Fish are consuming micro plastics to the extent that they are getting brain damage.
We are eating sushi containing plastics.
We are now pooping plastic which is filling the sewage with even more micro plastic… This has created a reinforcing loop that has unforseen consequences on our planet and our bodies.
Yet we continue this cycle. This notion is concisely captured by renowned systems thinker Peter Senge:
“Reality is made up of circles but we see straight lines.”
This can be explained because we are intuitively not trained to see the connections, and how parts impact each other. In other words, we have not been trained as systems thinkers. Children are intuitively reductionist. To understand something, children take it apart to see its parts or elements. That is only part of the story.
Every system consists of three things: the parts, the interconnections, and it’s primary purpose. For example, a person is more than just a collection of limbs and organs. A dead human is no longer a system, although the parts remain.
Over the next four weeks, I will explain how I trained my children to start becoming systems thinkers and what I learned in the process.
Part 2: What is systems thinking?
Part 3: How to learn systems thinking?