Quote:
Originally Posted by formula72
what solutions do you propose against this opponent that is bigger than us and doesn't have feelings?
To begin with, a sense of humility which helps us understand that we are both part of and subordinate to nature.
Second .... we need to apply MATH to the problem of human industrial waste. A poker community should have a good grasp of math.
Our current global financial system operates on a concept where wealth is measured as the present value of future cash flows called the Time Value Of Money.
The PV of a dollar to be received in the future = 1 / (1 + i)^n
i= interest rate
n = # of periods (such as years)
When you do the math ..... you realize that at a reasonable interest rate (say 5-6% on Treasuries or higher on riskier investments), the only cash flows that matter are those to be received in the next 20-30 years. The global financial system is only concerned with the near future and the ability of the system to be productive beyond that near future is completely ignored.
This system works perfectly fine until you cross a threshold where its possible to destroy the future as a result of surpassing planetary habitability boundaries.
A system such as a carbon tax which caused the emitter to pay for the damage to the future might have been effective if it had been implemented a few decades ago. But its late for that. We need global regulation which protects the future from the narrow priority of short term profit seeking. We need to recognize the rights of future generations to a habitable planet as inalienable.
50% of global emissions come from the wealthiest 10% of the population. We need to disconnect wealth from the privilege to pollute and take away the present unlimited ability to pollute for free. We need to declare a global war on toxic waste and have Manhattan Project level commitment to finding ways to minimize it.
We need to let go of addictions and the idea that anything that makes money is OK. A single bitcoin transaction consumes 1.3 million x as much electricity as a standard credit card transaction. We need people in leadership to say "no ...bitcoin is unnecessary even if the companies who sells the servers necessary for bitcoin will have to take a hit in profit". We need cell phones and PC's that don't need to be replaced every 2-3 years in order to maximize the profit of Microsoft and Apple. We need more durable products. We need to encourage telecommuting. We need more electrified public transit. We will need more local resiliency and food supply as a result of global supply chains being disrupted due to increasingly severe weather. We need foreign policy which tells poor countries that we aren't willing to let them starve. We need to stop investing in real estate construction in places like South Florida which are destined to be claimed by the ocean.
We need to have more global cooperation and the intelligence to not have our brains glaze over when someone yells "socialism".
We need to learn from history at what a world looks like when we are indifferent to the suffering of others. Indifference to the starving of Germans led to the Nazi's, a Holocaust and 60M dead in WW2.
We need to teach people what it means for the overturning ocean circulation to stop. We need to teach them what it would mean for the glaciers in the Himalaya and Hindu-Kush which supply nearly 2B people with water to disappear. We need to teach them what it would mean for coastal communities around the world if sea levels rose 5 feet.
Humans are incredibly intelligent when it comes to their personal short term survival . We are great when it comes to clan identity and loyalty vs other clans. But we suck big time when it comes to global cooperation. We have to do better.
We need an 11th commandment which involves fidelity to the experience of the future. We have a commandment to honor our parents But there is no commandment in the opposite direction. We need to amend our religious beliefs.
Odds are against us. But I'm not clinging to the outcome. I'm just doing my best to explain what we need and letting the chips fall where they may.