontiers of cyberspace, and putting down stakes to mark new territory and build new enterprises. Another revolution We are approaching another such time, one with greater repurcussions. A revolution compressed into an equally small time but with impacts that will turn everything on its head, upend the foundations of long-standing industries and economies, and shake everything to its core. Underpinning these tumultuous events is the breakdown of the industrial and economic logic that spearheads dangerous destabilisation of the earth’s climate and the unravelling of earth’s life support systems. A new space is waiting to be formed. It is the space within which new entities, new enterprises, and new systems can be created. That new space, ecospace, will be like nothing that has been created before. To operate in ecospace will require a rethink of how economies, enterprises and societies function and how they relate to the earth. Ecospace provides the means and mechanisms by which a self-sustaining society can flourish. In its formative stages, ecospace is likely to be constructed in part from capitalism, as capitalism continues its drive to liquidate natural capital. As it evolves, rapid transformations within and across ecospace are expected to bring about new forms of economic and social systems. These emergent forms, potentially subduing capitalism, are closely aligned with the natural world and designed to take care of the earth. Into the whirlwind As we progress through the 2020’s, an episode of tumultuous change will erupt. That change is coming at a time when countries, cities, and towns, for example, have been moved to recognise and respond to a ‘climate and ecological emergency’. A time when climate change has taken a turn for the worse. A time when the threads in the tapestry of life are being pulled out at an ever quickening pace, with species across the planet disappearing at an alarming rate. The episode, projected to be early to mid-decade in the 2020’s, is likely to be characterised by the spontaneous contraction of many industrial systems, particularly but not exclusively those reliant on fossil fuels. The potential for widespread disruption of economic systems points to urgent establishment of new systems of stewardship. This series of posts is about that crucial decade, the 2020’s. It describes some of the great changes that are expected in industrial systems, how the whirlwind of transformation may give rise to new technologies, new industries and new forms of economic organisation. In particular, this series is about ecospace and how it can be used to harness the destructive forces that are being unleashed and redirect them in a positive way. Ecospace is about addressing the climate and ecological emergencies in a forthright manner. To be continued. Author: Michael Gell Dr Michael Gell works at the nexus of energy, environment and digital technologies. His career began with British Gas R&D in the late 1970’s. Following a decade of research into industrial energy efficiency and low-energy houses, his focus broadened to advanced electronics with IBM and MOD. He established BT's research centre on quantum electronics in 1986. In 1990 he set up the corporation's research centre on digital technologies which spearheaded the transformation of the telephone giant into the internet age. Michael established an independent energy and environmental business in 1995 and this has evolved to Greenclick. Michael has nearly 200 publications and 50 patents. From 1992-97, Michael was Editor of European Transactions on Telecommunications. He has served on multi-stakeholder committees (IEEE EPEAT) developing environmental standards for electronic equipment and has provided expert advice on national environmental pilot programmes and design and operation of greenhouse gas disclosure platforms. In 2009 he was a member of the World Economic Forum Task Force on Low Carbon Economic Prosperity. View all posts by Michael Gell Author Michael Gell Posted on June 18, 2019 Post navigation PREVIOUS Share this: TwitterFacebook Related Birth of the Earth Digital Twins Earth Computer Rise of the Earthbots | |||||||||