Climate Change

Proxearth

This is the beginning of Proxearth, an effort to create more sustainable proximities on Earth (both more sustainable and more of them). It uses a Sustainable Proximities approach, which is largely based on the ProxThink Growth Model.

Introduction

This is a project to use the ProxThink Growth Model to deal with climate change. It will require the input, actions, teamwork and care of many people. It's an instance of a more general Sustainable Proximities approach. It addresses what are perhaps some of our greatest areas of need regarding climate change, which may be coordination and collaboration at local, regional and global scales. It is an evolving approach which can get better and better. It includes some things you and others can begin doing right now. It lists some next steps. Below are links for each section.

Introduction | Proposal | What You Can Do | What's Next

Proposal

Greatest Areas of Need
The ProxThink Growth Model is an integrated way to more sustainably coordinate, collaborate and manage resources for proximities while encouraging growth. The Growth Model shift in emphasis to proximities serves efforts to deal with climate change. ProxThink Hints and ProxPatterns (see Action Steps) can enhance innovation and creativity, serving people as they create or improve products and services related to climate change. ProxThink Hints and ProxPatterns can also help improve this climate change proposal. However, perhaps some of our greatest areas of need, which may be coordination and collaboration at local, regional and global scales, are those which the ProxThink Growth Model addresses. So, the rest of this proposal will focus on how the Growth Model might be used for these areas of need.

What might this be like?
Based on how ProxRewards in Practice can function, this approach might be sort of like the give and take of a neighborhood, relationship, friendship or perhaps being a considerate traveler. You may want the neighborhood, relationship, friendship or location you're visiting to survive, thrive, and take care of you as you take care of it. You may also want it to persist, adapt and change as needed, which is how proximities stay sustainable and life stays interesting.

Approach
On a global basis, people can implement this approach using the four processes of the Growth Model, coordinating efforts via the Internet and leveraging existing technologies. Briefly, using the four Growth Model processes, we can monitor proximities using ProxMonitors, connect and relate with RelatePoints, develop strategies and agreements as Vadi Agreements, and encourage and use ProxRewards (proxri). These points are expanded below, although you will probably need to click through to explore each of the four Growth Model processes in more detail. Also, the following is a general approach, upon which many people and groups can base their own collaborative implementations.

ProxMonitors
A Proximity Monitor, or ProxMonitor, increases ProxAwareness, which can help many kinds of relationships. We can monitor proximities with ProxMonitors, using a combination of technology and human awareness, collecting both climate-related data and links to sources of data. Information to display, reference or link to could include:
1) Environmental information such as pollution readings, carbon levels, temperatures, etc.
2) Specific projects or actions which need to be done.
3) General ideas and suggestions for things people can do.
4) Efforts people are making to change their environments, which may be measurable or unmeasurable. Some of these efforts may be proxri (see below).
5) Vadi Agreements in effect or in development (see below).
6) Other ProxMonitor-related information.

RelatePoints
A RelatePoint is a primary starting point or place for coordinating relationships in the proximity. The symbol (r] signals a RelatePoint. We can connect and relate, by setting up and using many different RelatePoints. These would be online and offline points of contact between people and groups involved in climate change efforts related to a proximity or proximities. These climate change RelatePoints might provide communication services, ways for people to connect and relate, and links to other relevant points of contact both on and off the Internet.

Vadi Agreements
The term Vadi (pronounced vah'dee) is short for valuable differences. A Vadi Agreement acknowledges that differences are a part of relationships and some differences have value, and provides relationships and agreements which can help valuable differences persist, adapt and change as needed. We can develop Vadi Agreements which enable efforts and coordinate collaboration related to climate change. Related to the environment, differences we find valuable might be the different gases in the atmosphere and their distribution, the enjoyable mental and emotional differences that seasons produce, and the differences that glaciers provide such as global temperature regulation. On the implementation side, we often find valuable differences in materials which produce electricity or hydrogen, a variety of different sources of energy (providing benefits similar to portfolio diversification), the energy differences produced by a turbine blade design and moving wind (for wind power), and the different skill sets and styles of people which make for effective teams and enjoyable situations. So, effective Vadi Agreements would seek to ensure that valuable differences, such as some of the environmental and implementation differences mentioned above, can persist, adapt and change as needed. Effective Vadi Agreements can retain and promote variety and complexity. In some Vadi Agreements you might not get everything you want (which ususally has limits anyway), but get some of it in ways which enhance the variety in your life, without the anxiety of huge uncertainty (such as climate collapse). The emphasis might be blending some uncertainty, honoring integrity, and relating a variety in ways which create synergy and opportunities for many people's efforts to be aggregated to allow a somewhat smooth transition to more sustainable environments and proximities. In the process, we might slow or reverse climate change, and perhaps avoid force (such as violence, wars, etc.).

