The Ten Most Difficult Challenges of Our Times

[Stefan Pasti]

A ten point assessment by The IPCR Initiative of ?the most difficult challenges of our times?


This post (long yes, but most readers will understand) is an effort by the writer to share information which may be helpful to members of the Powerswitch Discussion Forum?and an effort to seek input on the content of the list which follows. In particular, this writer would like to ask readers the following question:

If your own ?ten point assessment of the most difficult challenges of our times? would look much different than this one, could you post yours in this discussion thread, so that readers (and myself) can benefit from the information provided by a variety of such assessments?


Introduction

The Interfaith Peacebuilding and Community Revitalization (IPCR) Initiative is aware of an urgent need to build bridges and increase collaboration between diverse communities of people; both as a response to the implications of global warming, ecological footprint analysis, and the ?peaking? of our finite supplies of oil?and to be proactive about individual spiritual formation, interfaith peacebuilding, and the creation of ecologically sustainable communities.

The following ?ten point assessment? is excerpted from a 29 page document titled ?An Assessment of the Most Difficult Challenges of Our Times?, which includes (as supporting evidence) 26 items of commentary and analysis and 17 statistics (from various sources). That document?and the ?Notes and References? section which should supplement this excerpt, but is left out due to space limitations?can be requested (at no cost) from this writer, as an e-mail attachment (make requests to stefanpasti@ipcri.net). [Additional Note: that 29 page document is among the 20+ documents which will soon be accessible from the new IPCR website (when the building process is completed)].

The IPCR Initiative is aware that there are many very difficult issues which could be defined as ?the most difficult challenges of our times?. By even making a list at all, The IPCR Initiative is not suggesting it can offer a definitive assessment.

The purpose of the designations made in the following ten point assessment is

a) to help other people appreciate how becoming involved in a comprehensive assessment of the challenges of our times can be useful for re-framing public discourse

b) to help other people appreciate that these issues ?pervade our globe; ? are complex due to the interdependent nature of all modern nation-states; (and) are all interwoven, making it difficult, if not impossible, to deal with one in isolation from the others?.?1


Commentary of the Risks of Publishing Assessments of This Nature

That we must somehow work through all of the following challenges is a very sobering realization?and one of a few key realizations which has convinced this writer that we are a critical point in the evolution of spiritual understanding.

And yet arriving at a full appreciation of the difficulty of our current circumstances is both difficult and risky, as arriving at such a point without also having sufficient faith and wisdom, and access to appropriate resources could be overwhelming, and lead to many people losing hope and becoming desperate. After all, consider that in one of the documents which has assisted many people to a fuller awareness of the implications of ?peak oil? (the ?Hirsch Report?9), the suggestion is made that successful risk management of such a profound change in human affairs will require that large scale mitigation activity commence ten years before the actual ?peak? occurs.

How much more time, might we imagine, will be needed for the profound changes in human affairs necessary to overcome all the challenges described below?

Who can we turn to to assure us that we?collectively?will avoid an outcome in which many people learn of these difficult challenges in a way that leads to a loss of hope and a feeling of desperation?

The IPCR Initiative is determined to do its part to help people attain the faith, wisdom, and resources necessary to face the challenges of our times, and not lose hope. [Note: One document the IPCR Initiative can offer along these lines is "The IPCR Workshop Primer"... however, it is currently only available as an attachment to an e-mail (from myself stefanpasti@ipcri.net)]



A ten point assessment by The IPCR Initiative of ?the most difficult challenges of our times?

