Tipping Points in Australia's Future

What can we do about all of this?

The above reads like the script of a disaster movie. Society does not need a project like this to scare it - images and stories of disaster abound in the daily media already. What is needed is a better understanding of how and why people respond to these images and what might be done to deal constructively with these responses, especially the ones that involve fear. A major component of this project will investigate the responses of Australians to “fear of the apocalypse”. Previous research suggests three broad responses: (1) abandonment of beliefs and pursuit of self-interest; (2) retreat to sources of certain (fundamentalist) belief, and simple, single-minded solutions; and (3) transformation of beliefs, acceptance of alternative viewpoints and development of new ideas about how the world should work. All three responses appear to be gaining ground in Australia.

These attitudes and responses are part of a wider range of processes through which societies resist or adapt to change or transform in response to it. Recent research on interlinked social and ecological systems has begun to identify how cycles of development, growth in complexity, stagnation and minor or major rearrangement or collapse operate and how to recognise what stage a system (or society) is in. Where are Australian ecosystems and society in these cycles? Do we have the information needed to answer this question or do we need to do some focussed research to get the information? These are key questions for this project.

Other key questions that this project will address include: What can Australia do to improve its ability to either avoid disastrous changes or to make necessary transitions as smoothly as possible? What condition is Australia in with respect to resilience, adaptability and transformability? How do we diagnose these states, the pressures on them, and the responses we could be taking?