What could it look like, and how can we achieve it?

We cannot solve a problem that we refuse to face, and a global and systemic crisis of sustainability is a problem that we need to face collectively on a planetary scale.

It is not just awareness about climate change, growing inequalities, or ecosystem destruction that is needed, but an understanding of the interrelations between all these issues and their fundamental causes: obsolete systems and unviable human behavior patterns.

Benjamin

<a href="https://illuminem.com/illuminemvoices/3984bf5c-9ae2-4a1e-9ad5-ce8ede6cc5d9">In this first article</a>, I described how climate change is a symptom of a systemic and multifactorial sustainability crisis resulting from human behavior patterns.
<a href="https://illuminem.com/illuminemvoices/501bf95f-7d27-444e-bdf2-b9997b8eb75c">In a second article</a>, we explored what generated these patterns and how primal survival mechanisms deeply embedded within the collective unconscious have become self-destructive in the context of exponential technological progress characterizing the Anthropocene. We have also highlighted how these primal survival strategies are perpetuated by social structures established on collective beliefs, fears, and traumas inherited over humanity’s history.
This article, which is based on an understanding of the problem and its hidden root causes, will propose solutions that treat the root causes of the problem together with a “realistic” path to achieving the much-needed sustainable transition on a planetary scale successfully.
<h1>Addressing the first obstacle on the path to change: our collective state of denial of the problem and its fundamental causes</h1>
We cannot solve a problem that we refuse to face, and a global and systemic crisis of sustainability is a problem that we need to face collectively on a planetary scale.
It is not just awareness about climate change, growing inequalities, or ecosystem destruction that is needed, but an understanding of the interrelations between all these issues and their fundamental causes: obsolete systems and unviable human behavior patterns. In other words, these external issues we are trying to address stem out of internal issues that we haven’t even started to seriously acknowledge yet. As long as we remain collectively in denial of the systemic and multifactorial crisis of sustainability and its hidden root causes (within us), we won’t have the needed level of understanding to resolve it.
As such, massive awareness campaigns are needed for people to recognize that the crisis we face requires an evolution of our relationship with ourselves, one another, and the natural world.
Facing an hyperobject like a planetary scale sustainability crisis requires the development of our emotional and mental maturity. Denying what is happening on the surface of the globe and within us is a skillful response to protect the psyche from getting destabilized by thoughts and emotions (cognitive dissonance) that are too disturbing and overwhelming to meet without capable support. In a way, the sustainability crisis obliges us to face parts of reality and ourselves that we have rejected, repressed, and ignored until now. This collective shadow includes unresolved wounds, irrational fears, and false beliefs that we haven’t found the courage to face yet. Creating safe spaces, practices, and tools for people to engage in these sensitive conversations and process whatever will be triggered within themselves is critical.
<img src="https://illuminem.b-cdn.net/articlebody/78860ee1b8de28fe35aa4aaf08c12390c05859ff.png" alt="Fig 1: cognitive dissonance as a choice between a reality check and the perpetuation of a state of denial (source: practical psychology)">
<img src="https://illuminem.b-cdn.net/articlebody/11d1a7a520f3f541c74e99dd03de452a172eee3e.png" alt="Fig 2: the vicious cycle of denial (Source: NWT infographics)">
<h1>Breaking the vicious cycle of primal survival keeping humanity in a self-destructive egoic paradigm</h1>
As we have seen in the previous article, we are still living in a paradigm of fear and survival in which the dominant social norm is still to:
<ul><li>respond to the danger of hostility by trying to dominate and neutralize rivals</li></ul>
<ul><li>respond to the danger of scarcity by accumulating always more possessions and wealth</li></ul>
<ul><li>respond to the danger of separation by rejecting ourselves to conform to social norms</li></ul>
These accepted social norms perpetuate a vicious cycle of violent conflicts, resource overconsumption, and separation that is increasingly dangerous and unsustainable in the context of exponential technological progress. They are perpetuating the threats of hostility, scarcity, and separation keeping our species in a state of fear, prisoner of increasingly unsustainable primal survival strategies.
To stop these vicious cycles, we have to learn individually and collectively:
<ul><li>to develop our sensibility to be able to resolve our conflicts peacefully (instead of using brute force to dominate our “enemies”)</li></ul>
<ul><li>to identify and fulfill our real needs to make moderate use of our planetary resources (instead of compulsively hoarding wealth and possession)</li></ul>
<ul><li>to accept and embrace ourselves as we are to become truthful and authentic (instead of repressing ourselves to follow unviable and toxic social norms)</li></ul>
All of these are interrelated and therefore are part of the same journey toward self-knowledge and self-realization.
