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December 16, 2005 Issue 69




"All the evidence suggests that we have consistently exaggerated the contributions of technological genius and underestimated the contributions of natural resources. . . . We need . . . something we lost in our haste to remake the world: a sense of limits, an awareness of the importance of earth’s resources."
—Stewart Udall, 1980

"The sun, with all those planets revolving around it and dependent on it, can still ripen a bunch of grapes as if it had nothing else in the universe to do."
—Galileo Galilei


30% OFF SALE!

When you place an order for $100 or more (not including shipping) by December 31st, get 30% off the Pegasus products on this list and 10% off all other Pegasus products. The discount does not apply to site and multi-user licenses or conferences. These discounts cannot be combined with volume discounts.
Learn more

Order on our web site or by calling 1-800-272-0945 or 1-781-398-9700. Click on the Order link by each item to learn more or to purchase.

View clips from many of the videos at our Media Gallery.

NEW!
Outlearning the Wolves E-Learning Module Consultant license • $499
Order # FT004EM (call 1-781-398-9700 for details) View clip • Learn more

NEW!
 Outlearning the Wolves: The Movie
Order # FT004DVDI • $129 (introductory price) • $75 (for educators) View clip • Learn more

JUST RELEASED!
Peter Senge's 2005 Pegasus Conference Keynote Presentation
A New Vision for an Interdependent Planet
Order # V05K01D • DVD format • $125

DANIEL GOLEMAN--FIRST TIME ON DVD!
Emotional Intelligence: A Cornerstone of Learning Communities
 Order # V9736D • DVD format • $99

LEARNING FABLES PRODUCTS

 ALL of the Learning Fables books, e-books, digital slides, transparencies, and sets are on sale! Learn more

VIDEO SERIES
The 30% off sale enables consultants and buyers from educational, not-for-profit, and governmental organizations to combine sale savings with industry discounts on videos in the One on One and Leverage Points for Change series. Learn more

ONE ON ONE VIDEO SERIES

One on One with Dennis Meadows: Growth on a Finite Planet
Order # VONE003DI • DVD format • $125 (introductory price) • Learn more

One on One with Peter Senge: Senge on Leadership • Learn more
Order # VONE001 (VHS) • $395
Order # VONE001D (DVD) • $395

One on One with Peter Senge: Senge on Change and Learning • Learn more
Order # VONE002 (VHS) • $395
Order # VONE002D (DVD) • $395

One on One with Peter Senge: Set
includes Senge on Leadership and Senge on Change and Learning • Learn more
Order # VONE0102SET • 2 VHS videos • $595
Order # VONE0102SET • 2 DVD videos • $595

LEVERAGE POINTS FOR CHANGE VIDEO SERIES

Leading in a Complex World • Learn more
Order # VLPC01 (VHS) • $129
Order # VLPC01D (DVD) • $129

Teams That Work • Learn more
Order # VLPC02 (VHS) • $129
Order # VLPC02D (DVD) • $129

Set including Leading in a Complex World and Teams That Work • Learn more
Order # VLPC0102SET (VHS) • $179
Order # VLPC0102SETD (DVD) • $179

THE SYSTEMS THINKER
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Pegasus Communications provides resources that help people explore, understand, articulate, and address the challenges they face in the complexities of a changing world. Since 1989, Pegasus has worked to build a community of practitioners through The Systems Thinker® Newsletter, books, audio and videotapes, its annual Systems Thinking in Action® Conference, and other events.
 


 

 



EDITOR'S PICK
 Special Issue of The Systems Thinker—Moving Toward a Sustainable Future
Please download and forward this special issue to your friends and colleagues.

PEGASUS CONFERENCE CORNER
• Early Bird Registration Deadline is December 31st, Register Now for Only $950
• 2005 Conference Resources

LEARNING LINKS
Some Ways We Can Be Wise
 



EDITOR'S PICK
Special Issue of The Systems Thinker—Moving Toward a Sustainable Future (including a chapter from Limits to Growth: The 30-Year Update, Chelsea Green Publishing, 2004, by Donella Meadows, Dennis Meadows, and Jørgen Randers; and excerpts from a talk by Dennis Meadows)

With the tragic impact of the recent natural disasters and the growing evidence of global warming, climate change has come to the forefront as a major concern and challenge for the world’s citizenry. While the realization of the scope of the problem is new to many, system dynamicists have been documenting the troubling trends for more than 30 years. In 1972, a group at MIT created a computer model that projected the alarming consequences of continued unchecked growth. The resulting book, The Limits to Growth (Universe Books, 1972), shocked the world and became an international best seller.

