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Some people think that carbon and sustainable development are not compatible. This textbook shows that carbon dioxide (CO₂) from the air and bio-carbon from biomass are our best allies in the energy transition, towards greater sustainability. We pose the problem of the decarbonation (or decarbonization) of our economy by looking at ways to reduce our dependence on fossil carbon (coal, petroleum, natural gas, bitumen, carbonaceous shales, lignite, peat). The urgent goal is to curb the exponential increase in the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and hydrosphere (Figures 1.1 and 1.2) that is directly related to our consumption of fossil carbon for our energy and materials The goal of the Paris agreement (United Nations COP 21, Dec. 12, 2015) of limiting the temperature increase to 1.5 degrees (compared to the pre-industrial era, before 1800) is becoming increasingly unattainable (Intergovermental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), report of Aug. 6, 2021). On Aug. 9, 2021 Boris Johnson, prime minister of the United Kingdom, declared that coal needs to be consigned to history to limit global warming. CO₂ has an important social cost…

This chapter highlights the impact and manageability of rapid, constantly/ continuously and unique changes taking place in humanity that are affecting the existence individuals, as well as all categories of human organizations. It has been observed that the traditional Newtonian mindset, and its associated reductionist hypothesis and design paradigm that have served humanity ‘well’ are manifesting their limits/constraints, vulnerability and disparities. The crux of the issue is escalating complexity density, incoherency, greater mismatch among current thinking, principles, values, structure, dynamic, and hierarchical dominance, limited predictability, and the overall changing ‘reality’.

Vividly, order and linearity are not the only inherent attributes of humanity. Consequently, the significance, appropriateness and exploration of certain properties of complexity theory are introduced, partially to better identify, analyze, comprehend and manage the accelerating gaps of inconsistency — in particular, to nurture a new mindset. Arising from the new mindset, human organizations/systems are confirmed as intrinsic composite complex adaptive systems (composite CAS, nonlinear adaptive dynamical systems) comprising human beings/agents that are CAS. In this respect, leadership, governance, management, and strategic approaches adopted by all human organizations must be redefined.

Concurrently, a special focus on intelligence (and its associated consciousness), the first inherent strengths of all human agents, and its role as the key latent impetus/driver, is vital. This recognition indicates that a change in era is inevitable. Humanity is entering the new intelligence era — the core of the knowledge-intensive and complexity-centric period. Overall, an integrated intelligence/consciousness-centric, complexity-centric and network-centric approach is essential. It adopts a complexity-intelligence-centric path that focuses on the optimization of all intense intrinsic intelligence/consciousness sources (human thinking systems), better exploitation of the co-existence of order and complexity, and integration of networks in human organizations — (certain spaces of complexity must be better utilized, coherency of network of networks must be achieved, and preparation for punctuation point must be elevated).

The new holistic (multi-dimensional) strategy of the intelligent organization theory (IO theory) is the complexity-intelligence strategy, and the new mission focuses on the new intelligence advantage.