Doing so requires an expansion of our individual and collective level of consciousness to:
<ol><li>Identify the unconscious mechanisms that drive our unsustainable patterns</li></ol>
<ol><li>Put in the effort and inner work to recalibrate them</li></ol>
<ol><li>Support others to catalyze the needed change</li></ol>
This is not an easy process, it requires time and investment to go inward and find the courage to meet our unresolved wounds, irrational fears, and false beliefs. Of course, not everyone has the privilege to be in the right condition to start this process of conscious evolution. It is neither fair nor realistic to ask people directly affected by war, oppression, and/or extreme poverty to do the inner work to heal their wounds while they are struggling to survive. Healing can only occur in a safe and regenerative space.
<img src="https://illuminem.b-cdn.net/articlebody/40e771574dd2cfb876f40eda3bc1535b00bffb43.png" alt="Fig 3: Evolving from a paradigm of fear and separation toward a paradigm of empathy and unity (Source: NWT infographics)">
<h1>A planetary-scale regenerative transition</h1>
We will not fix interrelated global problems if we continue to address them separately and in silos, while ignoring both their interrelation and shared root causes. Addressing these roots means dealing with collective and intergenerational traumas, fears, and beliefs that are embedded within our cultures, societies, and identities.
The path to get there is both easy to understand and challenging to take because it implies finding the courage to face what has been repressed in the collective unconscious until now: the parts of ourselves that carry our biggest fears, and wounds. This is why the first step to the regenerative transition is one of “radical acceptance” of our reality, of ourselves, of our heritage, and our potential futures.
From there we can start to acknowledge and address our individual and collective psychological wounds. Some have already started this process. Thomas Hubl for example is leading entire groups to acknowledge and heal their collective traumas.
More and more people are also starting to recognize the grim past. As an example, Pope Francis has publicly asked for forgiveness for the abuses that Native people have been through in Christian residential schools. We are slowly starting to recognize the colonial heritage that has left deep collective traumas and resulted in the establishment of unsustainable systems of exploitation and extraction all over the globe. Although it is far from enough, these are the first steps toward mutual understanding, reconciliation, and healing.
This process of regeneration on a collective level implies an unprecedented level of post-traumatic growth, an expansion of our level of self-awareness, self-knowledge, and empathy that would generate tremendous changes at all levels of our society. This cultural renaissance established on self-knowledge paves the way towards a new century of light: a shift of paradigm driven by the awakening and expansion of human self-consciousness.
<img src="https://illuminem.b-cdn.net/articlebody/cfc03c2821d3808b3c4e43dd96e24310b4df03f2.png" alt="Fig 4: The regenerative transition – a need to address the root causes of unsustainability">
<h1>Making our unconscious social structures conscious:</h1>
We are the co-creators of the beliefs, narratives, and values that shape our societies and identities. When these are not co-created consciously, they are co-created unconsciously which means that they shape ourselves and our world below our level of awareness. We do not have to remain prisoners of cages of our own unconscious making, especially when these are increasingly unsustainable: we are called to recognize them for what they are, and to liberate ourselves from them.
Self-knowledge leads to awareness of our individual and collective creative power, to shape our society and ourselves. To safely and smoothly achieve a much-desired sustainable transition, the human species is invited to claim its creative power and make a conscious usage of it to reshape its global civilization so that it can support:
<ul><li>the resolution of our violent past conflicts</li></ul>
<ul><li>the integration of our planetary limits</li></ul>
<ul><li>the self-realization of all human beings</li></ul>
Again, our ability to unlock our collective creative power is closely related to our ability to acknowledge and address the collective and intergenerational traumas that maintain us in a state of fear and primal survival.
<img src="https://illuminem.b-cdn.net/articlebody/88877f2d9ebb2d6fb8cc57f035adfe572c511627.png" alt="Fig 5: Becoming aware of our collective creative power">
<h1>A change of economic paradigm:</h1>
Can we integrate our planetary limits within a consumerist and productivist economy based on competition for short-term profits, unlimited accumulation of capital, and growth? The response should not be too hard to answer. Integrating our planetary limits requires a paradigm of collaboration, moderation, and fair repartition not one of competition, excesses, and accumulation.
Our current economic model functions like a hamster wheel in which people have to work more, so they can consume more for the economy to keep growing. It is being maintained through the multiplication of “bullshit jobs” characterized by a lack of real purpose and a negative social and/ or environmental impact.
It is an economic model that can only lead to inequalities, burnout, and ecosystem destruction before it entirely collapses.
The sustainable transition requires a shift of economic paradigm which implies a change in how we measure economic success. We are invited to move away from indicators such as GDP (Gross Domestic Product) which only measures the values of goods and services produced by an economy to replace them with indicators more adapted to the challenges of our times. Indicators that could measure and therefore improve the level of well-being, contentment, and self-realization of a population.
