SOME POINTS OF THEORY, written in no specific order, that MOTIVATE US

• We are nowadays many people on Earth and we must therefore live considering the limits of the Planet. We are like a ship with a crew (i.e. the human family) who can use what it is on board and the solar energy.


• Not simply doing better, but doing differently: the impact of human activities on the planet requires a rapid ecological transition: in the coming decades it will be necessary to bring the Earth back to the environmental "safe zone" from which it has progressively moved away over the last 150 years. It is a complex process, a non-linear path to rebalancing the relationship, now compromised, between the development of our society and economy, and the ecosystem of the planet, between humans and oikos, the "common home" referred to in the etymology of the term "ecology". We cannot mistreat the planet and then expect that it continues delivering us those ecosystem services to which we are used. A transition implies the initiation of long-term changes, necessarily related to other similar processes that concern several fields of the relationship between human societies and ecosystems: demography; the economy; agriculture; industry and production-distribution-consumption of goods and services; energy and so on - all what is need for individual and collective well-being, industrial activities, mobility, etc. The economic development of the last century and a half, from the Industrial Revolution onwards, has produced great benefits, but also profound alterations in the planetary physical/biological equilibrium; planet Earth is an incredible buffer, but it starts showing its limits and the way back will not be as rapid as we may wish. In this new era - which several analystss have proposed to define "Anthropocene" - the very life of the human species, not only its level of well-being, and that of other living species is jeopardized. Reversing the course is possible and necessary for present and future generations (freely translated and integrated from the Piano nazionale della Transizione Ecologica PTE-definitivo.pdf (mase.gov.it)).


• Climate has been fairly stable in the last 10,000 years while the world population has increased: from some 5 million in 8000 BC to 300 million until the Peace of Westphalia in 1648, 8 billion today, 10 billion estimated in 2050. Fertility data indicate that important changes are still ongoing. In 2040, the human family may trespass 9.2 billion people and it is projected to reach 9.8 billion in 2050, and 11.2 billion in 2100 (source: United Nations). Humans were 3 billions when I was born, now we are more than 8 billions.


• Due to the increase in CO2 emissions, Planet Earth is already 1.1 degree Celsius warmer than in the nineteenth century. Among the consequences, there are changes in rainfall and average temperatures. These occur in an unequal way in the various areas of the globe: for example, in Italy we see greater drought and more fires, as well as concentrated rainfall with floods and floods, but with greater difficulties in finding water. We are witnessing the melting of polar ice with rising sea levels (sea levels have risen by about 20 cm since 1880, 9.1 cm higher than 30 years ago and is estimated to increase by 30 cm by 2050) and consequent risks for cities and coastal areas and for many islands. The Gulf Stream (hot and salty), which brings heat to the Mediterranean and Northern Europe, has been subject to a progressive slowdown, due to an increase in the amount of cold and fresh water present in European waters following the progressive melting of ice.


• We also notice changes in biotopes with loss of biodiversity. Alas, the total losses are obviously irreparable.


• Among the consequences for us, there is the impact on the food chain, on the world of work (especially on outdoor work), on buildings and homes that can be affected by extreme weather events (intense rainfall and flooding, fires, landslides . . .). All this may result in local increases in poverty, lack of food and famine, infirmity (e.g. respiratory diseases) and migration in search of food and better living conditions.


• Due to the increase in CO2 emissions, the retention of the same by the oceans has led to a 25% increase in water acidity compared to the pre-industrial period. The increase in acidity alters the balance in different ways with possible repercussions on the entire marine and planetary ecosystem, e.g. already on corals because it prevents polyps from creating their own exoskeleton; should it significantly alter photosynthesis; this would be a real catastrophe.


• The problem is global and we all have to change many of our habits.


• Quoting UN Secretary-general Guterres: “Humanity has a choice: cooperate or perish” (Cooperate or perish: At COP27 UN chief calls for Climate Solidarity Pact, urges tax on oil companies to finance loss and damage | UN News).