ProxRewards (proxri)
A ProxReward is a reward which relates elements in the proximity. ProxRewards are also called proxri for short (pronounced prox'ree). There are many specific tasks, projects, products and services for which we can use markets, money or money proxri to deal with climate change and/or implement Vadi Agreements (or parts thereof) related to climate change. However, many situations and Vadi Agreements (or parts of Vadi) may be well-suited to the particular strengths of proxri, which relate elements in the proximity. Here are a few examples, using the term Vadi as short for Vadi Agreements:
1) Sometimes, a person or group might proxri on their own, without a very formal Vadi, and they might or might not tell anyone, although there might be standards and places for telling others if they want. Example: In the proximity of a situation, you or your group see a chance to recycle, or save energy, or tell people about an alternative approach related to climate change, and you do it as your proxri. This time, you decide to note it on a blog using some of the standards below (in What You Can Do), but next time you might not.
2) Sometimes, proxri might be related to a Vadi and recorded or tracked. Example: X people agree to do Y (their proxri) to reach a target of Z in a proximity, and ways are agreed upon to keep track of what people do.
3) Sometimes, proxri might be related to a Vadi and recorded loosely on a voluntary basis. Example: In this proximity, we need more people to switch to element Q or begin relationship R or do whatever else they can so we move towards our target of K, and here are wiki or blogs or tags for your blog or other standards or ProxMonitors where you can note what you've done (your proxri).
4) Sometimes, proxri might be related to a Vadi and not recorded or tracked. Example: In this proximity, our target is element M or relationship T and it gets too crazy to record and track everything we're doing (our proxri), but we will agree to keep track of results, such as a falling pollution or carbon index, and together "steer" it to where we want it to go. (For one example of this, see Kevin Kelly's book New Rules for the New Economy, ISBN 0-14-028060-X, pages 17-18, about 5,000 people playing a computer game together, which involved group steering. Other examples of this include team goals, company goals, regional initiatives, national directions and wartime efforts.)
5) Sometimes, we might have various aspects of one or more of the above, possibly combined with other scenarios or approaches.

Rewards?
How are the proxri examples 1 through 4 above examples of rewards? We're rewarding proximities, which probably include us, other people and other elements and relationships related to the situations. Also, many proxri may be enjoyable or rewarding for their own sake. Both these kinds of rewards, to proximities and for their own sake, are similar to rewards given, received and enjoyed in neighborhoods, relationships, friendships, and as travelers, as mentioned above in the "What might this be like?" section.

Leveraging Technology
Add to the Growth Model the network technologies enabling communication (such as mobile phones, satellites, GPS and the Internet), sensing technologies (such as for heat, light, vision, motion, chemicals, etc.), and database technologies, and the possibilities for sustainable resources and proximities expand. These sorts of technologies especially serve some processes of the Growth Model, such as RelatePoints, ProxMonitors, and ProxRewards (proxri), which will in turn support the creation and improvement of Vadi Agreements. Further, these technologies and the Growth Model might allow us to focus more on some proximities which relate to a wide variety of people and situations. By comparison, markets often focus our attention mostly on more narrow proximities such as those for companies, governments and individuals. In other words, the Growth Model and these technologies might assist us in shifting from a focus on revenues and costs for companies, governments and individuals to a focus on proximities, ProxMonitors, proxri and relationships for some proximities and situations. Also see this blog post for a related discussion of markets and financial turmoil.

Coordination and Possibilities
Again, the above could be coordinated via the Internet and various devices which can access it. There might be several global websites, or many independent sites with some common standards which perhaps allow data to be aggregated, or other workable systems. The sites would combine or link to RelatePoints and ProxMonitors, assist in developing and accessing Vadi Agreements, and allow rewarding with proxri and/or recording proxri. One possibility might be creating abilities to scope in or out or around (proximities aren't necessarily hierarchical), to look at and relate to different proximities. Certainly we could begin today, using existing search engines, some simple data standards websites could adopt, and some of the Growth Model approaches outlined here. Collaboratively determining these standards will require the ongoing input of many people, but I'm suggesting a few simple ones below (in What You Can Do) to get started. Satellites, GPS, and location-based mobile phone services could also be put to use. For example, depending on where you are, you could access a RelatePoint to find a relevant ProxMonitor, and see what needs to be done in the proximity according to the Vadi that people there developed. Your efforts or contribution related to the proximity based on that Vadi would be your proxri.

Feasibility and Benefits
I don't see why some version of this couldn't work in many proximities. It could overlay on and intertwine with other current societal customs, systems and processes. Not only could it slow down climate change and encourage innovation related to climate change, it could provide rewarding and enjoyable experiences, providing people some common projects on which to coordinate and collaborate. Success in dealing with climate change may well require such a coordinated and collaborative effort.

