How do we reframe our relationship with nature?
Insights from conversations with leaders in Asia
Armaan Dobberstein, Sumitra Pasupathy
The conversation around the wellbeing of our planet and climate isn’t new — it is only more urgent. In Asia, which is experiencing exponentially growing populations alongside rapid economic development, there are many risks. That includes financial risks: By 2050, between $2.8 and $4.7 trillion of GDP in Asia annually will be at risk from an effective loss of outdoor working hours due to increased heat and humidity. $1.2 trillion in capital stock is expected to be damaged by river flooding alone.
In recent years Asia has seen a mindset shift around sustainable development. And because much of Asia is in development, the region is well positioned to address climate risk effectively. Key economies such as China and Japan are leading the world in the very technologies necessary to adapt to and mitigate climate change, from electric vehicles to renewable energy.
But in order to create scalable, long-term solutions, we need to innovate with “systems change” in mind. What shifts will help us get there?
Ashoka in Asia hosted The Changemaker Leadership Dialogue Series — conversations where we collectively sought insights from pattern-changing Ashoka Fellows alongside high-impact business and philanthropic leaders. These leaders met at “eye-level” with humility and curiosity to talk about how we can together advance change at the systemic level. Here are our main takeaways for planet and climate wellbeing.
1. We need a more collaborative, integrated approach
For a problem as big as an ecological crisis, working independently is not enough. Hierarchies and power structures can get in the way of big change. We must come together to tackle our environmental problems in a systemic way.
How?
We keep asking: “Who are we missing?” “How do we empower others?” “How do we organise differently across sectors to ask the right questions from a systems-change perspective”? We need to ground solutions in reality by co-creating with philanthropists, social entrepreneurs, stakeholders (like farmers), young people, political units (local- regional governments) and allies such as indigenous populations.
Every person contributes to humanity’s impact on the natural world — whether large and small, positive and negative. We have responsibility and a role. Everyone can be a changemaker.
2. We are nature. And we must discover our true role.
Fixing a broken system starts by challenging deeply held assumptions. The “old paradigm,” Ashoka’s Corina Murafa says, is that humanity is superior to nature and has dominance over it. The idea that nature is separate, abstract, and a “tool” for us to use has led to the problems we face today.
What if we reframe our relationship with nature?
“What Ashoka Fellows are telling us is that the main principle leading their work is that, on the contrary, humanity is nature. We are nature.”
Another important mindset shift: think long term. Decision making should look at a horizon generations away. Ashoka Fellow Cynthia Ong has built her organisation — Forever Sabah — by distributing power and building an interconnected community of over 20 organisations and their next generation leaders.
Change happens when we shift not just what is around us, but what is inside of us: our “inner world.”
Shifting our education system is critical to ensure that sustainability is at the center, and not an elective. Deepening solidarity and empathy will help us not only grasp the problem, but also act upon it.
For philanthropists and social entrepreneurs, inner discovery helps us encounter our inner motivations and shadows that support the design of our interventions into the environmental crisis with actions that create changes in systems, mindsets and belief systems.
3. All of the issues we face are interconnected
Planet and Climate issues are tied up with other issues — like education, healthcare, and food security, to name a few.
“It is not about emissions only,” Corina says. “There are so many other interconnected issues, and they all tie into the broken relationship we have with the planet — from wealth inequality, food security, infectious diseases, human rights, female education.”
Asian social entrepreneurs and philanthropists can find and support solutions that address multiple questions at once. It’s about embracing complexity.
According to a traditional narrative, planet and climate action requires sacrifices. But what we are seeing from the smart solutions of Ashoka Fellows is that they are effecting positive impact beyond the climate, creating change in many other directions. According to Shubhendu, founder of Afforest, the decision to recognize complexity is “a shift away from a narrative of sacrifice to a narrative of abundance.”
When it comes to working with complexity, there are three things to remember: 1) We can solve more than one problem at a time. 2) We should decentralize decision-making, and 3) Last but not least, be pragmatic. We have the solutions, now we need to really scale them.
“We do have some things in our favour, because everything is so interconnected there is hope that we can solve more than one problem at a time. There is hope that once we act and make good decisions, more will follow,” Kathlyn Tan, Director of Rumah Foundation, reminds us.
“With this momentum and the innovation of humankind there is hope that we will actually get there in time. Hope is critical to this fight and because without hope we do not stand a chance.”
For deeper insights into the patterns in the field of Planet and Climate — please see Ashoka published latest report here. The contributors to the insights in this article are Ashoka Fellows Cynthia Ong (Forever Sabah), Regi Wahyu (Hara), Shubendhu Sharma (Afforestt), Dr. Manu Gupta (SEEDs) Nicole Rycroft (Canopy), Silverius Oscar Unggul, Onte (Telapak)
Follow @CorinaMurafa and @SilveriusOscarUnggul(Onte) on LinkedIn.
Follow @CynthiaOng, @ShubhenduSharma, @RegiWahyu, @ManuGupta and @NicoleRycroft on Twitter.
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