(THIS IS STILL A DRAFT, I HAVE A NICE LIST TO SEND IT TO...PLEASE REACT AND LET ME KNOW WHERE I'M ALL WET, AND/OR, ADD AS YOU SEE FIT.)
(working from home, have a lunch date, took care of the oil for the car this am, it's nice being free from my desk at work once in a while!)
My friend Bryan and I were motivated to discuss the state of human affairs, thanks to the Frontline feature tonight (HEAT - October 21, 2008) featuring some of the issues surrounding our very human folly.
We agree it requires Real Leadership.
But, in what direction?
As HEAT pointed out:
1. Corporations are beholden to their shareholders and therefore will not change their environmentally unsound practices eagerly, or, perhaps, without government mandates.
2. Governments are greatly influenced by economics, which includes both corporations and the welfare of the citizenry.
3. We face a situation unique in human experience. Destruction of the Planet's biosphere due to unsustainable practices - energy production, transportation, development worldwide to a "western standard", over fishing, deforestation, unsustainable agricultural activities - is literally about to kill us, even while we reproduce without limit!
4. Both the citizenry, and the shareholders, will shortly no longer exist! Where will corporations be without a market and without capital?
So, the question is, will Shareholders Force Corporations to do the right things in time to save THEMSELVES?
Human Self Interest being myopic, can we leave it to Shareholders to do the right thing?
I propose the following, as a non-exhaustive and off the cuff partial answer to "What can we do?"
A. Reproductive freedom must be made available worldwide, as quickly as possible. The means and the education to have contraception be a choice, freely available and without impedance of long held religious or cultural more has to be obtained.
Experience shows, when couples have choices to reproduce or not reproduce, they choose smaller family sizes, regardless of economics or social mores. This is KEY.
Fewer people going forward has to be fostered with tax regimes realigned to represent this new reality. A simple example is to have zero tax benefit for children become a policy that would foster correct outcomes. I believe there is in the US Tax Code, thanks to Detroit and other lobbying interests, tax benefits for large family purchases of very large passenger vans...all such benefits must cease immediately.
It is not in the Government's interest as it is not in the people's interest, to foster the growth of population in any manner!
B. In the U.S., we have government By the People, For the People, Of the People. The founding fathers could not have foreseen what Corporations have become.
Corporations, as they developed, became Persons under the law. They are without a conscious or moral compass of any sort, they answer to stockholders and market forces, and laws but only when they can't get away without, and have an unlimited lifetime! Quite an unnatural "person" to be sure.
Therefore, they can influence elections, by financing campaigns, which has been shown to be their Freedom of Speech right to do.
Therefore, they can influence legislation, by financing lobbyists, who are expressly committed to fostering friendly laws, and thwarting attempts to counteract any profligacy on a corporation's part!
Corporations can no longer be persons under the law.
They therefore cannot be taxed, they'll like that, as that would be taxation without representation...but since they simply pass along any taxes in their pricing, it will have a net zero effect on their bottom lines.
However, they can no longer have freedom of speech, and cannot influence the People's Government with their self serving schemes.
And, while not taxable entities any longer, they can certainly be subject to fines, and legal restrictions on their activities.
For example, before they can introduce a new process, chemical, compound, product, service or anything else, they must show exactly what the environmental impacts will be.
C. The primacy of Good Science must come to direct and influence any legislation that can bring things under control, for example by setting limits on what a new product's impact can be on the environment, including how that new product interacts with existing products and the environment...
D. Cooperation of all the world will be required, since even Chinese air pollution affects the air quality on the West Coast of North America...
E. Products must support the goal of energy conservation. No more LED clocks on Refrigerators, for example...or "instant on" television sets, products where constant trickle power causes incredible energy consumption.
F. Costs for things must reflect the TRUE COSTS for things. Gasoline costs are not simply extraction, refining, distribution costs, but the environmental costs and the future OPPORTUNITY costs of no longer having such an incredibly useful feedstock for better and higher uses.
That's some of what we MUST do.
What are we likely to do?
Not enough.
What we are witnessing, writ large, is the very essence of Human Nature.
From the time of the earliest humans until today, we have been hunters and gatherers, camping in a spot, consuming what's easily available, and then, having "spoiled our nest", moved on to greener pastures.
That worked for a time, but we now have reach a point where the Entire Nest has been spoiled, and there is nothing greener anywhere...as our Human Culture we created to overcome natural limits has now overwhelmed natural limits.
So, our very underlying human nature will probably preclude us from doing what is necessary to save ourselves from ourselves.
How utterly ironic, especially since nothing left on the planet after our passing can even come close to appreciating what we've done to ourselves.
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Cheers,
Frish
