Realistic Sanctuary aims to provide a window for looking at how we might healthily address the cumulative effects of increasingly rapid change. This blog argues that becoming realistic about humanity’s problems is only the first challenge.

The second challenge—to take refuge from the emotional weight of upsetting trends—is equally important. That’s why creating and experiencing sanctuary needs to work in tandem with understanding the world’s problems.

Realistic Sanctuary explores how being pragmatic, while harnessing sanctuary to shift cognition towards slowness, might help people:

*Become calmer and more appreciative in the present
*Come to terms with this century’s threats to human well being
*Prepare for an increasingly unpredictable tomorrow.
Why might this approach be needed? There’s an emerging strand of research—on which I reported in an article soon to be published in Worldchanging—that suggests changes to an ecosystem’s health may correspond to mental health impacts.

If true, mental health problems related to climate change (or other forms of ecosystem disturbance) would combine synergistically with other stresses, leading to a greater incidence of anxiety and depression than already foreseen by the United Nations, which predicts depression will be the second largest cause of workplace disability by 2030.

The implication is that safeguarding soundness of mind and body will be central to adapting to large changes that are actively in motion.

Realistic Sanctuary could help individuals perceive life differently and determine a sustainable course of action. It can make it possible to reflect on the reality of accelerating change.

That’s why I believe it may be possible to develop an inner core that can withstand major economic and climatic changes and affirm life in spite of them.

We can harness that core to help make our friends, families and communities more calm, mutually supportive and resilient.

On a personal note, while I am sharing insight drawn from years of thinking about sustainability, innovation and more, I’m using the idea of Realistic Sanctuary as a pathway to being more engaged with family, friends and local/global communities.

It’s true: We’re in this together.

• “Chai Timeâ€� interview on Omni Television
  Tue, 6th Jan 2009 18:04 EST
  
  To viewers of “Chai Time� on Omni TV who might have followed the link on the show to reach my blog, I thought I’d (a.) link to the article the...
• The question of children and overpopulation in a world gone awry
  Thu, 11th Dec 2008 23:00 EST
  
  Colin Beavan, a.k.a. “No Impact Man,� cites an article on the BBC web site written by Joanna Benn, who, as a “journalist, writer and consultant specialising in environmental issues,� writes: “When...
• “What should President Obama do in his first 100 days to address the planet’s most pressing problems?â€�
  Wed, 12th Nov 2008 20:12 EST
  
  I was surprised and humbled to be included among 100 or so thinkers whom leading sustainability publication Worldchanging asked the following question just prior to Obama’s historic presidential victory: In 100...
• Are “perfect stormsâ€� the new normal?
  Mon, 10th Nov 2008 22:10 EST
  
  perfect storm (a) a particularly violent storm arising from a rare combination of meteorological factors; (b) (chiefly US) an especially bad situation caused by unfavourable circumstances. —  from Shorter Oxford English...
• Worldchanging 2003 to 2008 retrospective
  Mon, 29th Sep 2008 21:42 EDT
  
  Worldchanging is one of my favorite sustainability publications. Over the past five years, executive editor/co-founder Alex Steffen and his global posse of contributors have painstakingly built up a treasure trove of...
• Reuters picks up “Obama and McCain: What is the New American Dream?â€�
  Fri, 26th Sep 2008 20:01 EDT
  
  On the day of the debate to boot. Anyway, here’s the Reuters.com link to my open letter to U.S. presidential candidates Barack Obama and John McCain. Hope you enjoy it; have...
• Obama and McCain: What is the New American Dream?
  Thu, 25th Sep 2008 19:05 EDT
  
  Open letter to Barack Obama and John McCain Dear Mr. Obama and Mr. McCain: I am a foresight researcher and a fellow North American. I’m writing this open letter to share my concerns...
• Reuters picks up 2nd and 3rd Realistic Sanctuary posts: “The Big Melt: Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch, AIG, and Arctic sea iceâ€� and “Climate change: Not just a bad dreamâ€�
  Mon, 22nd Sep 2008 15:34 EDT
  
  As earlier noted, the Realistic Sanctuary Blog is now affiliated with Blogburst, a blog syndication network that has relationships with major media outlets, including Reuters, Gannett, USA Today, and the...
• The Big Melt: Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch, AIG, and Arctic sea ice
  Wed, 17th Sep 2008 18:30 EDT
  
  Updates and Correction Appended “The Arctic sea ice cover appears to have reached its minimum extent for the year, the second-lowest extent recorded since the dawn of the satellite era.� — National Snow...
• Something to Tell You: The best reading I never attended
  Sat, 13th Sep 2008 23:30 EDT
  
  Last night, in theory at least, I’d hoped to be somewhere other than at home in Vancouver, nursing a bum knee, calming an upset stomach, and feeling blue about not...