Building on the existing work for a sustainable future in Northeast Iowa.
Why have an Inaugural Ball and Community Planning Workshop?
I sense there is great excitement about the inauguration of President Elect Barrack Obama. I too am excited for a number of reasons. Even if someone else were elected, we would all need to embrace the presidency if we are to work together on our the challenges of the day. It seems to make sense that in the middle of January, when there is little else going on and the fun season of summer is far away, to have a celebration and at the same time, to channel some of our energy about the new administration to think about how we want to make change here in our home town of Decorah and surrounding area.
We are facing challenging economic times. But this challenge is also an opportunity to evaluate what is wrong with the economic system of consumerism we have embraced for decades. At the same time, scientists have finally reached consensus that global warming is a reality. We need to reduce our global levels of CO2 production by 80% by the year 2050 or our atmosphere will be beyond turning back and we will face a world that is not suitable for life as we know it.
So even though the economic times are going to be tough, they also pose the opportunity for us to dramatically change the way we look at how we assess growth. Let's take back the term "growth". Instead of measuring growth in terms of how many durable goods are sold, let's measure growth in terms of how we provide for the basics of society. Let's measure the rate of graduation from high school, let's measure the number of new artists, let's measure how healthy we are.
This may seem like a radical idea, except people have already embraced a different way of measuring 'growth'. The Nation of Bhutan, a small country in the Himalayas, has created the NHI - The National Happiness Index.
Imagine this new world. How should we measure our own National Happiness Index?
We are facing challenging economic times. But this challenge is also an opportunity to evaluate what is wrong with the economic system of consumerism we have embraced for decades. At the same time, scientists have finally reached consensus that global warming is a reality. We need to reduce our global levels of CO2 production by 80% by the year 2050 or our atmosphere will be beyond turning back and we will face a world that is not suitable for life as we know it.
So even though the economic times are going to be tough, they also pose the opportunity for us to dramatically change the way we look at how we assess growth. Let's take back the term "growth". Instead of measuring growth in terms of how many durable goods are sold, let's measure growth in terms of how we provide for the basics of society. Let's measure the rate of graduation from high school, let's measure the number of new artists, let's measure how healthy we are.
This may seem like a radical idea, except people have already embraced a different way of measuring 'growth'. The Nation of Bhutan, a small country in the Himalayas, has created the NHI - The National Happiness Index.
Imagine this new world. How should we measure our own National Happiness Index?
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