How deep do we need to go?

I know it has been a while since my last post…and yes I know there is so much to cover that I don’t really know where to start! Believe or not, this is the right way to learn about sustainable development or sustainability…there is no start or end, write or wrong…Sustainability is a continuous process of learning, kind of a “live” process that changes our way of living and interacting. It is not simple, it is not something easy to define and it is not an easy and calm sailing trip with a straight line to follow. As we have seen previously, we have to create our own definition, what sustainability really means to us, into our activities, social behaviour and the way we dream about our future.

Sustainability is a concept that sees things in different ways, dealing with problems and difficulties with different perspective. Asking yourself why every little action counts and how important is to understand that we are all part of the process.  As Tilbury and Cooke (2005) mention, “Sustainability depends on fundamental changes in lifestyles and the choices people make day-to-day”. Yes, that is right, changing lifestyle, how we perceive the world and others human being. And it is exactly about this deep changing, deep self understanding and deep transformations that I am going to talk about in this post. The beginning is  essential part of the learning for sustainability, the questioning process that can take place any time of your day, other watching TV or listening to the radio or at work at Uni or even talking to your friends and family. That questioning process is defined as Critical thinking, “Uncovering the layers of assumptions that inform our thinking and actions, much like peeling back the layers of an onion” (Tilbury and Cooke, 2005), by underpinning those underlined assumptions and influences, individuals can build and create their own knowledge and really understand the real meaning of systems working around them. “Peeling” the problems and looking at questions deeply might be a confronting process for some people because it really uncovers personal values, culture and beliefs. Thus, knowing better yourself and your cultural background will help to understand many of the complex issues about sustainability.       

We are everyday bombarded with thousands of information and messages trying to catch our attention and make us to behave on a certain way. Critical thinking helps us to ask questions such as, what is the reality behind that message? What does that advert really mean? What are they trying to sell? The media is realising an election poll, but are they passing the right message or are they trying to manipulate us? What is behind the products and services that we buy every day? Such critical questions lead individuals to causes of problems, builds capacity for learning and change towards sustainability.

Critical thinking empowers the individual to separate the causes and effects of a problem. Most of the time organizations and individuals try to solve problems by tackling the results, but they forget that the problems may happen again if they don’t solve the root causes of the issue, so looking at situations on different perspectives is a result of critical thinking.

Thinking itself is already a very hard and time consuming task, imagine in addition to that we have to critical think? It can be a rewarding and empowering process because it gives us meaning and purpose to what we are trying to achieve. It helps groups to find the motivation for their fight, in this case sustainability, to really understand that our decisions today will reflect upon our and others future tomorrow. Sometimes, after going through all the process of critical thinking, I feel like a stranger amongst other people because of the power that this tool provides, it feels like you can see what others can't see and understand what others can’t. 

During our lecture we were asked to look through what a specific advertising was trying to say behind its picture. The advert was just a little hamburger box in the middle of a jungle saying “I think I am going to stay here for the rest of my life”. All sorts of views came about trying to really underpin the causes of a box being in the middle of a jungle, or what sort of materials was the box made of? Who would have thrown that box there? Or even the box asking itself why “she” was there. That activity proves to me that there are a lot more behind the things we consume on our everyday life than we imagine. Organizations are trying really hard to mislead us with false ads selling experiences and sensations that their products “supposably” provide. The box “in” the jungle is just a great example to instigate individuals to make better decisions when buying products on the market place.  What about the bottled water (how is the bottle produced? Where does that water come from? Is that really better than tap water? Where does the empty bottle go? Will that be recycled?), or the vegetables we eat, the coffee we drink or the electronics we are so dependant.

Sustainable development needs that shift on the way we perceive the world, the way we consume, the way we utilize our natural and human resources. Organizations and leaders use critical thinking as a tool to bring about the change with its employees, the process helps individuals to reflect upon themselves and their role within the organization. Digging problems deeply make employees address their real concerns about sustainability enabling the company to access those issues more accurately. The process of critical thinking creates a skilled population who makes informed decisions in their home, community and working lives and their leisure activities (UK department of environment).

I am part of a group on Linkedin (online social media) about Sustainability professionals, and around a week ago I started a discussion with the question “Is education an important path to achieve a more sustainable world?” and surprisingly a lot of the participants think that education itself is not the answer for that problem. Some of the comments are as per below:

“I don’t think education will really work, consumers around the world appear to be little concerned about sustainability. Nothing appears to work..(Venkatasamy Linkedin Jul/12)”

“Consumers appear to have never known their power over organizations. They appear to be totally influenced by adverts….I wonder who are those skilled population?”(Venkatasamy Linkedin Jul/12)
   

“Sustainability may involve education, but at a much more fundamental level, it seems to involve qualities like awareness, integrity and respect” (Beth Ann Lederer Linkedin Jul/12)

Annie founded the non-profit Story of Stuff Project in 2008 to respond to tens of thousands of viewer requests for more information and ways to get involved. We create short, easily shareable online movies that explore some of the key features of our relationship with Stuff—including how we can make things better; we provide high quality educational resources and programs to everyone from teachers and people of faith to business and community leaders; and we support the learning and action of the over 350,000 members of the Story of Stuff community. (http://www.storyofstuff.org/about/about-the-project/)

These comments are real people trying to understand deeply the real meaning of EFSD and thinking critically upon concepts already in books, theses and journals. Critical thinking stem from basic understandings of self/self identity/self wellness. To achieve sustainability we need to go through a COMBINATION of changes, and surely start to think critically is one of the most important.

Will leave that one up to all of you...Enjoy!