I’m not a physicist. I’m not a meteorologist. I’m not a data scientist. But a superpower of mine is seeing the common thread - and pulling on it. It has served my entrepreneurial mind well for the past 24 years. This storm lit my 🔥. While she is gone, Hurricane #Helene continues to pack a powerful force inside of me. Not the common forces of wind or rain, this force is fusion and energy. I’m talking about the power of networks. I’m talking about the power of change.

Since last Wednesday, I’ve been graced with so many new connections and opportunities. My data collection at The Retreat at Firefly Farm, coupled with some front-line reporting on Linkedin has led to the most amazing benefit of all, human connection. I learned about S2S technology and the amazing work of Matt Stein at Salient Predictions. I was introduced to Lisa Whited….author, speaker, and academic, and Bob Keefe, Executive Director of E2 (Environmental Entrepreneurs). Each is related but not connected. That’s the power of social networking and mission-driven work.

As I type, Hurricane Milton is named and gaining strength in the Gulf. We are still inside 10 days after Helene wreaked havoc on the Southeastern US and we’re already seeing another Gulf-source storm. It doesn’t take a scientist to see what’s different from this one (and similar to its predecessor). At the leading edge of this storm is another storm. Presoak.

On my journey of understanding regenerative systems and systems technology, I’ve encountered a few common threads. Linear systems and legacy methods continue to dominate most of the analytics, inferences, and predictive models. Graphical processing hasn’t given way to Neural Processing and Chemistry hasn’t given way to Physics, yet. My 12,000 data points a month are showing me things I never could have seen before. They helped me know what to expect in Grayson County VA days ahead of the meteorologist’s forecast…and much, much more locally. Microclimate data is different than weather and S2S using oceanic conditions and matching them with atmospheric predictions with physics-informed neural nets (PINNs) is a total game changer.

By the way - I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT I’M TALKING ABOUT.

Awareness vs understanding vs mastery - three different phases. I’m hyper-aware and I’m drinking from a firehose, but I’ve got a pretty firm grasp on it now. A deep understanding of forecasting has a massive impact on the global supply chain, well-being, disaster avoidance, and food supply. Where weather tells you you should bring an umbrella, microclimate data tells you you should bring foul weather gear and chainsaw. It also tells you why the event is happening.

Look, a lot has been thrown at me these last couple of weeks. I went from clearing roads and participating in search/rescue to the unintended emotional side of crash and guilt. This storm is a WICKED problem, best described by the complexity of layers. Engineering failure, design failure, systems failure, shock, emotional trauma. Every system that supports communities was at some point broken, including human spirit.

While my efforts of human & emotional support will continue well into the future with #tinygiants on LinkedIn (always recruiting), I have a new-found purpose to dispel the myths that ‘sustainability’ is too hard to achieve. I plan to deconstruct that term with the hopes of building back better. I hope to help illustrate patterns of consumption and bring awareness to dMRV models that support EOV. It’s time to move past the linear systems of the Industrial Revolution and into the modern version of Ecological Economics. Transition investments and new units of measure that consider value and benefit in the P&L.

It’s time to rebalance the balance sheet. It’s time to achieve a better environmental literacy. It’s time to start understanding circular systems and their regenerative benefit. It’s time to get to work.

Song Pairing: Men At Work - Who Can It Be Now?