It is also essential to notice that no shift in economic paradigm can occur without breaking free from the old debt-based financial system which artificially manufactures scarcity and perpetuates the need for compulsive growth. Our individual and collective ability to take action will determine whether the unavoidable shift will be forced up our societies or implemented through conscious changes.
<img src="https://illuminem.b-cdn.net/articlebody/b39d35558962860e539800222847155d80dea4c1.png" alt="Fig 6: a new economic paradigm">
<h1>A 6 steps process to start the regenerative transition on a global scale</h1>
If you had the courage and resilience to read the article until here, you probably felt that all these solutions appear out of reach. This last part is dedicated to offering a pathway so that we can achieve the regenerative transition and the sustainable transformation of our societies in 6 steps from the individual to the collective. Yes, we can… if we want to.
Step 1: Individual awareness – if collective awareness is needed for the human species to achieve a sustainable transition this can’t be achieved without individual awareness in the first place. As such it is up to each and every individual to start educating themselves about the nature of the existential risks of the 21st century, their hidden root causes, and solutions. The key here is to understand that our sustainability problem is to be resolved within ourselves in the first place.
Step 2: Integration – individual awareness is important but if it isn’t embodied then it is as good as someone knowing that they should stop smoking but being unable to do it. Individuals who are aware are invited to go through their inner journey of self-actualization and consciousness expansion. That implies a process of making the dysfunctional part of our unconscious conscious in order to deconstruct the limiting beliefs, release the irrational fears, and heal the unresolved traumas of the past. This could be called a “Journey of the Hero” allowing each individual to unlock their best potential to be part of the solution.
Step 3: Embodiment – once the change is integrated, individuals can incarnate the sustainable transformation. They are the change that humanity needs. These influence people around them and attract other individuals who are engaged in the transition, allowing for collaboration and synergies.
Step 4: Coalition – nobody can catalyze the sustainable transition by themselves. As such, a coalition of actors of change is needed to catalyze the transformation of our society. The key is to act together for this self-consciousness to enter mainstream culture.
Step 5: Popularization – this new knowledge should be represented and discussed in mass media, institutions, and political organizations so that it can inspire and transform the public sphere. Bringing humanity closer and closer to reaching the level of consciousness, knowledge, and empathy needed to start planetary regeneration.
Step 6: Planetary Regeneration – this last step will start when our society is ready to begin the collective healing of the human species. This implies that the earth is now a safe place for people to heal their past traumas, release their irrational fears and deconstruct their false beliefs.
Altogether, the systemic and multifactorial crisis of sustainability faced by the human species is a call for evolution. Just as the caterpillar has to build a cocoon to dissolve itself and turn into a butterfly once it has reached a certain level of maturity, humanity is called to create a safe space to enter the stage of conscious evolution: one in which the human species is not driven by unconscious primal survival mechanisms but by conscious choices stemming out of our collective desire to protect and enhance life. Homo Sapiens (humans who think but don’t understand themselves) are called to become Homo Conscius (humans who are aware of themselves and their creative power).
<img src="https://illuminem.b-cdn.net/articlebody/fe14caa8979a22c560573bdc2c51d459cbdba7a6.png" alt="Fig 7: 6 steps toward a global regenerative transition">
<h1>The end to the paradigm of egoism?</h1>
The paradigm of egoism, in which we currently live, is established on the false belief or sense that we are somehow separated from each other and the rest of the universe. We now understand that everything in our reality is interdependent and interrelated. As such nothing exists separated from everything else: we are part of a whole in which everything is interconnected. This realization is probably one of the most game-changing in our times. It reveals that protecting and enhancing our environment and protecting and enhancing our lives are the same. It shows that no victory against others and the rest of the world is long-lasting. As such the crisis of sustainability is a call for humans all over the globe to join forces, to safeguard their future.
The existential risks we face as a species are inviting us to move away from a self-perpetuating and increasingly destructive paradigm of rivalry for power, resources, and status to enter a new paradigm of collaboration for emancipation, resource sharing, and realization. The common enemy we are invited to defeat in the 21st century is not Russia, China, or USA (note how it varies very subjectively based on one’s national affiliation), it is the unconsciousness, ignorance, and fears that are keeping us prisoner of an outdated primal survival instinct bringing us o the verge of self-extinction. The cure is not more military power or a bigger economy but an expansion of our collective level of self-awareness, knowledge, and empathy.
And for those who feel that this vision is excessively idealistic, it seems that there are no other realistic and desirable ways forward. The sustainable transition concerns all humanity and requires collaboration on an unprecedented scale and it is not the current paradigm of individualism and competition to get there.
