Environmental intelligence integrates environmental research and sustainability research with data science, AI and other novel technologies so that environmental changes and impacts are understood, leveraged and where necessary mitigated
In the environment we look at key things – Like global warming, climate change, pollution etc and to counter it we have the clean air act, the endangered species act, the clean water act, reduce and reuse
Today, however I want to talk about your personal environmental intelligence in the same context as emotional intelligence, and social intelligence using many of the same principles of environmentalism
So how well do you know your environment, when do you see the clearest? What is holding your gaze, what is causing time to tick by in your life.
Water – let it flow
According to Scientificamerican.com One sixth of world’s human population lacks water, and more than two million people mostly children die from water borne diseases per year according to USAID. Yet 71% (representing 326 million cubit miles of water) of the earth is covered by water, 97% (320 million cubic miles) is salty ocean water, only directly useful for cooling and 3% is fresh. Now 2.5% of the fresh water is unavailable either by pollution, trapped in glaciers and ice or lies so deep within the earth’s surface that access is not cost effective. So only 0.5% of fresh water is available for access and direct use. It is ironic, isn’t it that something critically needed is so abundant yet so abundantly unavailable! The jury is out on if there is enough water for everyone, even if it were evenly distributed. I suspect there is, but that is a topic for another day.
Did you know that not only is the your body weight 75% water, your eyes, your tools of vision are 95% water!
So, consider this circumstance though not calibratable, could it be that fresh water is not overwhelmingly available to create room for our participation. Did the Creator leave a gap for us to fill, the space for innovation! The jury is out on if the existing fresh water sources would be enough for all humans with proper and equitable distribution, but what everyone including the environmentalists agree on is recycle and reuse is necessary to create efficient and effective availability of what freshwater resources are available – that is an act of innovation!
Water so fundamental to life, that as you “throw your weight around”, it is water you are throwing around, as you look to create vision it is by water you “see” to do that. Water is our high value commodity! Yet to have enough of it, we must innovate.
Just like the Environmental Intelligence of our living environment is connected to water resource management, your personal environmental intelligence is connected to the management of your personal water resource and how you innovate around it.
Living systems in tangible spaces
So how much do you know your environment, your personal ecosystem. An ecosystem is a biological community of organisms that interact with each other and their physical environment. An ecosystem essentially focuses on the interactions of living things to each other and their tangible environment
A personal ecosystem must have the same characteristics, it must be filled with living things and occupy tangible space and there must be engagement – so who or what occupies your ecosystem? Are they alive or dead, do they interact? Can you tangibly identify the space your network occupies? Are they spaces with the right boundaries that allow you get nourishment and growth, instead of one that wilts and traffics in death to ideas, opportunities, innovations, risk taking etc.? Is your space safe enough to keep predators out, so you can thrive? Is it safe enough to fail and get up and go again? Is it big enough to take risks with, can it accommodate, attract and bring in a lot of people and influences? Does your space make it clear that you belong there or do you tip toe around hoping not to disturb the other parts of the ecosystem?
Global Warming
Global warming is a gradual increase in the overall temperature of the earth’s atmosphere attributed to greenhouse gasses such as carbon dioxide, chlorofluorocarbons (methane, nitrous oxide, fluorinated gases etc.) and other pollutants.
So how does this relate to you? How does your atmosphere feel? What emotions persist, is it calm and controlled and cool, or is it gradually getting hotter, polluted with impatience, discontent, slow boiling anger, disappointment? Is it stagnant and infertile, unhealthy and unkempt?
Climate Change
A change in the pattern of weather and related changes in oceans, land surfaces and ice sheets occurring over long time periods of decades and longer. Weather is the state of the atmosphere including its temperature, humidity, wind, rainfall etc. over hours or weeks. It is influenced by the climate system which includes the oceans, land surfaces, ice sheets and atmosphere.
What impacts your ecosystem’s atmosphere; are the changes a natural progression or an unnatural movement that creates unrest. Stale from underuse, overuse or abuse, are people being swept in and out without contribution or is your land leaching its natural resources and life giving nutrients and therefore failing to create productivity. Are your resources being wasted? Leaking out from all sides, filled with wasted talents and under utilised resources like unengaged minds. Are your relationships being swept away or decaying or stiff like fossils after seasons of starvation? Are the winds of resourcefulness blowing past your life? The unengaged mind stares back and forth, not knowing where to start or what to finish. Is that your climate?
Personal Environmental Intelligence
Personal Environmental Intelligence integrates the activities in your personal environment (these include the interactions or lack thereof, the skills, tools, resources whether stale or viable, the relationships vibrant or dull), your life-giving sources (like your spirit, attitude, hopes, dreams, ideas etc.) that are targeted to create sustainability with the real data that your reality informs. Your personal environmental intelligence can predict and protest your future, to allow for the understanding of changes and impacts and possibly mitigate issues!
Growing your personal environmental intelligence requires you to do the following:
- Know your environment and make it viable – Identify, filter, rid and gather!
Study your ecosystem, take an inventory of the people closest to you. Know who your helpers are and your detractors. Look for the members that are dead, these are those that make no contributions to your life. Identify the living and evaluate their interactions. Are they working together to enhance the environment that is vital to your growth? Are they conspiring against your work, or worse still are they in the way? You must identify and inventory everything in your ecosystem. Filter them with wisdom and against goals and missions, rid the dead and unhelpful parts and gather for yourself the things that are viable and then nurture them to become producers for you.
- Innovate, it is your life – Like fresh water, the lifeline, or your water was not intended to be sufficiently easily available. Your skills, your education, your resources, your capital, your networks and so much more are like your water, but they are not sufficiently enough in the quantities, the mode and the capacity that you need them. The ebb and flow can be hard to always control. Here is what you can do though. Your “waters” need to be hooked to other sources to allow them blossom, recycle and be reused. You must identify the gaps and innovate to fill them. You must take the areas that are not leverageable as they are and renovate them for use. You must learn to repurpose your skills, your tools, your resources. Recycle your knowledge, your resources, and tools by using them in new places and in new ways for new applications and with new teams.
Your outcome will be a high Personal Environmental Intelligence that takes its place next to your high emotional and social intelligence!
Good Luck for a Good Life!!
About Ngozi Bell
Inspiration, Hard Work, Innovation. These three foundational elements anchor Ngozi’s core belief that manifesting the extraordinary is always within reach. Inspired by her mother A.C.Obikwere, a scientist and author, she learned the privilege of living at the edge of important encounters and dedicating herself to robust and perpetual learning. Ngozi’s background is a combination of Physics, Engineering, Venture Capital/Private Equity, regulations, and business where she has managed over $1B in cumulative revenue. Ngozi is a speaker, storyteller, and writer on a diverse set of topics including AI, iDLT, ML, Signal Processing, iOT, women, entrepreneurship and more. She contributes regularly to VOA, has been a TEDx speaker and is published on tech and non-tech platforms. She is a champion of STEM, women, youth, art and the Africa we must engage. Ngozi is an adjunct professor of Physics and management with work
experience in Asia, Europe, Africa, Middle East, and North America. She is a founder of a number of a number of enterprises and host of the podcast Stem, Stocks and Stews (https://anchor.fm/stemstocksstews-podcast).