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Time to end the multigenerational Ponzi scheme
Kim Stanley Robinson, What Matters, McKinsey Publishing
First, we need to trust our science. We do this every time we fly in a jet or rush to the doctor in hope of relief from illness; but now there is some cherry-picking of science going on in the various kinds of resistance to the news about climate change, and this double standard needs to be called out. The so-called climate change skeptics are now simply in denial. All science is skeptical, and the scientific community has looked at this situation and found compelling evidence for anyone with an open mind.
… Above all, we need to decarbonize our power and transport systems, and, more generally, to build a carbon-neutral or even carbon-negative civilization as quickly as possible. It’s not a matter of technology. We already have good starter technology for lithium-ion batteries in cars; clean, renewable energy generation; cleaner building methods; and so on. The technical solutions are being improved all the time in research labs.
The main problem is making these changes happen more quickly than they can in the false pricing system that we have created and enforced within our hierarchical power structure. There is conflict over how to pay for decarbonizing, which is deemed “too expensive” to execute quickly. There is both a defense of the destructive carbon burning we are engaged in and a resistance to the most obvious solutions among people who remain frightened of the idea of government-led economic programs. But now we simply must have such programs because the market is not capable of taking action.
Am I saying that capitalism is going to have to change or else we will have an environmental catastrophe? Yes, I am. It should not be shocking to suggest that capitalism has to change. Capitalism evolved out of feudalism. Although the basis of power has changed from land to money and the system has become more mobile, the distribution of power and wealth has not changed that much. It’s still a hierarchical power structure, it was not designed with ecological sustainability in mind, and it won’t achieve that as it is currently constituted.
(22 February 2009)
Kim Stanley Robinson is one of the most popular living science fiction writers.
Recommended by Alex Steffen at WorldChanging. Another post from Alex on KSR: The Collapse of Civilization: “It Wouldn’t Be An Adventure”
An Interview with Kim Stanley Robinson.
Rushkoff on the economy: Let it die
Douglas Rushkoff, Arthur Magazine
With any luck, the economy will never recover.
In a perfect world, the stock market would decline another 70 or 80 percent along with the shuttering of about that fraction of our nation’s banks. Yes, unemployment would rise as hundreds of thousands of formerly well-paid brokers and bankers lost their jobs; but at least they would no longer be extracting wealth at our expense. They would need to be fed, but that would be a lot cheaper than keeping them in the luxurious conditions they’re enjoying now. Even Bernie Madoff costs us less in jail than he does on Park Avenue.
Alas, I’m not being sarcastic. If you had spent the last decade, as I have, reviewing the way a centralized economic plan ravaged the real world over the past 500 years, you would appreciate the current financial meltdown for what it is: a comeuppance. This is the sound of the other shoe dropping; it’s what happens when the chickens come home to roost; it’s justice, equilibrium reasserting itself, and ultimately a good thing.
… The other big innovation of the early corporate era was monopoly currency. There used to be lots of different kinds of money. Local currencies, which helped regions reinvest in their own activities, and centralized currencies, for long distance transactions. Local currencies were earned into existence. A farmer would grow a bunch of grain, bring it to the grain store, and get receipts for how much grain he had deposited. The receipts could be used as money—even by people who didn’t need grain at that particular moment. Everyone knew what it was worth.
The interesting thing about local, grain-based currencies was that they lost value over time. The people at the grain store had to be paid, and a certain amount of grain was lost to rain or rodents. So every year, the money would be worth less. This encouraged people to spend it rather than save it. And they did. Late Middle Ages workers were paid more for less work time than at any point in history. Women were taller in England in that era than they are today—an indication of their relative health. People did preventative maintenance on their equipment, and invested in innovation. There was so much extra money looking for productive investment, that people built cathedrals.
… Local currencies favored local transactions, and worked against the interests of large corporations working from far away. In order to secure their own position as well as that of their chartered monopolies, monarchs began to make local currencies illegal, and force locals to instead use “coin of the realm.” These centralized currencies worked the opposite way. They were not earned into existence, they were lent into existence by a central bank. This meant any money issued to a person or business had to be paid back to the central bank, with interest.