<img src="https://illuminem.b-cdn.net/articlebody/39b82400279a7bbdb0eed3223db7463dd6104020.png" alt="Fig 8: From an unsustainable paradigm of egotism to a sustainable paradigm of oneness">
Now more than ever, our future is in our hands and the paradigm shift we are invited to catalyze is to be ignited within each and every one of us. And if we look at the opportunity carried by the great challenges of our times, we may find a beautiful vision for all humanity.
The sustainable transition is our hero’s journey toward the self and unity.
illuminem Voices is a democratic space presenting the thoughts and opinions of leading Sustainability &amp; Energy writers, their opinions do not necessarily represent those of illuminem.

Overcoming the existential challenges of the 21st century requires a paradigm shift

Collectively changing behavior appears to be the only realistic pathway to integrate our planetary limits and avoid the collapse of our global civilisation

In a previous article, we have highlighted how human behavior patterns are at the core of the meta-crisis of sustainability. This time, we are going to explore where these unsustainable patterns come from and how they can be changed:
<img src="https://illuminem.b-cdn.net/articlebody/147d5471b06032ba53bae47d38513d0fa0445ef9.png" alt="undefined" />
Collectively changing behavior appears to be the only realistic pathway to integrate our planetary limits and avoid the collapse of our global civilisation. To do so, it seems that we will have to explore part of ourselves that we do not know of yet. In fact, an estimated 95% of our choices and actions are the result of unconscious mechanisms and unless we are collectively making a conscious choice to cocreate a global disaster by pushing unsustainability to the limits, our unsustainable behavior patterns stem from unconscious mechanisms which we are not aware of yet.
To better understand the nature of these unconscious patterns, we can use the ABC technique which stands for Antecedent, Behavior, Consequences. Through it, we learn that every behavior pattern is the result of past events and has consequences. According to this model, to change a pattern, it is, therefore, important to acknowledge its antecedent as well as its undesirable consequences. If we use this model to look at the big picture, humanity&rsquo;s past history had generated certain behavior patterns that are unsustainable and that will lead to the collapse of our civilisation if they are not addressed. In other words, if we want to understand the nature of the patterns that are bringing us to the verge of disaster, we need to understand our past.
<img src="https://illuminem.b-cdn.net/articlebody/09281d442e5ef984ba04104f44e48e61e5dff50b.png" alt="Figure 1: using the ABC behaviorial model to better understand the global crisis of sustainability faced by humanity" />
If we take a big step back to look at our species' past, we see that sapiens is a newcomer on Earth. As a by-product of life evolution of animal ancestry, he has spent most of his existence as part of nature as a hunter-gatherer. The sedentarisation of humans is extremely recent in evolution, let alone the access to modern technology that has allowed humans to dominate other species. It means that for most of its existence, sapiens had to survive in the wild which as we know can be quite dangerous, especially for humans that are not particularly powerful physically.
<img src="https://illuminem.b-cdn.net/articlebody/cd6bf2e891a9a43e98f4115c6c3548fcaae9f00e.png" alt="Figure 2: Sapiens &ndash; a newcomer on Earth" />
To survive, sapiens had to face 3 major types of existential threats, which shaped our primal survival instinct.
Hostility: all humans had to face the threat of predators, rivals and illnesses
Scarcity: all humans are at risk of not having access to the vital resources that they need
Separation: all humans faced the threat of being marginalized and rejected by their tribe (aside from the risk of being persecuted by the group, humans are social animals that thrive in groups and are extremely vulnerable when they are isolated)
To compensate for a lack of body strength, speed and agility compared to other mammals, sapiens developed their intelligence which could be notably used to create increasingly sophisticated languages, tools, weapons and narratives around which to build societies. This intelligence was used in priority in order to respond to these threats. In the process, those who learned to fear the threats of hostility, scarcity and separation developed a primal survival instinct specifically designed to neutralize them.
<ul>
<li>To deal with the threat of hostility, they learned to dominate and subjugate their environment</li>
<li>To deal with the threat of scarcity; they learned to accumulate always more resources</li>
<li>To deal with the threat of separation; they learned to follow the dominant social norms</li>
</ul>
Logically, this led to ruthless rivalry as human tribes inevitably came to have conflicts for territories and their resources. The tribes that were best at conquering, dominating and controlling territories, hoarding resources and getting large groups to conform to their social norms greatly increased their chances of survival, developed and conquered the surface of the globe. These tribes had cultures that valued and nurtured power, wealth and social status. They became more and more dominant all over the globe.
<img src="https://illuminem.b-cdn.net/articlebody/262cfb89142504903bc2452fddaf20e0bbd26b54.png" alt="Figure 3: common danger, survival patterns and social values" />
Tribes that had adopted a more equalitarian or symbiotic culture or that paid less effort and attention to developing their skills in dominating, hoarding and social engendering were less competitive and more likely to be subjugated, colonized or wiped out. Engaging and performing in rivalry for power, wealth and status has become a norm and a need to survive for almost all tribes on the surface of the planet.