1) Community building associated with energy descent (as a result of either wise decisions, key supply shortages, or lack of other options) may or may not be accompanied by an exponential increase in compassion for our fellow human beings. Without such an exponential increase, an increase in the need for emergency assistance to people with basic human needs [as a result of migrations from areas where carrying capacity has been exceeded (areas such as mega-cities), for example (see Challenge number "Eight")] may coincide with a decrease in our capacity to respond to such emergencies

2) ?Cultures? of violence, greed, corruption, and overindulgence which have become so common that many of us accept such as inevitable

3) Conflicts arising from ?what are perceived as irreconcilable differences? among religious, spiritual, and moral traditions are resulting in many, many people who are so disaffected, discouraged, and alienated by religious, spiritual and moral traditions that the real treasured wisdom of such traditions remains mostly hidden [Example 1: There are now many instances where people?s hatred?or fear?of other religious, spiritual, or moral traditions, is causing many other people to disassociate from the teachings of any religious, spiritual, or moral tradition?. Example 2: a) If many people can learn to find contentment and quality of life while consuming much less, this limiting of desires at the ?root? will save much trouble trying to respond to the symptoms as they materialize worldwide b) Consider the implications of the following two quotes? ?A wise person notices that inner harmony is disturbed when the mind lets itself be lured into indiscriminately sampling the world of phenomena.?2 and ?If he, composed of jars, grow musical, we shall shortly have discord in the spheres?3 Special Note: Learning how to ?discriminately sample the world of phenomena? and learning how to find contentment and quality of life while consuming much less are critical elements of ?spiritual teachings? which are often overshadowed?or remain undiscovered?as a result of Example 1.]?4

4), 5) and 6) Planet-wide climate chaos and global warming, the end of the era of cheap oil (?peak oil?), and widespread resource depletion and extinction (the ?Triple Crises?)

Consider the following references (with additional corroborating quotes) to pre-conference (September, 2007) information for a ?Teach In: Confronting the Global Triple Crises?Climate Change, Peak Oil (The End of Cheap Energy), and Global Resource Depletion and Extinction? (September 14-17, 2007 at The George Washington University Lisner Auditorium in Washington D.C.) Sponsored by The International Forum on Globalization (www.ifg.org) and The Institute on Policy Studies

?The planet?s ecological systems are on the verge of catastrophic change for which few societies are prepared. So far, responses by governments to this emergency are inadequate, or counterproductive. We call it the ?Triple Crisis,? the convergence of three advancing conditions:

a) Planet-wide climate chaos and global warming (?There is a serious risk of widespread, catastrophic climate change if we do not begin dramatically reducing global carbon emissions?5)

b) The end of the era of cheap energy (?peak oil?) (?The peaking of world oil production presents the U.S. and the world with an unprecedented risk management problem?. The world has never faced a problem like this?.?6 )

c) The depletion of many of the world?s key resources: water, timber, fish, fertile soil, coral reefs; and the expected extinction of 50% of the world?s species.

?All are rooted in the same systemic problem?massive overuse of fossil fuels and the Earth?s resources; all driven by an economic ideology of hyper growth and consumption that?s beyond the limits of the planet to sustain.?7

7) The increasing world population and its implications relating to widespread resource depletion (the increasing number of people who are consuming material goods and ecological resources indiscriminately)

Eight) Current trends indicate that we are creating more and more ?urban agglomerations? (cities with a population of more than 1 million people), which require more and more complex and energy intensive infrastructures, where it is more and more difficult to trace the consequences of our individuals investments of time, energy, and money?and which are the least appropriate models when it comes to implementing resolutions to many of the other challenges included in this list.8 (Note: ?Response nodes? for emergency assistance, and centers for regional and international exchange of ?weak link? materials do not require a mega-city infrastructure base )

9) Any shortages of goodwill in times of unprecedented transition could tilt already precarious systems into further disarray?and thus erode established systems in even the most stable communities and regions

10) Sorting out what are real challenges and what are sound and practical solutions is becoming more and more difficult, as there is now, in many parts of the world, a multitude of ideas of all kinds coming to the fore in personal, family, community, and cultural life?all at the same time.


[Again-- please note: There are footnotes which, if space had allowed, would have accompanied this post. The footnotes can be requested from this writer (stefanpasti@ipcri.net)

I hope some of this information is useful in some way to members of this Powerswitch Discussion Forum.

Best Regards,

Stefan Pasti
The IPCR Initiative