The 11th Hour of Personal Development: Ecology and Consciousness
Posted on Apr 24th, 2008
by 
Duff
Duff
I recently watched The 11th Hour, a documentary produced and narrated by Leonardo DiCaprio about the global environmental crisis. I've also been reading and thinking about systems, and "the ecology of mind."
The problems we are facing with global warming, peak oil, overpopulation, etc. are due to the ways we have been thinking, especially the ways we have been thinking about creating energy and making stuff. We have been thinking in abstractions and ignoring contexts.
People are starting to understand that if you make something, it's a problem if it is made with something nonrenewable (like coal) or creates "waste." In a closed system, waste is food, or else it is destructive. Economies become more productive only when they don't liquidate their "natural capital."
The ideas that there are "unlimited natural resources" and "unlimited places to store our waste "are ending as we come up against the limits and carrying capacity of our planet.
Similarly, within personal development literature there is much written about your "unlimited potential" to be, do, or have whatever you want in life. This is false. Your potential is limited, just as the Earth's supply of stored sunlight in the form of fossil fuels is limited.
Intense personal development workshops that promote ideas of unlimited potential can induce states of mania and psychosis. It can take days, weeks, or years to integrate the fallout from these irresponsible approaches to change.
It's time for an ecological personal development movement to emerge alongside the movement to save civilization (not the planet--the planet will survive even if human civilization does not).
We must understand that our personal development can be ecological, whole, and integrated. We do not need to have a "breakthrough"--nature will break us in it's own time anyhow. By recognizing our limitations and by understanding the limitations of the methods we use to develop ourselves we can grow and change and minimize painful side effects.
What we are learning is that limitations do not necessarily limit our thinking or limit our ability to increase our productivity personally and globally. By understanding that waste = food, by thinking in terms of contexts and systems, and by intelligently designing our solutions to problems we can continue to grow and develop in more elegant ways.
If we do not begin thinking ecologically at all levels, we may experience some very painful consequences, personally and globally. Let's promote healing that we don't have to heal from. Let's promote global solutions that increase productivity and quality of life without reducing the stability and long-term health of the planet's ecosystems. We have the knowledge and the ability to do this.
The problems we are facing with global warming, peak oil, overpopulation, etc. are due to the ways we have been thinking, especially the ways we have been thinking about creating energy and making stuff. We have been thinking in abstractions and ignoring contexts.
People are starting to understand that if you make something, it's a problem if it is made with something nonrenewable (like coal) or creates "waste." In a closed system, waste is food, or else it is destructive. Economies become more productive only when they don't liquidate their "natural capital."
The ideas that there are "unlimited natural resources" and "unlimited places to store our waste "are ending as we come up against the limits and carrying capacity of our planet.
Similarly, within personal development literature there is much written about your "unlimited potential" to be, do, or have whatever you want in life. This is false. Your potential is limited, just as the Earth's supply of stored sunlight in the form of fossil fuels is limited.
Intense personal development workshops that promote ideas of unlimited potential can induce states of mania and psychosis. It can take days, weeks, or years to integrate the fallout from these irresponsible approaches to change.
It's time for an ecological personal development movement to emerge alongside the movement to save civilization (not the planet--the planet will survive even if human civilization does not).
We must understand that our personal development can be ecological, whole, and integrated. We do not need to have a "breakthrough"--nature will break us in it's own time anyhow. By recognizing our limitations and by understanding the limitations of the methods we use to develop ourselves we can grow and change and minimize painful side effects.
What we are learning is that limitations do not necessarily limit our thinking or limit our ability to increase our productivity personally and globally. By understanding that waste = food, by thinking in terms of contexts and systems, and by intelligently designing our solutions to problems we can continue to grow and develop in more elegant ways.
If we do not begin thinking ecologically at all levels, we may experience some very painful consequences, personally and globally. Let's promote healing that we don't have to heal from. Let's promote global solutions that increase productivity and quality of life without reducing the stability and long-term health of the planet's ecosystems. We have the knowledge and the ability to do this.
Access: Public
ecology
April 2008 
Thanks for this! I've been thinking along very similar lines. The personal development community is constantly churning out the feelgood message that there are no limits, that there should be an “attitude of abundance.” Yet, in my estimation, this is exactly opposite of the real problem our culture is in. We have not responsibly accepted the reality of limits. It's hard to bring that issue up with people who are so excited and inspired by the notion of unlimited growth, especially when they are internalizing it with the best intentions of being a “good person”. But I think it's crucial that the personal development world start incorporating the idea of limits as healthy, not unhealthy. I plan to write more about this topic myself in the future.
Hey SystemsThinker, thanks for your comments! It's a really interesting topic that I'm continuing to explore. Would love to read anything you write about it!
You're welcome. It may be a while before I get to write more on it, but I do hope you'll get to check it out if and when I do. In the meantime, very nice to meet you.