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A glossy magazine for sustainable solutions |
There is no lack of problems in the world today. Climate change, poverty, biodiversity loss, overfishing and pollution… just to mention a few. And when solutions are presented they tend to be isolated, partial and quick-fix oriented. Now, the bimonthly coffee table publication “Solutions” wants to change this by taking a whole-systems approach to find and showcase bold and innovative sustainable solutions.
 Solutions was launched earlier this year. It is both an online and print journal that aims to showcase “bold and innovative ideas for solving the world's environmental, social and political problems”.
Founded by a bunch of leading scientists (like ecological economist Robert Costanza and ecologist, entrepreneur and best-selling author Paul Hawken) the journal wants to reach out to an audience of policy makers, business leaders and engaged members of the public.
As such, Solutions is an interesting hybrid between a popular magazine and a scientific “peer-reviewed” journal. It is looking for solutions that are “novel, perhaps even surprising, but also well-thought out and credible”.
Systems-oriented solutions
The editorial board, including recent Nobel Prize winner Elinor Ostrom, say they prefer solutions that take a whole-systems approach: “A system can be a community, a corporation, a government, or even the entire global environment. If you want to solve a problem, you need to look at these systems in their entirety and at several, nested scales, from local to global. Rather than focusing on a single link, look at the whole chain. When you start looking at the world this way, it becomes clear: everything is connected.”
Hence, the solutions on display in the magazine can be everything from local to global; from the development of a sustainable eco-village to the development of an atmospheric trust to cap and trade greenhouse gases.
/Fredrik Moberg
Read the journal online at:
http://www.thesolutionsjournal.com
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