Those who did best at this primal survival game were coming from Western Europe, the region which saw the rise and fall of the roman empire and in much more recent history the ignition of the two-World War. Between 1492 and 1914 Europeans spearheaded the industrial revolution, conquered and colonised 84% of the surface of the globe, using their industrial power and wealth to dominate, control and exploit other continents.
<img src="https://illuminem.b-cdn.net/articlebody/02b6ab13e747b89e2ac1cc429127eb3d9124fa69.png" alt="Figure 4: the winners of the primal survival game of domination, control and exploitation" />
It is this industrial revolution that marked humanity&rsquo;s entrance into the Anthropocene. A new era characterized by unprecedented technological progress and the undisputed domination of the Earth by the human species. The Anthropocene is a game changer which sees humanity extracting itself from a natural environment which can now be dominated, exploited and transformed to respond to the thirst for more power, wealth, and status.
The Anthropocene will be followed by the great acceleration in the mid of 20th century and is characterized by the globalisation of our civilisation and a dramatic and exponential surge in human population, technological progress and impact. It is just 20 years after the beginning of the great acceleration that the first planetary overshoot was recorded: from that moment, humanity&rsquo;s ecological impact will be greater than what the Earth's ecosystems can sustain.
<img src="https://illuminem.b-cdn.net/articlebody/ab9df9e6aa9d073ea7a1fd47805d0c5f4c4d30f3.png" alt="Figure 5: Anthropocene, Great Acceleration and Planetary Overshoot" />
We as a species have failed to acknowledge the paradigm shift that the Anthropocene is as well as its implications. In this new paradigm in which humans are now the stewards of the earth, the dominant primal survival patterns that have allowed humans to conquer and dominate the surface of the globe are becoming increasingly self-destructive and dangerous. This is happening for a simple reason: the current exponential technological progress that we generate amplifies the harmful consequences of our primal survival patterns.
The impulse to dominate and control the environment creates ruthless rivalry for power that generates conflicts that are more and more dangerous in the presence of increasingly powerful weapons of mass destruction.
The impulse to accumulate leads to competition in order to hoard resources which results in growing inequalities and depletion of natural resources in the presence of decoupled means of extraction on an industrial scale.
The impulse to conform to the dominant norms in order to be validated and access social status leads to a marginalisation of difference and a perpetuation of the status quo reinforced by powerful technologies which can be used for mass surveillance and social engineering on a massive scale. The status quo is posing an existential threat when change is a vital need.
<img src="https://illuminem.b-cdn.net/articlebody/fd27cb9457487362ee3768cd8fabf7e5ae4a4412.png" alt="Figure 6: Primal survival instinct and technological progress &ndash; a dangerously self destructive cocktail" />
It is quite easy to understand why these increasingly unsustainable primal survival patterns have remained unnoticed until now, they have been rationalized, normalized and perpetuated through the social structures that dominate our globalised civilisation.
The drive to dominate and control the environment led to the creation of nations, which are social constructs with borders and armed forces specifically designed to dominate and control entire territories and their populations.
The thirst to accumulate resources led to a productivist and consumerist society, which has been designed to place all economic actors in competition with one another for short-term profits, unlimited accumulation of capital and compulsive growth.
The thirst to seek external validation led to all the dominant social norms, which define what is encouraged, valued, incentivized and prioritized in society and what is discouraged, unrecognized or penalized.
<img src="https://illuminem.b-cdn.net/articlebody/95fe8b08d96176174fe735eab278513cf52fe58a.png" alt="Figure 7: Primal Survival Patterns and Social Structures" />
This dominant primal survival instinct also self-perpetuates below our collective level of awareness, creating vicious cycles which if they are not stopped, can only lead to extremely undesirable futures.
The primal impulse to dominate and control the environment irremediably leads to rivalry for power and violent conflicts which perpetuates the danger and therefore fear of hostility. If unchecked, this can only result in catastrophic wars.
The primal impulse to compete in order to hoard resources leads to their depletion while at the same time increasing inequalities, which perpetuates the danger and fear of scarcity. Hence the overshoot of our planetary limits will inevitably lead to a systemic collapse if it is not stopped (our economy and lives depend on natural resources, so depleting them is basically destroying our future).
Conforming to the dominant norms leads to the marginalisation of difference which perpetuates the danger and fear of separation. And if this is not tangible to you, think how many times you have been afraid to express your opinion for fear of being rejected?
