Systems Thinking Tools
On Invasives
Thursday, November 18th, 2010What I will say here about the issue of invasives may seem picky, but it is not, because it points up a fundamental flaw in how we think about any intervention into the complex, systemic world in which we live.
The flaw running through the whole discourse about invasives is the tendency to see them too [...]
A sustainable agriculture research and education agenda to address a gathering crisis
Sunday, January 31st, 2010A Sustainable Agriculture Research & Education Agenda to Address a Gathering Crisis
Karl North 2002
The Crisis, in its multidimensionality, with likely multiplier effects across its elements:
Exponentially rising energy costs for coming decades as currently foreseeable alternative energy technologies fail to compensate for the end of cheap oil;
Gradual loss of most of the energy-intensive inputs that currently [...]
Introduction to Systems Thinking
Thursday, January 21st, 2010A New Understanding of Root Cause—
Systems Thinking for Problem Solvers
By Karl North
“We’ll never be able to go back again to the way we used to think.” – anonymous holist
A Revolution in the Making
The insight that the world functions in complex, interdependent wholes drives a growing revolution in the way people are examining, understanding, [...]
Two Folktales for Comprehending Late Stage Capitalism and its Scientific Culture
Sunday, January 17th, 2010Karl North 2006
Folktales distill the wisdom of the ages. All too often their teachings are applicable to any era. Perhaps their continuing relevance comes, as the saying goes, from the human propensity to repeat history, once as tragedy, again as farce.
My favorite tales to explain the hilarious but tragic human behavior patterns of late stage [...]
