Rebellion

TIME TO STRATEGY EXECUTION: 47 DAYS

The GAP team was surprised to discover that a discussion during our last assignment resulted in world headlines, exemplified by this story in this morning’s Montana Highlevel Review (reprinted with permission):

WICO TEST COMMUNITY GOES ROGUE

By Jonathan Tolliver, Staff Reporter

The small town of Sieva is ground zero for a rebellion in the World Information and Coordination Organization’s effort to launch a global strategy designed to combat the threat of imminent ecological collapse. According to the local newspaper, the Sieva Times, at least three dozen members of a reclusive commune called Vitalla visited the town at noon yesterday and began proselytizing the residents and businesses to join a movement they call “Possibilities from Responsibilities.” Leader of the group Louis Delambre revealed that Vitalla is actually one of WICO’s test communities, and its residents have decided on their own to “enable people to control their own destiny using the basic principles of long-term survival: responsibility, empathy, and curiosity.” 

Online research by Sieva Times owner and chief correspondent Brendan Wells revealed that the new movement has much in common with a suggestion posted Friday by blogger Will Jackson, who was recruited by WICO to help recover from the attack on its servers and is now assisting with the finalization of the global strategy. “It’s simple deduction,” Wells wrote, “that Vitalla is TC-015, the second of two test communities that Jackson was planning to visit on WICO business. This begs the question: Did he incite its members to go rogue?”

Jackson was unavailable for comment.

I’m commenting now. I unequivocally did not incite anyone to “go rogue.” My discussion with Delambre and several other people in the community was part of a sharing of ideas about the next steps in the roll-out of the strategy. Besides, my views were already known before the visit (published as personal opinion in this blog), and I must emphatically emphasize that there is nothing wrong with them. Further, more research by Mr. Wells and Mr. Tolliver - who should know better - would have revealed that test communities are mostly staffed by volunteers who are free to leave at any time, and that includes Louis Delambre.

The survival of humanity, and the other species affected by what we do, is determined by all of us. We all have a stake in it, which means we have a stake in each other and the world we share. The basic principles cited by Delambre encapsulate these facts as requirements for how we must all live to enable it. My friend, and coworker, Maura Riddick has a more personal way of putting it: “A lasting life worth living consists of sharing, loving, and knowing.” We don’t need a formal strategy (or an organized movement - sorry, Louis) to tell us when or how to begin. When is now, and how is for us to decide with the help of others.

Reality Check

Sieva is not a real town, but it is crudely modeled on an existing one in the vicinity of the fictional test community TC-015 (Vitalla).

While “Will” was offline, I worked on updating the simulation and the global strategy that derives from it. The following graphs show the latest results. 

Note: 

·     GWP (Gross World Product) is world GDP

·     C is consumption/person, which includes needs, wants, and waste

·     R is total consumption

·     Rmax is total resources

·     “Mid case” of sustained resource decline is chosen for the detailed projections

·     Population is only constrained (~ -2% annual change) during the initial descent

·     Target total consumption is equal to 1 Earth/year instead of 0.5 Earth/year

End of initial descent is in 2045 (instead of 2040) for better population control