A few days ago, I read a fantastic article: Foreign Policy: The Next Big Thing: Resilience. In it, environmental futurist Jamais Cascio describes some of the primary differences between the philosophical construct of sustainability versus resiliency, and describes the latter as what’s needed with the following words:
“As we look ahead, we need to strive for an environment, and a civilization, able to handle unexpected changes without threatening to collapse. Such a world would be more than simply sustainable; it would be regenerative and diverse, relying on the capacity not only to absorb shocks like the popped housing bubble or rising sea levels, but to evolve with them. In a word, it would be resilient.”
He goes on to describe the following 8 principles below. Please read the article; I promise it’s brief. Without context, the nice little graphic I drew below won’t mean jack. To read more from Jamais, please visit his blog: Open the Future.