Other Challenges
It's possible this ProxThink Growth Model approach might work for other challenges too. Especially in the way this approach leverages current technologies (see above), it may present viable alternatives to markets, governments and other processes for some situations and proximities, and allow for appropriate transitions as well. Climate change may be one of several good places to test and improve this approach. Climate change is important and urgent. We will probably need a variety of approaches, or in other words, a portfolio of approaches, to effectively tackle climate change. Let's make climate change one of the testing grounds for this approach, and also find other challenges, proximities and situations in which to try it as well.

Author
Proposed by David Loughry. Last updated April 4, 2009.

Introduction | Proposal | What You Can Do | What's Next

What You Can Do

The Proposal above will require the input, actions, teamwork and care of many people. It won't happen overnight. However, as a start, here are some things people can begin doing right now.

• Read proposal above.

• If you haven't already, please read the Proposal above.

• If you have a website, blog, or use social software sites.

• There is plenty of information available via the media and Internet about things you can do to help with climate change, from lightbulbs to transportation to conservation and more. However, in our proximities related to the climate change situation, we often don't know what other people are doing, how the proximity is doing and how to connect with other relevant people.

  To address these issues, below are three things you can do if you have a website, blog or use social software sites. Examples of social software sites include social bookmarking sites like Delicious, photosharing sites like Flickr, and social networks like Facebook. Also included would be Twitter, a combination social networking and micro-blogging service. Social software sites seem to support what we propose below to varying degrees, but some of them seem very compatible. If they don't support the following, they could probably improve their users' experience as well as support climate change efforts by modifying their services. As discussed in the Proposal above, the things you can do involve Proxri, ProxMonitors and RelatePoints. These three things leverage existing capabilities of the Internet such as tags and search. As discussed further below, some standards for tags and text such could turn the whole Internet into a kind of web 2.0 application for climate change. This could create the beginnings of a broad web 2.0 participation platform for information sharing and collaboration related to climate change. But first, a "how-to" for marking your efforts and locations.

  How to mark your efforts
  These suggested standards can make information more searchable, and thus more valuable for climate change efforts. Your efforts will be more searchable for Google and other major search engines, as well as for internal site search on specific sites. The basic idea is to use some standard text strings such as "ClimateProxri" or "GreenProxri" to be given below. These can be used in text or as tags, or both. These standard text strings can be used in text, which create a text marker on a webpage or blog post, in a filename, or on your social network page (MySpace, Facebook, etc.). But even better, these standard text strings can be tags, such as in your blog, on a bookmarking system like Delicious or StumbleUpon, in a photosharing service like Flickr, perhaps on some social network pages, and so on. Some blogging platforms and social sites may use variants of tags, such as categories, keywords, topics and labels. Tags are a powerful way to mark data for searching. If possible, use both a tag and a text marker. (We might also use XML. If you can explain how we could make it easy for people, please contact us.) Each of the three points below notes the suggested standard text string for your text marker or tag. These correspond to Proxri, ProxMonitors and RelatePoints as discussed in the Proposal above, and depending on whether you use the "climate" or "green" prefix, include: ClimateProxri or GreenProxri; ClimateProxMon or GreenProxMon; and ClimateRelatePoint or GreenRelatePoint; each of which might be paired with ClimateLocation or GreenLocation.

  Twitter - Versions for Twitter hashtags
  Here are versions for Twitter hashtags and other uses. ClimateProxri and GreenProxri would become #ClimateProxri and #GreenProxri. ClimateProxMon and GreenProxMon would become #CimatePMon and #GreenPMon. ClimateRelatePoint and GreenRelatePoint would become #ClimateRelP and #GreenRelP. ClimateLocation and GreenLocation would become #ClimateLoc and #GreenLoc.

  Climate prefix vs. green prefix
  If you're unsure whether your efforts relate to climate change, instead of "Climate," you might use the more general "Green" prefix for environmental responsibility and sustainability. For example, instead of ClimateProxri, you would use GreenProxri.

  How to mark locations
  It may often be appropriate to include location information. The case of geographical location is slightly different for tags as compared to the text of a page or post. For tags, use the text string ClimateLocation, or GreenLocation, without a space as shown. To create your text marker, in the text of the page or post, add the GPS (Global Positioning System) location coordinates like this: ClimateLocation (number, number). Example: ClimateLocation (33.9425, -118.4080556) is the GPS location of the Los Angeles International Airport (LAX). One place to lookup GPS coordinates is Quick Geocoder. If possible, use both a tag and a text marker for locations. Exception: Some social software sites such as Flickr and outside.in have their own geotagging standards, which you can use in addition to, or instead of, these standards.