<img src="https://illuminem.b-cdn.net/articlebody/3fb7d2b07621daa3216b4e51e96b768b32f9cb62.png" alt="Figure 8: The Vicious Cycle of Primal Survival" />
These 3 vicious cycles perpetuating the dominant primal survival instinct are not separated from one another but interrelated. For example, a group that fears hostility from other groups will fear not having enough resources to defend itself and will also fear any opinion that challenges the norms of the group. This means that we can&rsquo;t stop one of these vicious cycles without stopping the 3 others. In other words, to achieve a sustainable transition, we need to live in peace with one another and for that we need to learn to share our planetary resources and to accept one another as we are. It&rsquo;s not rocket science but it&rsquo;s a big game changer, especially when it goes against inherited primal survival instinct.
So, with this new understanding, it should be clear that the meta-crisis of sustainability threatening the future of humanity is not just an ecological or socio-economic problem, but a human problem deeply rooted within us. It is happening for a very simple reason: the dominant primal survival instinct developed over hundreds of thousands of years of threats before the Anthropocene has now become self-destructive within the Anthropocene. Because it has been conveniently mistaken for &ldquo;unchangeable human nature&rdquo;, it has self-perpetuated below our collective level of awareness (within the collective unconscious) and is now becoming increasingly dangerous in the context of exponential technological progress.
<blockquote>
&ldquo;The real problem of humanity is the following: We have Paleolithic emotions, medieval institutions and godlike technology. And it is terrifically dangerous, and it is now approaching a point of crisis overall.&rdquo;
</blockquote>
Edward O. Wilson
The new science of trauma can allow us to better understand what is at the core of this primal survival instinct. In fact, it is impossible to deny the traumatic nature of the past history of humanity which is marked by centuries and centuries of invasions, wars, genocides, severe deprivation, famines, oppression, persecution, slavery. These have resulted in layers and layers of collective and intergenerational traumas: deep wounds that have been ignored and yet have played a great role in shaping our identities, social structures and cultures.
<img src="https://illuminem.b-cdn.net/articlebody/1a50e28ed086d9a2bbc9585f0e4172ad5658fc73.png" alt="Figure 9: The Impact of Trauma is increasingly recognized in our society" />
Contemporary science is pretty clear on the consequences of unresolved trauma. They result in a disconnection from the self and what could be described as a fragmented ego identity. They perpetuate a state of discomfort and existential anxiety associated with compulsive behaviors. To deal with this inner discomfort and numb the fear and pain, people develop all kind of strategies, including addictions to drugs, alcohol, but also consumerism, power, money, status, sex, work and&hellip; beliefs.
In fact, a key aspect to understand is our difficulty to face reality as it is coming from the interrelation between unresolved traumas from a bygone past and false beliefs. The human mind seeks to rationalize everything including the patterns resulting from the fear and pain repressed in the collective unconscious. For example, as the result of the unresolved collective and intergenerational trauma of scarcity left by thousands of years of severe deprivation, many people still fear not having enough. This fear is being suppressed and rationalized with the belief that extracting, producing and possessing always more is a vital need.
<img src="https://illuminem.b-cdn.net/articlebody/87dfd4b69f24e12284e191a94e7c4e2f43a58db6.png" alt="Figure 10: The Interrelation between Traumas, Fears and Beliefs &ndash; Trauma of Scarcity" />
As such our global economy&rsquo;s addiction to GDP (Gross Domestic Product: the monetary value of all finished goods and services generated by a territory during a specific period) growth is deeply rooted in the unresolved trauma of scarcity. If such fear and belief were functional in the past to deal with scarcity, it is completely unfit to deal with the new situation of resource overconsumption and planetary overshoot. Instead of resolving the trauma of scarcity, it creates vicious cycles of hostility and separation, which shows that the vicious cycle of danger and primal survival instinct are also traumatic by nature.
<img src="https://illuminem.b-cdn.net/articlebody/e143e76bb42980c351a364429d16b331a18b9810.png" alt="Figure 11: The Traumatic Vicious Cycles of Hostility, Scarcity and Separation" />
Understanding that, we start to have a clear picture of the problem, its fundamental and hidden root causes. Humanity is in a state of collective and intergenerational traumatic stress disorder, rationalised with false beliefs and mistaken for unchangeable human nature. This unconscious and fear driven ego state perpetuates a primal survival instinct that is increasingly self destructive and unsustainable in the context of exponential technological progress.
