"make a lot of mistakes quickly"

In regards to environmental problems, there are two that are currently becoming evident in daily life: climate change and energy descent.  Behavior & Environment, a course at the University of Michigan, takes on a unique perspective by addressing imminent resource insecurity by encouraging a transition for humans in which they will become familiar with a less materialistic lifestyle and be more prepared for the future.  By analyzing the necessities that humans require to behave reasonably, which is required to attain a sustainable lifestyle, these conditions can become optimized to obtain the appropriate behaviors and exercise environmental stewardship.  

While it is admirable to encourage a transition that will allow for humans to live sustainably in the future with more ease and familiarity, the first step towards achieving this process is collective acknowledgement of the future.  In Professor Raymond De Young’s paper, he claims that “We will all, of necessity, accept that biophysical limits are a defining characteristic of life...Yet acceptance is the first step…” (“Transitioning to a New Normal: How Ecopsychology Can Help Society Prepare for the Harder Times Ahead” 237).  This entails that mere acceptance of bio-physical restraints is a necessity before the path towards preparing for a successful transition can even begin.  Therefore, it's critical that people realize these prospects soon because we haven't started the transition process, which will require time to set up and implement.  

The sense of urgency behind overcoming delayed realization originates from the amount of essential tasks needed to be completed within the limited amount of time that we have.  In another publication by De Young, he quotes Pat Murphy who insists society needs to “make a lot mistakes quickly" (“Environmental Psychology Overview” 26).  This statement explains how pivotal it is to begin the implementation of various probable solutions we may have in order to observe the outcomes and determine the degree of success they lead to.  More importantly, the use of the adverb “quickly” emphasizes how vital it is to initiate the transformations as soon as possible.  In this way, by discovering the success-versus-failure result of the supposed resolution, we can learn from the error, modify the prototype, and work towards testing a more suitable answer.  The faster we do this, the sooner we can apply the most appropriate set of plans and begin the transition.  However, as these articles warn, there won't be an inexhaustible amount of time for figuring out the most advantageous strategy for transitioning well.  Therefore, we must first accept the reality of resource limitations promptly due to the time constraints to begin and accomplish the lengthy process of a successful transition.

How can we, as a society, work towards convincing the population to reach a consensus about prospective conditions?  Perhaps this occurrence of uniform awareness is also a result of people being reasonable, which is all the more reason to provide and maintain conditions that encourage this type of behavior.  Another potential methodology to attain ubiquitous acceptance of the future should be to provide accessible and comprehensible education to the population about the future.  As opposed to instilling fear and panic about catastrophic endings, informative resources should strive in the direction to communicate facts about practical scenarios and the necessity to realize them “quickly” to initiate the movement of making effective changes.