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The “what” to do of regenerating fractured biophysical systems is simple – at least when referring to the outer, physical world we inhabit.
We know how to green deserts, purify air, plant the rain and create an abundance of food. We know how to build soils rapidly, grow forests of food and build healthy and completely natural shelter. Some might say we are drowning in the knowledge capital of regeneration.
We (the human species) have even made large strides regarding what to do for regenerating our ‘invisible’ systems. We can and have created regenerative economic models, equitable and non-violent forms of self-governance, and embraced healthy ways of communicating, deciding and being with one another. Much of what we now seek to do has already been done, sometimes long ago and sometimes quite recently or even is being done currently.
So, if we know and have known how to do all of these things that we need to do so urgently right now, how on earth did we end up where we are?
How have we come to accept empty oceans as an acceptable trade for a tuna melt?
How have we come to accept the beheading of mountain tops as an acceptable trade for being able to bump up the thermostat?
How have we come to accept a home built of toxic materials amalgamated from destroyed ecosystems far away and paid for with 30 years of our life energy as the “responsible” choice of home ownership?
Before we are mistaken, this post is not meant to ridicule or judge these outcomes – we have benefited (at least in the immediate sense) from all of them. Instead we endeavor to paint them as vivid yet mundane examples of how misaligned our “normal” is with living a truly regenerative lifestyle.
Knowing that we can regenerate the land upon which we dwell, and knowing that we can choose to relate to one another, ourselves and our environment in regenerative ways once we make up our minds to do so leads to the question…
How is it that we separated ourselves from the regenerative lifeways of our past and transitioned to the degenerative lifeways that dominate our everyday existence?
Attempting to answer such a question is like going back to the scene of a traffic accident and re-enacting it – reviewing video tapes of closed circuit cameras, interviewing bystanders, and measuring skid marks to determine impact speeds and the resulting G-forces experienced by those directly involved. While it may help us to determine who was at fault in this one particular instance, does it help us to prevent future accidents of a similar nature? Perhaps if we frame the question differently, it can yield some useful points to prevent future tragedies. Re-framing that question in the positive might look something like this…
How can we re-establish regenerative lifeways and reconnect our ecological umbilical from our current place of degenerated inner and outer ecology?
History is replete with examples of prosperity giving way to ruin, freedom giving way to tyranny, and steady-state eco-social societies giving way to overconsumption and collapse. Many times throughout the history of our species it seems we have lived in Eden, only to let it decay into chaos.
What is that common thread that runs through human beings that explains our seeming inability to recognize a good thing when we have it, how we came by it, and how we might continue to come by it?
How can we, the Regeneration Generation, ensure that the work that we must do in our lifetimes to mend the torn eco-social fabric we have inherited will be carried on and upheld as something worth not just preserving, but strengthening with each ensuing generation?
Put succinctly, how do we increase the potential for intergenerational transmission, integration and embodiment of regenerative values?
That’s what the 7th Generation Principle is for – designing regenerative systems today that will enjoy continuity of stewardship through the generations.
In this post we offer an in-progress prototype of a design principle that is almost an ethic in and of itself. The 7th Generation Principle is a lens through which to measure a design’s effectiveness at maintaining continuity through time. It is a lens through which we can evaluate our design and all of the life that happens around it, and ask if it will be performing its intended functions 150 years from today when our grandchildren’s grandchildren’s children are born. Here it is.
The 7th Generation Principle
A 7th Generation system creates socially and economically fulfilling lives for its inhabitants, whose daily activity patterns regenerate natural ecosystems and increase living capital year over year, such that the economic and social value of natural ecosystems is always increasing, and the value-ing of those systems is transmitted intact across generations.
One example of intergenerational transmission, integration and embodiment of regenerative values that exists today are the Bridges of Meghalaya and their stewards, the Khasi people, located in Northeast India. High in the mountainous plateau near the border with Bangladesh, this matrilineal society has been growing and stewarding living root bridges grown from the roots of the banyan tree (Ficus benghalensis). These bridges over their high mountain gorges and rushing rivers actually grow stronger with time, unlike our modern day concrete and rebar structures. It takes 15 – 20 years just to train a root to cross one of these gorges, and maybe another decade before the bridge can bear the regular weight of a passing human. Many of the bridges are planted by people who will never walk on them in their lifetime. They are planted and tended for the future generations. Below is a brief video documentary about Meghalaya, the Khasi people, and their famed root bridges and ladders.
When our design, implementation and habitation of systems is congruent with the 7th Generation Principle we successfully operate in the black with regards to the triple bottom line: Economic, Social and Ecological well being. Below we unpack each part of the Triple Bottom Line – what it means and what is happening.
From the list of knowns presented above we can generate qualifiable criteria that any design, project, group process or societal structure must meet in order to be regenerative. From these criteria we develop a list of questions to ask about our design as it progresses to test if we are designing towards intergenerational transmission, integration and embodiment of regenerative values.
You can of course adjust these knowns to your context and experience – just make sure to perform the next two steps of establishing design criteria and generating guiding questions from them to see if your knowns are leading you in the direction that you want to go.
From the design criteria above we can derive a list of questions that, when honestly answered, can help steer our design towards regeneration.
This entire post is a working draft and will likely always be. We hope the 7th Generation Principle, the integrated design criteria and the questions aimed to spark innovative thinking towards meeting those criteria will be of service as you go about your work in regenerating our world.
Constructive input, ideas and additions are always welcome. Please leave them in the comments below or reach out at the Contact page to continue the discussion. Thanks for reading! Let’s get after it.
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