Resilient Futures Strategy Forum - A Resilient WA?
On August 11th, 2008 over 50 senior decision makers representing state and local government, industry and the wider community came together in the City of South Perth, Westerm Australia for the Resilient Futures Strategy Forum:
Planning for Growth, Climate Change and Water Shortages
How resilient is your community and are you managing these types of risk?
The aim of the strategy forum was to introduce participants to a resilience-based approach to complex problem solving and to explore Western Australia’s ability to be resilient in the face of problems such as planning for growth, climate change and water shortages. The forum kicked off a week which marked the beginning of the Resilient Futures Network’s campaign for a Resilient Western Australia – a campaign in response to the need to encourage and promote a different way for government, communities, organisations and individuals to think and act.
The summary-report and the various videos taken during the forum on the 11th are intended to open up a conversation about our ability - both in Western Australia and as a global community - to be resilient in the face of some of the most serious issues and challenges of our time: water shortages, climate change and planning for growth.
In some ways the words of Jamais Cascio capture the essence of what lies at the heart of this campaign. He said,
“It seems to me that what we should be striving for in an environment — and a civilization — is to be able to handle dynamic, unexpected changes without threatening to collapse. This is more than simply sustainable; it’s regenerative and diverse, relying on both a capacity to absorb shocks and to co-evolve with them. In a word, it’s resilient.”
So the challenge is before us. Can we be more than sustainable? Can we both absorb shocks and co-evolve with them? Can we self-transform in a flow with changing conditions and prosper?
Can we be resilient? Or, do we plod grimly on to the possible future as proposed by Tim Flannery.
“I think there is a fair chance Perth will be the 21st century’s first ghost metropolis. It’s whole primary production is in dire straits and the eastern states are only 30 years behind. (2004)”
As we continue to grapple with challenges such as climate change, water and planning for growth the opportunity is here for us to take the lead in creating resilient strategies out of which local communities can make well-informed and supported decisions about how they will tackle complex problems.
If we are to be resilient, if Western Australia is to be resilient, then we must re-think what we do and how we do it. And, we must do this thinking and doing as a network of committed organisations and individuals.
This then, as much as anything is an invitation to connect, a call to action. Read the summary report, watch the videos, use the forum to post your thoughts and insights, suggest alternatives, share your stories, tell us what you’ve learned and what you think.
Most importantly however, please don’t sit by and wait for someone else to do it. We have waited until now and “they” haven’t done it yet – and it doesn’t look like “they” will.
Now, it is up to us.
Join the network and commit to a Resilient Future for Western Australia and the world.
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