By: David Miron-Wapner

Feeling overwhelmed by mounting global crises? Believe that your efforts will have little effect? Whatever your own Photograph from the Future discloses and your estimation of the events you may encounter along the path, consider embracing age-old wisdom from Jewish tradition: “You are not obligated to complete the task, but neither are you free to desist from it.”

We are all links in a chain of humanity stretching forward into a common future, and our actions will impact generations to come, who following the same wisdom will pick up from wherever we leave off and perhaps finish the task. Your decision to shed fear and passivity in favor of action may determine the destiny of the entire world.

Recently I was privileged to listen to a brief lecture by a senior professor at U.C. Berkeley who shared his application of synthetic biology to the production of the most effective malaria medication, the uneven supply of which leaves millions vulnerable to an otherwise curable disease. His work now saves lives all over the world. The encore was, however even more astounding. Dr. Jay Keasling, director of the Joint Bio Energy Research center led by U.C. Berkeley, elaborated on his breakthrough research is leading the way to the next generation of bio-fuels.

Scalable commercial application may be far off, but the promise of bio-fuels replacing fossil fuels is enticing. Whether it genuinely signals a path to closing global carbon loops remains to be seen. My question to Dr. Keasling was whether he believed that advent of widespread use alternative fuels might arrive in time to allow us to avoid the worst projections of global scale disruptions from increasingly irreversible climate change. Qualifying his answer, “No, I think it is too late,” by acknowledging that he has unique access to and understanding of the latest research and accumulated data in climate science, he expressed his fear that human civilization would likely face centuries of acute challenges.

Elaborating for me after his talk, Prof. Keasling, with the natural optimism about the future of a fifth generation Nebraska corn farmer, expressed the importance of laying the foundations for a carbon-neutral economy. Even if he may not witness the actual transition, his work today takes us closer to a steady-state energy economy that may bring climate back into a comfortable equilibrium.

Prof. Keasling is in the forefront of a paradigm shift – A grand transition to a new global economy based on principles of sustainability. No one designed our modern economies’ dependence on a limited, life-threatening and earth polluting resource. At the same time enabling global and local mobility, our industrial civilization’s addiction to fossil fuels continues to destroy the current hospitable climate that provides the underlying conditions for abundance and wealth.

Transitioning to sustainability demands intentionality of design, reliance on good science and planning, alongside a willingness to be fully part of and not separate from our surrounding ecology. Sustainability serves the profit motivation that drives the dominant capitalist market economic model, yet it does so in balance with the two other elements of its golden triangle – people and planet. Sustainability takes a long-term view that is especially critical in a world that will be challenged by climate instability for centuries to come.

We at Yoyah have utilized our methodology of Photograph from the Future™ to look at how we can design projects that respond to the triple bottom line of economy, society and environment, or as above, profit, people and planet. In performing our own back casting scenario planning we clearly understand that we must act to assist in the transition to sustainability, particularly in key areas of food, energy, and water all within an overall framework of ongoing innovation and persistence. Though we plan to see our efforts rewarded our essential intention to act reaffirms a commitment to improve the world we live in and signals to those who follow to pick up wherever we may leave off.