Our consumerist culture is unsustainable and the world must find alternative ways, says Robert Newman.There is no meaningful response to climate change without massive social change. A cap on this and a quota on the other won't do it. Tinker at the edges as we may, we cannot sustain earth's life-support systems within the present economic system.
Capitalism is not sustainable by its very nature. It is predicated on infinitely expanding markets, faster consumption and bigger production in a finite planet. And yet this ideological model remains the central organising principle of our lives, and as long as it continues to be so it will automatically undo (with its invisible hand) every single green initiative anybody cares to come up with.
Much discussion of energy, with never a word about power, leads to the fallacy of a low-impact, green capitalism somehow put at the service of environmentalism. In reality, power concentrates around wealth. Full story
We have lived in an era of cheap, abundant energy. There never has and never will again be consumption like we have known.
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In fact, nothing short of a complete reorganisation of global society in alignment with sustainable principles will be sufficient!
Introducing a project:
Goals:
1: Humanity united in justice and peace
2: Having achieved a harmonious and sustainable society, humanity unfolds its full potential
3: ?
Breaking down the steps:
1: Define sustainability
2: Create software and organisational tools based on that definition
3: Deploy organisational systems based on said tools, giving anyone the ability to create sustainable high quality products and services
4: Unify and harmonise existing systems through agreement to use new standards and tools, transform economic and political structures with high speed
5: Create an accelerating wavefront of positive change, sweeping away powerbases, collapsing control mechanisms and unjust arrangements
6: ?
Much has already been worked out - however, the contributions of skilled technical writers and programmers would be greatly appreciated at this stage.
Could you see yourself playing a part in this?
Then post a reply!
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