Kenny Ausubel, Co-Founder and CEO of Bioneers, discusses the keys to resilience.

“The first principle of resilience thinking is systems thinking. It’s all connected, from the web of life to human systems, and in essence it’s very simple, taking care of nature means taking care of people and taking care of people means taking care of nature. It means also watching for the seeds of new solutions that arise spontaneously as conditions change.

Resilience thinking also means moving to a much greater decentralization to provide backup against the inevitable failure of top-down command and control, too-big-not-to-fail systems. Think decentralized power grids, more localized food and water systems, economies. And the heart of resilience is really diversity, ecosystems that have sufficient diversity can rebound in the face of crisis and challenge.“

This speech was given at the 2012 Catalyzing a Resilient Communities Network Intensive, a part of the annual Bioneers Conference.

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