I wasn't able to write last week because in the run-up to deadline, I was in the emergency room with my son, Max, who had broken his arm. He's fine now with a cool bionic waterproof cast that will allow him at least to splash in the water.

His accident got me thinking about this week's leverage point -- No. 7 of 12 -- which is modulating positive feedback loops to avoid a system going chaotic. Understanding the interplay between positive and negative feedback loops will be crucial to our ability to create a social and economic New Normal as we confront the New Normal in nature.

If a negative feedback loop is a self-regulating cycle, a positive feedback loop is a self-reinforcing cycle. Chaos happens when positive feedback loops overwhelm negative feedback loops.

Our current economic crisis is the result of some temporarily out-of-whack positive feedback loops, where crazy short-term returns generated a frenzy of speculation, driving things up until like Wile E. Coyote, we realize that we're running on air and gravity takes over. Bye, bye. Max's accident last week was a short positive feedback loop: Loss of balance combined with gravity caused a slip to turn into a fall to turn into a tumble. Eventually, friction won out over gravity . . . and his arm.

Of course, the granddaddy of positive feedback loops is climate change. As the planet warms it decreases its ability to cool itself in the short run. Glaciers and ice caps melt, reducing the amount of sunlight reflected back out into space, raising temperatures. Rising temperatures makes tundra thaw and releases trapped methane, which has 25 times the heat-trapping capacity of CO2 . . . you get the picture. Eventually, a new hotter equilibrium will be reached, cloud cover will increase and reflect light, plant life will get super-giant as during the age of the dinosaurs, absorbing more CO2 and some variant of the cycle will start over.

Normally, these changes take place over millennia, allowing gradual adaptation -- sort of like taking the elevator down from the 10th floor. Our problem is that we're doing the biological adaptation equivalent of jumping from the 10th floor and when we get to the ground, it ain't gonna be pretty.

We don't see too many examples of positive feedback loops in buildings themselves, though they abound in building markets. Failure to enforce building codes can lead to growing non-compliance as developers see their competitors not being penalized and begin reducing their compliance. The emergence of LEED is a beneficial positive feedback loop: As more buildings become LEED certified, more buildings want to become LEED certified; the more people who become LEED APs, the more people want to become LEED APs.

In addition, we have seen a very important positive feedback loop between LEED and other standards, such as ASHRAE 90.1, the new commercial and high-rise residential energy standard. Prior to the emergence of LEED, 10 years went by between the 1989 and 1999 versions of 90.1. After LEED was launched, ASHRAE updated the standard in 2001, then 2004 and then went into a continuous improvement process, with the latest published standard being 2007. ASHRAE's code-language green standard 189 is releasing its third public comment draft with a goal of final publication in January 2010. What is interesting here is that driving a strong positive feedback loop in the adoption and improvement of LEED, ASHRAE and other standards affecting resource consumption in buildings can actually SLOW the positive feedback loop of unmanageable climate change by reducing carbon pollution.

Though it may sound counter-intuitive, we need to manage the positive feedback loop of green building growth. If we get too far ahead of the market's ability to supply material and talent, then there will be damaging negative feedback from economic and political interests that are threatened by the transition to New Normal. Gandhi explained the paradox this way: "When a leader is 100 paces ahead of her followers, she is revered and called a visionary; when he is 1,000 paces ahead, he is stoned and called a heretic."

Spreading information is a great way to manage positive feedback loops and make people feel comfortable with them, which is why the new SCIWatch tool from Scientific Conservation, the Smart and Connected Communities endeavor of Cisco Systems and GE's smart microgrid projects are so important at this juncture.

Right now, the USGBC is doing a fantastic job, IMHO, (disclosure: I am a director of USGBC) of balancing innovation with stability in terms of continually improving the stringency of LEED as well as improving the usability and supporting infrastructure of the standard. I believe that the Obama Administration's green stimulus package and support for more stringent minimum standards can accelerate the uptake of green buildings by providing a broader base of support for the industry.

It's a truism in Systems Dynamics that the more radically you try to change a system, the harder the system will push back against you. Whenever we run into the negative feedback loops embedded in the current system that say "no, we can't" in order to slow down the beneficial acceleration driven by the emergence of green we should simply reply, "yes, we can!" and in the immortal words of St. Nike: "Just do it."

Rob Watson is the executive editor of GreenerBuildings.com. You can reach Rob at rob.watson@greenerworldmedia.com or follow him on Twitter @KilrWat.