The healthy 'doughnut'
Hey there 😊
In our learning circle on Monday, we began by asking our members about which of these social foundations they considered most essential.
Water, food, health, education, income and work, peace and justice, political voice, social equity, gender equality, housing, networks and energy
Sayee found education to be the most important. Arpana remarked that social equity influenced all spheres of our existence, while Yash remarked that so did income and work. For Shanya, peace and justice was the end goal to it all.
We then also asked them hitting which of these ecological ceilings bothers them the most.
Climate change, ocean acidification, chemical pollution, nitrogen & phosphorus loading, freshwater withdrawals, land conversion, biodiversity loss, air pollution, ozone layer depletion
For Yash and Shanya, it was air pollution and for Sayee it was chemical pollution. Arpana felt most affected by biodiversity loss.
What do you think about the above questions? Let us know in the comments!
Image by DoughnutEconomics
Clearly, we want to fulfil our basic needs and thrive in strong social foundations, while not reaching any of the ecological ceilings that safeguard our existence.
This is exactly what Kate Raworth talks about in her design for a healthy economy - a doughnut model that looks like the above.
She begins by observing how we equate growth with a forward and upward movement, though later in the video notes how nature follows closed loops of birth and death - waste from one process becomes food for other, something our industries need to rapidly adopt.
In today’s age of high mass consumption, which is at the peak of the unending growth that we have come to demand, expect and depend upon, she remarks that we are addicted to this ever rising growth financially, politically and socially.
Shanya and Arpana agreed that the images embedded in our mind by the consumer propaganda are so tempting and we believe that ‘buying’ things will transform us into those happy, successful portrayals.
Balancing a dash of indicators that see us thrive with dignity and opportunity, within the means of our extraordinary, delicate planet is what led Raworth to propose the doughnut model in the first image. We get out of the hole in the middle over the social foundation, meeting our essential needs, resting in the doughnut area of a safe, just, regenerative, distributive world, while never letting our collective resource use overshoot our planetary boundaries.
However, and no surprises here, this is where we are right now. We fall short on our social foundations, most notably health, social equity and political voice while having already caused climate change and biodiversity loss among others.
Image by DoughnutEconomics
Also, we cannot depend on more growth cleaning up this mess, or deprioritise it over more growth right now and leave to worry about it later. We need to purposefully design our businesses, industries and economy to be regenerative and distributive. And remembering our boundaries here need not make us feel bounded, but rather unleash our creative potential! We will continue to explore this theme in our learning circles this week, looking at some existing case studies from India and designing our own.
Image by Ellen MacArthur Foundation
We would love to hear your thoughts and feedback in the comments or at ecorageous@gmail.com. If you found it valuable to be a part of the circles and know someone who might benefit from being a part of them too, do consider inviting them. They can also be a part of our community by filling out this form.
Until next time, 😊
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