We can moderate Climate Change. Change the climate…for humanity and nature
“One true sentence,” E.Hemmingway
Our Economics allows fossil industries to sacrifice Humans and Nature for profit. This is slow suicide. The captains of fossil industries and other industries that have gradually become destructive of Humans and Nature over the centuries, have developed into the ultimate and perfect products of Capitalism. Asking Countries and investors to ”divest from fossil fuels”, as Greta Thunberg so movingly pleads, is like asking lions to stop eating meat or locust to stop devouring crops.
Within the confines of Capitalist economies there is no momentum toward preservation and diversity. There is only motive to compete for profit. The symptoms of this process are everywhere. We know them. We live with them from our point of awareness to death. We participate in them, to different degrees, throughout our lives, because it is our present survival system and we are trained from birth into the behaviors that sustain this economic system. To step away from this training is at the very least a kind of vanishing act and at the worst a form of suicide. You no longer exist to society. You are invisible.
I have mourned the decline of Nature since I was a child. My father and I used to watch nature programs on Sunday evening together. In the beginning, the narrator had a British accent and the animal stars were being hunted by predators and then somehow got away in the nick of time. Slowly, there was a subtle change. The narrator was not always British and the predator was not always a wolf, panther or bear. The threat to Nature was more shadowy, some far away influence that cut too much down, dug too deep.
I was young and did not understand the economic connection. I simply loved every living thing that I could see, touch or begin to understand. And I didn’t want them be harmed. As I aged, I still mourned, but I could see the shape of the danger. I could name it. Profit Economics. We are the products of our social agreements. More than any other agreement our societies and governments are formed and controlled by our economic agreement. Profit economics has developed over 100’s of years. Now, in its present form, we see the complete picture of its uses and dangers. We understand its uses very well, but are asked to ignore its dangers. Something vitally important is missing, it is not being protected or valued; Life. A balancing force needs to be introduced. A parallel economic system that protects and supports Humanity and Nature.
This is why Renew the Earth suggests Energy Currency. A parallel, renewable, value stream that is dedicated to providing food, shelter, education and healthcare to every living human.
Empowering a secure Humanity that can in turn, protect Nature, not exploit it. Energy Currency gets its value from our Human Energy. The Current of our interaction, work, play, invention, creativity, etc. Our anthropomorphic blend that is forming Earth to its needs and wants, is now a force of Nature. By providing for Human survival needs, Energy Currency is in turn sustained through our works and interactions and then reinvested in Humanity, creating a renewable cycle that empowers all people.
Needs are key.
They can only be provided by a value system that has no other objective. The survival of Humanity is inextricably connected to the survival of Nature, in its present form. Nature will be on Earth without us but settled into a different dynamic if we continue to deplete it. One that may not be hospitable to human life if we destroy this present balance and have to start all over again with a few hundred survivors.
We need places of agreement. It is not enough to be secure in your own beliefs anymore, left or right. Division of societies and countries into opposing factions creates stagnation and amplifies dangers and fears. By thinking about what we all can agree upon and conversing on these things, every individual can be part of a significant shift in social dynamics. Our representatives won’t depolarize until they sense that citizens are seeking agreement. They take their cue from what they perceive is the mood amongst their constituents. This is how they get reelected. We change the course of social development, world wide, through our agreements. We have all that we need to solve our present challenges. Computers that track world wide commerce and can easily be tailored to track human needs, which can then be distributed from the most efficient locations with the most efficient means and with the most efficient production.
All this efficiency can be guaranteed because the profit motive has been removed. Energy Currency cannot be used for profit making, cannot be invested or saved, and will not create inflation. It is destroyed at the banks. An Energy Currency debit card could be provided to every living individual that is loaded with the appropriate need values, (catered to the age and location of each person), and constantly reloaded, as services are used, at a predetermined dignified survival rate. This card can be presented and honored whenever a person requires basic needs. There is no stigma attached because everyone has access to EC and can use it or not use it. Providers will be reimbursed at the replacement value of what is provided. Meanwhile, profit economics continues in parallel doing business as usual.
These are new ways to think about human survival. Instead of “dog eat dog” and “not enough for everyone”, each person is protected and their lives valued over profit. We are already using systems that provide vital services, like health care through Medicare for the elderly and education through public schools roads, garbage collection… These systems can be used as templates for providing all basic human needs; food, shelter, education and healthcare. We need to enlarge our vision for the future. Profit economics has run its course and can serve us but not without a parallel moderating system that provides for basic human survival and the survival of Nature, Energy Currency.
“You never change things by fighting the existing reality…To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.” Buckminster Fuller