Authors Donella Meadows (deceased), Dennis Meadows, and Jørgen Randers recently published a third edition, Limits to Growth: The 30-Year Update (Chelsea Green Publishing, 2004). In updating the model and book, they found that the trends documented three decades ago were largely unchanged and that humankind continues on a path toward environmental and social collapse. But rather than offering a series of grim prospects for the future, the authors conclude the book with an optimistic call to action and a surprising set of “tools” for making the transition to a more sustainable way of living on the planet.

Thanks to the generosity of Chelsea Green Publishing, in the November 2005 issue of The Systems Thinker, we published Chapter 8 of The Limits to Growth:The 30-Year Update in its entirety. We also included recent comments by Dennis Meadows about the role of collaboration in finding and implementing solutions to big problems. Because any large-scale change effort requires a critical mass of engaged and interested people working together, we are making this special issue of The Systems Thinker available free of charge. We would like to encourage you to forward it to your colleagues, friends, members of community groups and religious organizations—anyone you can think of who might respond to the call to action. True change begins when each of us decides to do something differently.

Download/read the complete issue or see The Systems Thinker, V16N9 (November, 2005). This special issue of the newsletter is free. Please forward it to your friends and colleagues.

Subscribe to The Systems Thinker

Order the book Limits to Growth: The 30-Year Update
 



PEGASUS CONFERENCE CORNER
• Act now to secure your early bird discount for the 16th Annual Pegasus Conference!

The conference will be held November 13–15, 2006, in Waltham, Massachusetts, USA (just outside of Boston). Register before December 31 for only $950, a 43% savings off the standard conference price! Additional discount available for teams of 4 or more!
When you register, you may also elect to receive a special one-year subscription to The Systems Thinker Newsletter for only $89–a $30 savings off the regular price. Register on our web site, or call 1-781-398-9700.

• Resources from 2005 Conference

Order Peter Senge's Video Keynote
A New Vision for an Interdependent Planet

Quickly sold out after it was shown to open the 2005 conference, this special video by Peter Senge was created solely for his keynote presentation. In it he draws on the extraordinary global reach of his experiences with all kinds of organizations to discuss how a new vision of an interdependent future is taking form on the planet. With his usual insight and grace, he observes how the 21st century has brought more opportunities for collaboration while raising new ethical challenges, especially for consuming/discarding nations and manufacturers with disproportionate environmental impacts. View clip
Order # V05K01D • DVD format • 58 minutes • $125

Worth A Thousand Words

The graphic recordings prepared by Michelle Boos-Stone during the 2005 Pegasus Conference are now available on the web. Whimsical, perceptive, and comprehensive in scope, these drawings capture the wealth of ideas that made this conference so special.

More conference audio and video recordings from the 2005 conference will be available on our website soon.
 



LEARNING LINKS
Some Ways We Can Be Wise
by Tom Atlee

As the scope and complexity of our world’s problems grow, so grows our need for wisdom. When people talk about wisdom, they often use sight-related words such as insight, foresight, discernment, farsightedness, brilliance, reflection, and vision. This metaphor of seeing offers a powerful way to begin to evaluate the wisdom of decisions, actions, policies, leaders, and so on.

• We are wise when we extend our vision to perceive the largest possible perspective of a situation.

• We are wise when we extend our vision into the future to the consequences of our present actions.

• We are wise when we extend our vision beyond our personal view—and beyond the dominant view of our group or culture—to hear and understand the views of others.

• We are wise when we extend our vision beyond convenient labels and judgments to view things more as they are.

• We are wise when we extend our vision beyond isolated facts and linear logic into the whole fabric of life, using all the forms of knowing that are given to us.

• We are wise when we extend our vision beyond certainty to the underlying, all-encompassing, ever-unfolding mystery of life.

This wisdom can lead to many soulfully effective solutions to the diverse sufferings of our world and its people. We need our wisest eyes to find them. These wise eyes are ours, if we choose to see through them together.

Read the complete article or see The Systems Thinker, V15N5 (June/July, 2004)

Subscribe to The Systems Thinker
 



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