<img src="https://illuminem.b-cdn.net/articlebody/7d4dcda14b1cd2a1e7d4b61353c7d7ac26e19ae4.png" alt="Figure 12: Global Sustainability Crisis &ndash; Uncovering The Fundamental and Hidden Root Causes" />
Recognizing our grim past, and our unresolved wounds is extremely sensitive as it results in a lot of emotional discomfort such as shame, guilt and grief. This is particularly challenging to do in a society valuing competitiveness, performance and appearances over vulnerability, authenticity and empathy. This explains to a large extent why we are still in this ubiquitous state of denial, escapism and apathy hindering our ability to face and understand the great challenges of our times. Because of the mental and emotional discomfort, they trigger both the problem and its fundamental causes hence they have been repressed and kept unconscious.
The meta-crisis of sustainability is the elephant in the room which obliges us to face ourselves and our unresolved issues. Yet, if through our past history we have learned to identify and fight enemies outside of ourselves, we lack knowledge and experience when it comes to dealing with the &ldquo;enemies&rdquo; inside of ourselves. To achieve a global sustainable transition, we will have to find the courage to acknowledge the false beliefs, irrational fears and unhealed wounds that have kept us in this primal state of survival until now so that they can be respectively dissolved, released and healed. As Carl Gustav Jung noted: &ldquo;Until you make the unconscious, conscious it will direct your life and you will call it fate&rdquo;.
The global and systemic crisis of sustainability we are facing is nothing less than a call for a collective awakening and expansion of consciousness: an invitation to recognize the interrelation between our inner and outer words. To do so, a proper campaign of awareness about the problem, its hidden root causes and solutions is needed. It would result in a cultural renaissance based on self knowledge, a psychological reorganization and a conscious evolution that would trigger profound changes at all levels, which is exactly what is needed to successfully and safely achieve a global sustainable transition.
How we can achieve this, will be developed in a future article&hellip;
illuminem Voices is a democratic space presenting the thoughts and opinions of leading Energy &amp; Sustainability writers, their opinions do not necessarily represent those of illuminem.

The unacknowledged root causes of unsustainability

Climate change, fossil fuel and greenhouse game emissions are receiving increasing media attention in the west thanks to climate activists and a meteorology that records peak temperature at an increasing rate. As a result, more and more pledges are being made to tackle the problem, by governments, companies and organisations. If all these efforts are signs that steps are being taken to tackle a global threat that could seriously jeopardize the future of humanity, it appears that our efforts to overcome the great challenge of our times are hindered by a lack of understanding of its nature, its underlying causes and its solution.

<h3>We are facing much more than just climate change, and it is time that we acknowledge it</h3>
Climate change, fossil fuels and greenhouse gas emissions are receiving increasing media attention in the West thanks to climate activists and a meteorology that records peak temperatures at an increasing rate. As a result, more and more pledges are being made to tackle the problem, governments, companies and organisations. For example, Jeff Bezos recently donated billions of dollars to &ldquo;fight climate change&rdquo;. If all these efforts are signs that steps are being taken to tackle a global threat that could seriously jeopardize the future of humanity, it appears that our efforts to overcome the great challenge of our times are hindered by a lack of understanding of its nature, its underlying causes and its solution.
<img src="https://illuminem.b-cdn.net/articlebody/716fc78b7ad4da25a47d0185f1670f0b665d821b.png" alt="Figure 1: Photo credit: Chris LeBoutillier - Unsplash" />
In fact, climate change appears to be not the only ecological problem we are facing, a growing number of alarming scientific reports point to the overconsumption of our planetary resources, the destruction of the ecosystems, the pollution of air, water, soil and what is being called the 6th mass extinction which indicate that we are in the process of destroying the conditions that make our existence possible. To better understand what is taking place, it is important to take a step back and look at the bigger picture using two key indicators: humanity's ecological footprint and earth's biocapacity.
Humanity&rsquo;s ecological footprint stands for the impact of human activities on Earth:
<ul>
<li>The amount of resources extracted</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>The quantity of pollution released</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>The damaged dealt to the planet's ecosystems</li>
</ul>
Earth biocapacity, on the other hand, stands for our planet's ecosystems' ability to absorb this impact:
<ul>
<li>The amount of resources generated</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>The quantity of pollution absorbed</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>The rate of regeneration of the ecosystems</li>
</ul>
When humanity&rsquo;s ecological footprint offsets Earth biocapacity, we are in a situation described as an overshoot of our planetary limits
<ul>
<li>Humanity extracts more resources than can be sustainably generated</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>More pollution is released than what the planet's ecosystems are able to absorb</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>The ecosystems are being destroyed at a faster rate than they are regenerated</li>
</ul>
<img src="https://illuminem.b-cdn.net/articlebody/e0ec5e7017caeb202b6d31e817866ce775ced8a5.png" alt="Figure 2: Understanding what a planetary overshoot is" />
Climate change is just the symptom of a bigger ecological problem: the overshoot of our planetary limits. If we don&rsquo;t resolve it, we are going to face an ecological disaster on a planetary scale with unprecedented catastrophic consequences. To avoid it, we have no other choice but to integrate our planetary limits and achieve a global sustainable transition.