  If you know of any logistical, technical or other problems with the proposed standards above for marking climate change efforts or locations, please contact us.

  Here are three things you can do if you have a website, blog or use social software sites (social software sites include social bookmarking sites like Delicious, photosharing sites like Flickr, and social networks like Facebook). These relate to Proxri, ProxMonitors and RelatePoints as discussed in the Proposal above.

  1. Proxri
  This relates to the ProxRewards (proxri) section in the Proposal.
  a) Your Efforts
  Note your efforts to help reduce climate change on your website, blog or social software site. These efforts are your climate change proxri. As described above, use the text string ClimateProxri for your text marker and/or tag, without spaces as shown. If possible, use both a tag and a text marker. If you're sure it's green, but not sure if it's climate-related, use GreenProxri instead. Here's an example of ClimateProxri on my personal blog.
  b) Your Location
  It may often be appropriate to include location information. For human readers, when mentioning locations, you'll want to use place names (city, region, country, continent, etc.) and/or addresses. For searchability, as described above, use the text string ClimateLocation for your text marker and/or tag, without spaces as shown. Especially for text markers, add the GPS numbers as described above. If you're sure it's green, but not sure if it's climate-related, use GreenLocation instead. If possible, use both a tag and a text marker. Here's an example of ClimateLocation on my personal blog.

  2. ProxMonitors
  This relates to the ProxMonitors section in the Proposal, and may combine well with RelatePoints (point 3 below).
  a) Monitoring
  If you collect information, or links to information, which monitor a proximity or proximities related to climate change, your climate change ProxMonitor can be made more searchable and findable. As described above, use the text string ClimateProxMon for your text marker and/or tag, without spaces as shown. If possible, use both a tag and a text marker. If you're sure it's green, but not sure if it's climate-related, use GreenProxMon instead. Note we're using ProxMon as short for ProxMonitor.
  b) Your Location
  It may often be appropriate to include location information. For human readers, when mentioning locations, you'll want to use place names (city, region, country, continent, etc.) and/or addresses. For searchability, as described above, use the text string ClimateLocation for your text marker and/or tag, without spaces as shown. Especially for text markers, add the GPS numbers as described above. If you're sure it's green, but not sure if it's climate-related, use GreenLocation instead. If possible, use both a tag and a text marker. Here's an example of ClimateLocation on my personal blog.

  3. RelatePoints
  This relates to the RelatePoints section in the Proposal, and may combine well with ProxMonitors (point 2 above).
  a) Connecting
  If you provide a climate change RelatePoint, it can be made more searchable and findable. As described above, use the text string ClimateRelatePoint for your text marker and/or tag, without spaces as shown. If possible, use both a tag and a text marker. If you're sure it's green, but not sure if it's climate-related, use GreenRelatePoint instead.
  b) Your Location
  It may often be appropriate to include location information. For human readers, when mentioning locations, you'll want to use place names (city, region, country, continent, etc.) and/or addresses. For searchability, as described above, use the text string ClimateLocation for your text marker and/or tag, without spaces as shown. Especially for text markers, add the GPS numbers as described above. If you're sure it's green, but not sure if it's climate-related, use GreenLocation instead. If possible, use both a tag and a text marker. Here's an example of ClimateLocation on my personal blog.

  Implications
  With the Internet, we've created the potential for global collaboration. Perhaps we need some global collaboration standards which relate to the global challenge of climate change. Some standards for tags and text such as the above could turn the whole Internet into a kind of web 2.0 application for climate change. This could create the beginnings of a broad web 2.0 participation platform for information sharing and collaboration related to climate change. When used in searches, these tags and text markers can find pages, posts and other information related to climate change. Further, pages can be created which track and update information with these tags and text markers, perhaps by location. Even now, the Technorati and Delicious sites allow you to get an RSS feed of posts/pages tagged with tags of your choice.

  • If you DO NOT have a website, blog, or use social software sites.

  • • • If you DO NOT have a website, blog, or use social software sites, you can:

        Collaborate with a friend or associate who has a website or blog, sign up for a free blogging service which supports tags (such as wordpress.com), or sign up for some social software sites. Examples of social software sites include social networks like Facebook, social network and microblogging sites like Twitter (use hashtags), social bookmarking sites like Delicious, or photosharing sites like Flickr.

• Read "What's Next" below

• Please read What's Next below for other things you can do.

Introduction | Proposal | What You Can Do | What's Next

What's Next

If you are interested in collaborating, providing resources and/or being part of implementing this proposal, please contact us. We are looking for people, feedback, ideas, resources (financial and otherwise), and proximities in which to begin using this approach. Also, please visit Dear Visitor.

Introduction | Proposal | What You Can Do | What's Next

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