Systemic empathy: A prerequisite for sustainable futures

Abstract

Background: Progress in the industrialised world has become synonymous with acquiring more, but our world is limited in its capacity. This limitation means that continual growth risks overstretching and unbalancing the global environmental system, making it unsustainable. Currently, the destruction of the environment is creating a global threat to our quality of life.
Aim: One of the primary drivers of environmental unsustainability is human behaviour. Addressing this challenge requires a transformation of social consciousness and conscience.
Setting: The article advocates for systemic empathy as a human-centred method to manage and achieve sustainable futures.
Methods: The application of soft systems thinking to address the complex societal issue of unsustainable futures. By viewing the problem through this systemic lens, the study seeks to identify holistic solutions.
Results: Sustainability is not merely about maintaining the status quo: it is about preventing overshoot and decline in global environmental and human systems. Achieving this goal demands a comprehensive approach to managing human affairs. The study offers guidance on holistic management for global sustainability, emphasising the development of communal systemic empathy.
Conclusion: Practising global foresight is essential for understanding how current human behaviours influence future outcomes. Presently, self-centred behaviour is causing unintended negative impacts on the Earth’s shared natural resources. These consequences cannot be resolved using the same logic that generated them. Instead, a communal logic – a logic of the whole – is necessary, with systemic empathy as the foundational principle.
Contribution: This review article presents an alternative, human-centred pathway for managing global sustainability. It contrasts with prevailing governance models that favour technological and administrative solutions to global decline, highlighting the value of systemic empathy in driving sustainable change.