Hi there and welcome to e-mail newsletter #25!

This message goes to my 116 subscribers, with a big Thank you for signing up. If you have not yet explored the OneBeautifulPlanet.org Newsletter archive, check it out. I wrote the first issue in June 2023, and an overview of the effort at the 100 subscribers milestone.

Elinor Ostrom

Every week I feature a person, animal, or plant that inspired or intrigued me. It is a moment of reflection and gratitude, meant to find lessons and nurture curiosity. Last week I featured the Madagascar’s largest carnivore, the Fossa, while prior weeks included animals like the axolotl, the albatross, and luminaries such as Carl Sagan and Sylvia Earle.

Joining our list of noteworthy scholarly minds, like Buckminster Fuller or Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen, Elinor Ostrom is a symbol of interdisciplinary brilliance and pioneering innovation who quietly made history. She is the first woman to ever win a Nobel Prize in Economics for her groundbreaking work in the field of institutional economics and her research on the governance of common pool resources.

Born in 1933 in Los Angeles, California, Ostrom's intellectual curiosity and passion for understanding the complexities of human behavior emerged early in her life. Her academic journey crossed multiple disciplines, a path less traveled during her time. She earned degrees in economics and political science, and became uniquely positioned to bridge the gap between these seemingly disparate fields. After earning her Ph.D. in political science from UCLA, Ostrom lived in Bloomington, Indiana, and served on the faculty of Indiana University, with a late-career affiliation with Arizona State University.

Ostrom's interdisciplinary approach became the cornerstone of her research on common pool resources (CPRs). Contrary to the prevailing belief at the time, that fisheries, forests, and irrigation systems were doomed to failure due to the "tragedy of the commons" - a concept popularized by Garrett Hardin suggesting that individuals acting in their self-interest would inevitably deplete shared resources - Ostrom's work unveiled a more nuanced reality. Through extensive fieldwork and collaboration with local communities worldwide, Ostrom discovered that communities often developed their own sophisticated systems to manage and sustainably govern these resources. These systems, characterized by cooperation, trust, and collective action, defied conventional wisdom and demonstrated that effective governance and stewardship of limited resources could emerge from within communities themselves.

Besides her surprising, and paradigm-shifting conclusions, what set Ostrom apart was her belief in the power of teamwork and collaboration. Her approach was not that of a solitary genius, but of a team player who employed collective problem-solving. Ostrom involved stakeholders from diverse backgrounds, including local community members, policymakers, environmentalists, and academics. By fostering dialogue and collaboration among these groups, she emphasized the importance of inclusive decision-making processes tailored to the specific context of each community. Her technical research and contributions to understanding the intricacies of governance and collective action earned her the prestigious Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences in 2009.

Ostrom was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in October 2011. During the final year of her life, she continued to write and lecture, giving the Hayek Lecture at the Institute of Economic Affairs just eleven weeks before her death, in June 2012, at the age of 78. Elinor Ostrom’s legacy is an inspiration, illuminating the path toward more inclusive, collaborative, and effective solutions for an inter-connected world, in growing need for collective action.

Sources:

• “An Interview with Elinor Ostrom” - The Annual Reviews Podcast, February 2010

• “Economics in Ten” Podcast - Season 2, Episode 2 - Elinor Ostrom, October 2019

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elinor_Ostrom

Mindset

“She faced him, sitting up very straight in bed, the little wool shawl hunched about her shoulders. ‘Dirk, are you ever going back to architecture? The war is history, it’s now or never with you. Pretty soon it will be too late. Are you ever going back to architecture? To your profession?’

A clean amputation. ‘No, Mother.’

She gave an actual gasp, as though icy water had been thrown full in her face. She looked suddenly old, tired. Her shoulders sagged. He stood in the doorway, braced for her reproaches. But when she spoke it was to reproach herself. ‘Then I’m a failure.’

’Oh, what nonsense, Mother. I’m happy. You can’t live somebody else’s life. You used to tell me, when I was a kid I remember, that life wasn’t just an adventure, to be taken as it came, with the hope that something glorious was hidden just around the corner. You said you had lived that way and it hadn’t worked. You said ——’

She interrupted him with a little cry. ‘I know I did. I know I did.’ Suddenly she raised a warning finger. Her eyes were luminous, prophetic. ‘Dirk, you can’t desert her like that!’

’Desert who?’ He was startled.

’Beauty! Self-expression. Whatever you want to call it. You wait! She’ll turn on you some day. Some day you’ll want her, and she won’t be there.’”

— Edna Ferber, 1925 Pulitzer Prize winning novel “So Big”

In the Works

On the action front, I completed another brief, early morning cleanup at Silver Lake Park, in Bucks County PA. Instead of the EJG tongs from last week, this time I used the RMS 32” Grabber Reacher, as well as my new Garbo Grabber: a lid + handle combination that conveniently traps and holds the trash bag open from the top. As before, I logged the cleanup in the Pirika, Clean Something for Nothing, and Clean Planet Project apps, and posted it on Reddit, Instagram, and Nextdoor.

On the knowledge and education front, I am continuing the Terra.do Learning for Action online program on climate change fundamentals, now in Week 9/12. While recent classes have focused on electricity, clean energy, and reducing our reliance on fossil fuel energy, a class on “doughnut economics” stood out for me: it is a model that presents new ways of thinking about economic growth, through a simple visual representation:

The inner ring of the doughnut represents the social foundation, outlining essential human needs, while the outer ring signifies the ecological ceiling, representing planetary boundaries. The goal of doughnut economics is to ensure that everyone's basic needs are met without surpassing environmental limits. It advocates for a balance between meeting human requirements for food, water, healthcare, education, and social equity, while also respecting ecological boundaries, such as preventing climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution.

It is a bit idealistic, but so were the founding principles of the United States of America in 1776: a challenge to established political structures and medieval systems of government. So from that standpoint, despite its name which frankly I am not a big fan of, doughnut economics is a viable challenge to traditional growth-oriented economic models that ignore, or do not sufficiently prioritize, social and environmental outcomes.

To close off this 25th edition (yay!) of the newsletter, and since I have added many new subscribers recently, I am including below several of my main writings this year:

If you found this newsletter helpful or interesting, please share with your friends, contacts, and anyone you know who may benefit from following my journey. Let’s gain some knowledge, and take action toward a cleaner, healthier world!

Thank you.

Razvan