Ecoliteracy & Sensemaking

Most likely you are more ecoliterate than you were pre-covid. With the pandemic everyone has had the corona time to reflect about where their food comes from, why is that important and how it is all connected to the way you live, your community’s wellbeing, the choices you do, your social dynamics and all the factors you might not have been paying enough attention to, until now. All that thinking has led you to research about new subjects such as food resilience, community living, off-the-grid systems or renewable technologies. You are now wondering why were you not taking any of this with the required seriousness and if it is too late to change. If this rings the bell then you are doing great! You are on the path to become ecoliterate,at least for sure by now you are more ecoliterate than you were just some months ago.

Ecoliteracy refers to the set of key terms and concepts we all need to navigate the Anthropocene. Becoming ecoliterate is updating your own mental operating system to be able to address systemic issues and participate in formulating solutions.

Without a serious effort to become ecoliterate, chances are you will struggle to build your own narrative in a world where the conversational landscape is scattered and twisted amidst an information warfare addressed to you. As we see on the screens, most of the global leaders aren’t ecoliterate and the majority of the public isn’t either, so the narrative being replicated across mass media is not finding the needed linguistic-scape to address in a comprehensive way all of our most pressing global challenges, probably because the financial mechanisms behind the mainstream broadcasters, aren’t authentically interested in creating alternative narratives. So if we, the independent minds and souls, don’t transition to become ecoliterate, we will not have the vocabulary needed to discuss and develop more elaborate concepts in order to idealize and bring into existence long-lasting solutions to our pressing planetary problems.

Where to start or how to continue?

Here is a must-watch video on Sensemaking. Because, what is the purpose of becoming ecoliterate if we don’t reframe our understanding of the conversational landscape? Watch this video to get an excellent introduction into the science of Sensemaking.

And here’s the first set of 20 randomly organized key concepts and terms that should be understood to navigate the New Normal and navigate in this liminal space of systemic collapse:

• Regenerative Design

The term "regenerative" describes processes that restore, renew or revitalize their own sources of energy and materials. The regenerative design uses whole systems thinking to create resilient and equitable systems that integrate the needs of society with the integrity of nature.

• Bioregion

A bioregion or bio-region is a land and water territory whose limits are defined not by political boundaries, but by the geographical limits of human communities and ecological systems.

• Transition

The terms transition town, transition initiative and transition model refer to grassroot community projects that aim to increase self-sufficiency to reduce the potential effects of peak oil, climate destruction, and economic instability.

• Homesteading

Homesteading is a lifestyle of self-sufficiency. It is characterized by subsistence agriculture, home preservation of food, and may also involve the small scale production of textiles, clothing, and craftwork for household use or sale. Pursued in different ways around the world—and in different historical eras—homesteading is generally differentiated from rural village or commune living by isolation (either socially or physically) of the homestead.

• Pioneer Plants

Pioneer species possess characters that suit them to their ecological niches, notably rapid growth, the production of copious, small, easily dispersed seed, and the ability to germinate and establish themselves on open sites. 

• Circular Economy

Circular economy is a manifestation of economic models that highlight business opportunities where cycles rather than linear processes, dominate. It is restorative and regenerative by design and aims to keep products, components, and materials at their highest utility and value at all times.

• Sharing Economy 

The sharing economy is an economic model defined as a peer-to-peer (P2P) based activity of acquiring, providing, or sharing access to goods and services that is often facilitated by a community-based on-line platform.