Systems Thinking, David Attenborough's 'A Life on Our Planet', and Charles Foster's 'Being a Beast'

I have just finished reading two books on the natural world which, although not written by individuals who call themselves 'systems thinkers', employ and engage with many systems concepts. Given that, historically, ideas developed in biology and ecology have provided a huge stimulus to conceptual developments in the management and social sciences, these are worthy of attention from all systems thinkers.

The first is David Attenborough's manifesto 'A Life on Our Planet'. The book mirrors the method recommended by Ackoff for forcing decision-makers to embrace change. It begins by asking readers to recognise the mess they are in and goes on to develop a vision for a better future. Statistics from the year of Attenborough's birth, through the present, and projected into the future, reveal unsustainable increases in carbon in the atmosphere and world population, and a massive decline in the remaining wilderness on our planet. We are sleepwalking into disaster. The theoretical apparatus used by Attenborough to pursue his analysis is the idea, developed by ecologists', that "all life [is] interconnected in a web of infinite variety, with everything relying on everything else". He argues that human beings embarked on a 'great acceleration' of economic growth which has detached them from a balanced relationship with their natural environment. The earth is a 'closed system' and there are limits to its natural resources and its capacity to adapt. What we are doing - polluting the atmosphere, oceans and soil, destroying rainforests and biodiversity - is upsetting the complex systems of nature. We are reaching 'tipping points' in a number of these systems which, when combined, will provoke a 'global ecological breakdown'. Whatever new equilibrium follows, on a permanently poorer planet, will be much less conducive to the survival and flourishing of humankind.

Attenborough's 'idealized design' for the future, to use Ackoff's terminology, is to 'rewild the world'. We need to restore the stability of the planet by respecting 9 'planetary boundaries' (climate change, ocean acidification, biodiversity, etc.). At the same time as honouring these boundaries, we should set out various minimum requirements for human well-being (good housing, healthcare, education, etc.) and seek to raise everybody to these levels. These two things will require us to move beyond the worship of growth, develop and use only clean energy sources, re-wild the oceans and land, give more space back to the living world, plan for a peak human population, and live more balanced lives in a circular rather than linear economy (copying systems in the natural world). Attenborough believes that it is in our power to succeed if we can come together internationally to address the issues. But, it is going to require that we all put and keep pressure on decision-makers.

Nothing very new here, perhaps, but clearly stated by an authoritative and respected voice. Systems ideas give weight to the case and enable it to be made powerfully.

The second book, 'Being a Beast', by Charles Foster, touches on many philosophical themes (consciousness, free-will, personal identity, how to live, etc.), but the concept he explores which is closest to the hearts of systems thinkers is 'relationships'. He wonders whether genuine human-human relationships are possible in the modern world and, to try to convince himself they are, he wants to see if he can establish relationships with non-human animals. He takes as his chosen targets animals representative of the four ancient elements - badgers and red deer (earth), otters (water), urban foxes (fire/light), and swifts (air). His task requires him to discover what exactly it is like to be a wild thing. To this end, he employs two methodologies. He wants to take advantage of existing knowledge in neuroscience which can explain how the sense organs of the different animals present the world to them - how they see, hear, smell, etc. From this it is easy enough to recognise that: "Every organism creates a different world in its brain. It lives in that world. We are surrounded by millions of different worlds". But to rid himself further of the human perspective ("striding colonially around, describing what they see from six feet above the ground") he feels he actually has to learn to 'be a beast' - immersing himself in the worlds of badgers, otters, swifts, etc., and for some considerable periods of time. This requires him to live in a hole in a hillside eating earthworms, trying to catch eels underwater with his teeth, climbing trees to get mouthfulls of insects. He is reasonably optimistic about his chances because both humans and animals share a world which they have to come to terms with and, in the great scheme of things, are not so separated on the evolutionary tree. They share many neurological processes and "when a fox and I step on a piece of barbed wire, we experience something similar".

In practice, Foster is far from successful, as he readily admits. Nevertheless, some important conclusions emerge, particularly about 'relationships'. The first concerns the deep relationship between beings and their environments: "What is an animal? It's a rolling conversation with the land from which it comes and of which it consists". It is much easier for Foster's son Tom, who shares some of his adventures, to see that this is also true of humans: "Tom defines 'Tom' ecologically, in terms of the nexus of relationships (with other humans and with the whole natural world) in which he exists and of which he consists". In Foster's opinion, this constitutes a more accurate and healthier worldview. The second is how Foster's own conversation with his environment has become stilted. Certain senses in certain animals are much more acute than ours. But we are not bad all-rounders. It is just that we have lost the capacity to pay attention to the world on its many planes. Our lives could be much richer. To thrive as a human being, he proposes, "I needed to be more of a badger". Thirdly, Foster concludes that there is a nasty 'colonialism' that leads from Genesis 1 ("You shall have domination over the fish of the sea, and the birds of the air …. over all the earth..etc.") to the Monsanto boardroom, "pausing for sightseeing", he writes, "at the annihilation of the world's herd game .... dust bowls full of cucumbers grown in nitrate powder .... the Torrey Canyon .... factory farms .... a retreating glacier .... sport hunting of native peoples".

There is much more in the book and it will provoke very different reactions from different readers. Some of it you won't like - I certainly didn't. There is an element of Carlos Castaneda in there, although Foster has no truck with shamanism. Some of it is preposterous. I have observed my 16 year old dog and it has shown no propensity to align itself to the north-south axis of the earth's magnetic field when it defecates. But you will certainly be changed if you read it.