The Earth’s ecological capacity

The climate crisis and resource scarcity define the future

Last year, the world was given a clear warning that its best before date is quickly approaching, as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change published its report in 2019. 

According to the report, humanity has about ten years to act in order to stop the warming and avoid its catastrophic consequences.

Reaching the limits of the Earth’s ecological capacity means that we are facing an unavoidable change that will basically concern everything related to human life. Above all, however, it will concern the economy, methods of value creation within societies, available resources, consumption, culture and politics.  

Of course, it is possible that no changes will be actively made and we will keep operating the same as before. However, change will happen even if we do nothing. Its rate may be slower in this case, but the outcome will also be more unpredictable and comprehensive, as the current rate of warming is predicted to have dramatic consequences. We, therefore, need to choose our strategy for approaching this change.

Reaching the limits of ecological capacity, and the actions related thereto, create a disruption that companies need to react to, as they need to renew themselves in order to meet the requirements of future ecological capacity. Together with the disruption that communications technology created in the 2010s, these two megatrends will cause a double disruption for companies. The current pandemic adds its own challenge to solving the issues of ecological capacity. However, the ecological crisis will not disappear even though a new, massive challenge has quickly appeared alongside it. This is why capability to change will be the major megatrend of the 2020s for companies.