… As painful as it might be to watch, and as irritating as it might be to those with shrinking retirement savings, the collapse of the centralized corporate economy is ultimately a good thing. It makes room for a real economy to rise up in its place. And while it may be temporarily uncomfortable for the rich, and even temporarily devastating for the poor, it may be the fastest and least violent way to dismantle a system set in place for the benefit of 14th Century monarchs who have long since left this earth.
(15 March 2009)
Bruce Sterling – Prophet and loss
Darren Waters, BBC
Author Bruce Sterling is one of the most respected writers of science fiction. He is also a web activist, columnist, teacher and one of the most anticipated speakers at the South by South West Interactive Festival in Austin, Texas, at which he will give a talk entitled: The state of the Cybersphere.
… Despite cyberpunk’s prescience Sterling does not want to cast himself as a prophet.
In his 1988 novel Islands in the Net he wrote of off-shore global terrorist groups, of de-localised, networked corporations, and of computers becoming fashion items.
“If you read a piece of science fiction that is very accurate about future developments it makes you unhappy. When you read these books you wonder why nothing was done about these problems if you were able to predict them.
“It gives you a sense of helplessness.”
But he adds: “There’s a clear social need for someone willing to predict the future. People really need prophets in the same way they need faith healers and witch doctors.”
But he warns that looking to these prophets “doesn’t galvanise people; it doesn’t change their behaviour”.
Words not action
Sterling is not looking to produce manifestos of the future to try and corral people into making change, despite his strong activist feelings around issues such as the global economy and climate change.
(13 March 2009)
Big Gav of Peak Energy calls Bruce Sterling the “ex-Viridian Pope Emperor.” Sterling founded the Viridian Design Movement, of which the best expression is the site WorldChanging. -BA
In a World of Infinite Energy
Calvin Sloan, The Pursuit of Injustice
If the world were utopian, human beings would discover an energy source that is renewable, pollutant free and limitless in power. Such energy could come from breaking nucleic bonds, like fission, or by harnessing an undiscovered force that we are currently unaware of. In this world, consumption – which for us in the real world is the basis of economic stability – could not be exponentially rising, for a utopian environment would have to be civilization in a state of homeostasis, but could be sustained at a manageable level. To avoid the negative affects of resource depletion, every byproduct of the consumption driven economy would be recycled. Using the infinite power source, developed recycling technologies and a compliant citizenry, no receipt paper, food product wrapping or broken computer would be discarded without reentering into the cycle.
Many of the industries that are now staples of economic development would still be profitable. Homes would be built and sold, techno-gadgets could still have their place, and new fleets of automobiles would be introduced with every upcoming year. Electrical grids would never falter. Transportation would be cheap and guilt free. Population growth would be stable. Human and organic waste would be composted. Agriculture would be approached sustainably, utilizing techniques that maintain soil fertility.
Forget the exploitation, forget the complexities of nationalism, forget everything human that makes this scenario impossible, there are still lessons to be learned from the hypothetical vision above. Most importantly, it should be observed that an economy that is neither growing nor shrinking, yet is still functioning, cannot be upheld unless all of the natural capital that goes into the economic process is reused. Even with an infinite energy supply, we are still subjects of the Earth and its geological limits. Thus, if we are somehow able to avoid a peak in energy production in the coming decades, we inevitably will face a shortage of raw materials unless we drastically change our current way of consumption. Most likely, we will be facing a shortage in both.
Climate Change and Peak Oil have already received mainstream media attention, which is good for increasing public awareness on ecological issues, but what about Peak Metals, Peak Phosphorous, Peak Top Soil, Peak Water, Peak Uranium or Peak _____ (the list goes on and on)? It has become evident that civilization will be vulnerable not only to the consequences that arise from fossil fuel dependency, but also to the dwindling supplies of almost every material we use in our daily lives. And just like the current price of oil, the market price for these commodities fails to include impending scarcity. Regrettably, the invisible hand is not taking notice of the visible cliff that lies on the horizon.
(17 March 2009)
Calvin adds: “I just hate to see people become preoccupied only with energy constraints when there are so many ecological limitations coming at us at full speed.”
