Kalle Reflects on Silo thinking in context of Los Angeles on Fire, Climate, and War

My previous reflection on the ‘World’s Situation’ concerned the two current wars in the western World. I and many other scientists warned, already at the war outbreaks, of the great risks of continuous and fruitless silo-thinking. We worried, more specifically, about how Warfare in one Silo may suck media power from Climate in another. In yesterday’s Morning news on Swedish TV, January 11, 2025, it was all captured in a nutshell. Silo thinking prevailed into a Silo-wise knee jerk, after years of horror and opportunities, with plenty of time to rather reflect on Silo-connections and intelligent strategies based on such.

More in detail:

Expert on Climate change. The interviewer, experienced and respected in Sweden, first talked with a scientist/expert on climate change in context of the fires in Los Angeles. The expert said many wise things about this. We were to expect more and worse disasters from climate change if society wouldn’t start to wisely ‘react’ and ‘take on the needed costs for reacting’. Not a word about how to ‘react’, that is, wise strategies for how to relatively lower costs and increasing competitive innovations through stepwise moves towards attractive sustainable futures. Where the “silos” are brought to sustainability with improved bottom lines. From upfront. Or, in other words, Strategic Sustainable Development. Ever increasing “costs” from either one of the “silos” are all about not doing this.

Expert on Warfare. After this interview it was time for the new Commander in Chief in Sweden to take the previous interviewees place. He talked about his job to defend Sweden by warfare. In this case the interviewer tried to expand the scope a bit, beyond warfare as such. For instance, by mentioning Donald Trump and Nato as an intro to geopolitics. This was an open goal for a new Commander in Chief, if skilled to talk about how to inform his knowledge on warfare, not replace it, with interrelated knowledge from wider scopes. For instance, that of diplomacy and human relations on a geopolitical scale, even such in relation to leaders with values that are strongly in opposition to ours. But “US was a friend and Russia an enemy”, simple as that.

Resource imperalism behind wars. Yet another scope, that ought to be of dominating interest to a new Commander in Chief, is the historic role of resource-imperialism behind wars. Including the benefits of sustainable resource management within nations such as Sweden. For instance, the creation of national security through sustainable food- and electricity production and supply. But no. The answer was repeatedly as simple as straight, saying: “My job is to prepare for war, lead Sweden in war, and Russia is the enemy”.

Military silo against Climate silo. So, consequently, there were not even questions asked about the military’s opposition to the Swedish industry’s interest in building more wind power, fast. All to become less dependent on declining fuel reserves, and deliveries of such from dictators and war makers in times of geopolitical instability. Swedish military is “against” wind power, because it is perceived as the wind mills “standing in the way of air fighters”.

Hugely increasing power of the Western world (see below) worsen the consequences of Silo-thinking. Someone might object: “But should the Swedish Military really learn, reflect and have an opinion on the larger scope of silos including shrinking global resources and their dominating role as conflict drivers?” The answer is, of course, why not? Ever increasing power from industry, economy, and mass medial influence from IT, has created an historically unique situation. When people say that things were not any better before, it is a smokescreen that is only true about the genetic make-up of humans; so occasional self-destruction from unwise decisions based on vanity, greed, and un-diplomatic aggression has indeed happened frequently and repeatedly during history. But the above hugely increasing powers in our times, at disposal of unwise leadership, has brought the World to the brink of social and ecological chaos. All from the leaders’ un-sustainable design of societies, shrinking natural resources and decreasing social trust from such designs, and aggressive resource-imperialism regarding the remainders.

Historians on ancient times can pay witness to how much horror that may be created from perfect storms of this kind, for instance on isolated Islands in the Ocean from where there was no escape. Easter Island, for instance, a perfect storm was based on vanity, greed and aggression between tribes around shrinking natural resources. However, because of the huge increase of power that human industrialized civilization now has at disposal, we all live on the same large island, the Planet Earth in the Universe, from where there is also no escape. The rhetoric question is, does the above unprecedented power-escalation increase, or decrease, the responsibilities of leaders, at all levels, to learn from History and from the science of socially and ecologically Strategic Sustainable Development? It is about creating sustainable relationships with neighbors and nature on the one hand, which has happened on many isolated islands in the past. And it is about meaningful lessons from the opposite, where conversations around fireplaces failed.

To assist sustainable leadership, FSSD Global is currently working with an open-source AI assisted platform for cross-silo knowledge management and leadership for a future of piece and sustainable relationships with nature. Stay attuned…