Visualizing Invisible Returns
Resilience Intel starts from the premise that all spending and investment forms a map of the interactive landscape of human intention. By looking at both the intended direction of a given investment choice and the outcomes of related expenditures, we can measure real-world returns on investment that market prices treat as invisible.
They are not, in fact, invisible; we live at the mercy of these non-market natural and human capital values, but we have tended to neglect the work of developing the tools to make those hidden returns readable. Visualizing macro-critical resilience intelligence, to foster a climate-smart clean future, is the mission of the Resilience Intel initiative.
Our logo expresses this, and partly because we are proud of the logo, and also because we think it is always worth digging into the complexity of this mission, we share here some of the symbolism of the image itself:
- The round shape reminds us of the Earth, our blue planet. It is dark blue, because this project looks into spaces still largely unexplored, like the deep ocean.
- The red-orange crescent falling from sky to ground represents the warming of global average temperatures, as well as related climate-transmitted risks and impacts. We endeavor to reduce these threats over time.
- The green crescent is ecological health and resilience. We are in a low moment, and we seek to achieve reliable sustainable ecological health and resilience as we go forward.
- The yellow crescent coming down from the sky represents both an intention to reduce climate-forcing emissions, and also the rapidly declining costs of solar photovoltaic and other clean energy resources.
- The network of nodes of varying color and size is a rough sketch of a far more complex interactive synaptic graph of value-sustaining relationships. It represents the information-sharing, and the distributed ledger technologies that will make it possible to see external returns on investment (XROI) we were previously not able to read in market dynamics and disconnected data.
- The escalating bar graph represents the increasing prosperity of individuals, institutions, and of our whole civilization, as we move toward cooler-headed climate-smart strategies.
Each of these is included, because the picture is incomplete without them. What we hope to convey with this image is that, while the work is complex, it is a straightforward, collaborative effort to examine the complexities of our planet’s underpinnings of value, to achieve:
- smart, sustainable prosperity,
- where people are liberated from threats posed by systemic inefficiencies,
- and where the macro-economy is aligned not only with internal ROI,
- but with macro-critical value-building…
- which is to say, conducive to a future that is healthy for people and for natural life-support systems.
The red and green crescents suggest the clear contrast between failed resilience-building and successful resilience-building. In the Adaptation Metrics work, as part of the COP22 process, from late 2015 to late 2016, this “invisible value” was identified as a fundamental standard for the future viability of any national economy.
Resilience Intel is our effort to make sure those vital foundations are made more secure, for the benefit of future generations. Our logo is an attempt to represent this complex mission visually. We offer it as a touchstone to come back to, as members of our coordinating team do, to remember:
A straightforward examination of complexity is the most direct route to the clarity we need to achieve a sustainable future of inclusive prosperity.
