Just back from The Natural Step presentation at the UH-Hilo; check out their website to learn more about who they are and what they do. My gut reaction — we wont avert environmental disaster by listening to consultants. My own experience of The Natural Steppers was colored by current events in the Amazon Basin, where the indigenous people are putting their lives on the line to protect that region from a major assault by Earth-raping corporations. The assault is facilitated by the Peruvian government working to live up to free trade agreements with the US, and it will be carried out by multi-national oil, mining and logging companies. Compared to the blood that is being shed by those on the front lines, the contrived analysis (and punch lines) delivered by the presenters seemed frivolous.
My apologies to Alex Frost (County R&D) and Tom DeWitt (UH- Hilo) who made the effort to introduce this approach to community business leaders but I found the end result of little value. If you wanted to attract those who really needed to hear what these well-paid consultants had to say, you should have held the presentation during the day and provided an invitation-only free lunch to those doing the most damage; if you get a similar chance in the future, you’ll find a who’s who in that regard on Billy Kenoi’s list of top donors.