• We do not have yet on the shelf and we must therefore develop the solutions (technologies, business models, attitudes, behaviours...) that respond at the same time to ecological, economic and social requirements. Permaculture, albeit now developed and tested only by few pioneers, is an important experiment and a testbed for new future possible mass production solutions.


• We think positive. Changes are profound and this transition offers economic opportunities for everyone and will improve the quality of our lives and of the (anthropized) environment.


• In the change of the ecological, digital and energy transition, there should be attention to the more vulnerable people (elderly, etc.). A “just transition” should be targeted.


• The reducing share of EU in the world population should be taken into account and we should develop a culture of inclusion, always on the basis of our values, first of all of human rights, equality and democracy. Europeans have been half a billion during last centuries. Since we did not grow like the rest of the planet, we now decreased in percentage.


• Europeans enjoy relatively good quality of life Happiest Countries in the World 2023 (worldpopulationreview.com) and we all want to continue so. We do not want to be the only rich ones in a world of poor people, but we do not want to be the only poor ones in a world of rich people.


• Everybody, in all Continents, wants food, water and energy: not only at survival level, but to live a decent life. It should be remembered that the right to a dignified and quality life is recognized by the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights adopted in 1948 (e.g. Art.25.1 Universal Declaration of Human Rights | United Nations).


• It is not the point to simply doing things better, but to do things differently. Hence our experiment of permaculture and food forest.


• The production of knowledge-based wealth and income should be targeted and accelerated: the knowledge-based (and not resource-based) economy.


• The measure of wealth based on quantity and consumption (thus including wasting) should be changed. Money on the capital markets cannot be cheaper for the polluters than for the sustainable firms. That is not for famers and permaculturists: our finance experts should revisit the Bretton Wood approach (a sustainable “beyond growth” approach?) decoupling economic growth from resource consumption (A European Green Deal (europa.eu)).


• We are still not done with the natural capital accounting. How much we value the natural stock? How much the material and immaterial services that the ecosystems provide to us?


• EU targets include by 2030 a reduction by 55% of GHG (1990 values), at least 32% of electric energy from renewables and increase of at least 32,5% of energy efficiency, whilst by 2050 the targets zero net GHG emissions, zero pollution and decoupling economy and the consumption of resources.


• Is circular economy conceptually new? Circularity is the oldest concept on Earth. Nature developed and used it. Nothing is “wasted”.


• Are we too much looking at products and not anymore to serving human needs? Do we need individual cars or mobility? Pharma products or health? Pesticides or healthy plants?...


• Doing better (what we do, how we do it) is not always enough. The option of doing differently is more and more arising. Developing an adopting new business models is urgent on the bases of integrated, holistic system approach. The extension of the social corporate responsibility is already a good step ahead.


• Humans are not superior to Nature, but part of it. Nature is in us. We are in Nature.


• Moreover, geopolitics teaches us the lessons of unpredictability. Therefore, security of supply and food as well as technological independence should be considered.


• Already young people in Europe are calling for different life styles: Why My M.B.A. Students Turned Against Business - The Atlantic as they see longer years of work for a less purchasing-powerful pension. They may want to work less and have fun while working: not “work, work and wait the pension” like my generation has been taught to do.


• Digital technologies and artificial intelligence are offering more and more new (and unexpected) way of making high-value-added business. The time when we asked to machines to provide relief from human fatigue and then to achieve substantial efficiency and productivity gains is now over. Artificial intelligence will involve rethinking in considerable measure our way of working, living and learning.


• New skills have to be created, at all levels and for all ages: for inter-, trans- and supra-disciplinary approaches; for a circular sustainable industry, agriculture and farming; for a new way of working and moving, and so on.


• We are therefore motivate to test how far an alternative is possible and create culture in this sense. Permaculture in not for an intellectual elite: permaculture is a pioneering approach.