Although it is common to consider sustainability while focusing only on ecological issues, it is very unlikely to be an effective approach to achieving a sustainable transition. We are not only facing an aggravating critical ecological situation, but we are also facing major socio-economic and political issues: a growing human population, extreme poverty and famines, rising inequalities, increasing financial debts, out-of-control inflation, geopolitical tensions and an increasingly polarized population. What we are dealing with is not just climate change or an ecological emergency, but a multifactorial systemic and global crisis of sustainability. All these issues are not separated from one another but interrelated. Unfortunately, we haven&rsquo;t yet reached the collective level of awareness needed to properly define the problem which is hindering our ability to conceive of realistic solutions. If &ldquo;a problem well stated is a problem half solved&rdquo; as Charles Kettering quotes, a problem unproperly stated is a problem that we can&rsquo;t even start solving.
<img src="https://illuminem.b-cdn.net/articlebody/0b11aca0851574a024e518b8051df837d2a328ec.png" alt="Figure 3: The problem with Climate Change tunnel vision" />
To resolve a systemic and global crisis of sustainability, it is key to identify and treat its underlying causes. It is undeniable that whether they are socio-economic or ecological, all the factors of unsustainability share one common denominator: they are all the result of certain human behavior patterns.
<img src="https://illuminem.b-cdn.net/articlebody/f0a882cbebd22fdc5fc977bf126f7b700613c010.png" alt="Figure 4: The common denominator between all the factors of global and systemic unsustainability" />
And it is not difficult to guess what fosters them. Our global economy built on the pursuit of the American dream is materialist, consumerist and productivist. It is based on ruthless competition for short-term profits, unlimited accumulation of capital and growth. On a finite planet, such an economic system can only lead to the overexploitation and destruction of the ecosystems. What we are experiencing is a predictable overshoot of our planetary limits: a global scale tragedy of the commons in which the earth's vital resources are being overconsumed in order to feed self-perpetuating rivalries for power, wealth and status. The global and systemic problem we are facing is not technological or technical but human and created by carelessness, ignorance and greed.
The global and systemic crisis of sustainability we are facing is reminding us about disregarded lessons of ancient wisdom about the importance of empathy, ponderation and solidarity which under these new circumstances appear as vital qualities to nurture and develop for our human species to become sustainable. And to learn that very precious lesson, we must collectively find the courage and maturity to recognize that the problem we are trying to solve outside of ourselves, finds its roots within ourselves.
<img src="https://illuminem.b-cdn.net/articlebody/6deea5f79aaff881fa9ee8f5bf035f577c7e8fe5.png" alt="Figure 5: Meme widely shared on social media featuring a quote attributed to Gus Speth and speaking about the need to recognize the human origin behind the global and systemic crisis of sustainability" />
We are not there yet as all the dominant systems of power appear to support the unsustainable status quo. While we are approaching a tipping point and a global disaster, our politicians are busy perpetuating and optimizing the GDP growth, our media are placing our attention on mundane stories and superficialities, our social media use the best of artificial intelligence to keep us hooked, employees are burning themselves out doing mostly meaningless jobs, and we are constantly bombarding ourselves with advertisements to consume always more so that we can feed our collective addiction to GDP growth.
Before we can do anything, we might need to collectively acknowledge that we have kept ourselves entertained and distracted away from an impending global crisis of sustainability. As long as we unconsciously choose to keep ourselves and one another in a state of denial, escapism and apathy, we will continue on our path towards planetary disaster. Undeniably, facing this situation will require a certain level of mental and emotional maturity and it challenges our beliefs and certainties. To encourage ourselves it is important to remind ourselves that feeling temporarily distressed and overwhelmed is part of the process, before we can grasp the grasp the magnitude of the problem and set ourselves in the conditions needed to move toward the solution.
As much as all of this might seem very depressing and overwhelming, we would be lying to ourselves if we were saying that we are facing a problem without a solution. We would be also quite blind not to see the opportunity within the challenge. In fact, addressing the underlying cause of the crisis of sustainability implies profound changes and therefore an opportunity to reinvent ourselves and our society for the better.
The global and systemic crisis of sustainability that we are facing is not only a great danger but also a great opportunity for evolution and positive change. It is trying to teach us a lesson as we are all invited to learn how to take care of ourselves, one another and our planet. What better time to start than now?
illuminem Voices is a democratic space presenting the thoughts and opinions of leading Energy &amp; Sustainability writers, their opinions do not necessarily represent those of illuminem.

Benjamin Casteillo

Benjamin Casteillo

Overcoming the existential challenges of the 21st century requires a paradigm shift

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