“Experts on the health of our planet are terrified of the future. They can clearly see the coming collapse of global civilisation from an array of interconnected environmental problems.”
“Our reality is that current overconsumption of natural resources and the resulting damage to life-sustaining services nature provides means we need another half of a planet to keeping going. And that’s if all seven billion remain at their current living standards, the Ehrlichs write.
If everyone lived like a U.S. citizen, another four or five planets would be needed.”
“We’re facing a future where billions will likely die, and yet little is being done to avoid certain disaster, he said.
“Policy makers and the public aren’t terrified about this because they don’t have the information or the knowledge about how our planet functions,” he said.”
“Solutions exist and are briefly outlined in the Ehrlich paper. However, these require sweeping changes. All nations need to do everything they can to reduce their emissions of fossil fuels regardless of actions or lack of them by any other country, he said.
Protection of the Earth’s biodiversity must take centre stage in all policy and economic decisions. Water and energy systems must be re-engineered. Agriculture must shift from fossil-fuel intensive industrial monocultures to ecologically-based systems of food production. Resilience and flexibility will be essential for civilisation to survive.
A key element in meeting this unprecedented challenge is “…to see ourselves as utterly embedded in Nature and not somehow separate from those precious systems that sustain all life”, writes England’s Prince Charles commenting on the Ehrlich’s paper.
“To continue with ‘business as usual’ is an act of suicide on a gargantuan scale,” Prince Charles concluded.”
Surprise, Surprise
We all know we’ve been living high and mighty – but the party’s about to end and we have to deal with all the garbage that came along with it.
We’ve been living on borrowed time (or should we rather say ‘stolen time’, after all so many of our fellow humans are suffering and only have a very short life span at the expense of our decadent lifestyles) and it’s time to face the music. We’ve been living very, very, very irresponsible and we really made a fuck up of our Home, Earth.
Interesting how some of the solutions mentioned in the above article, is exactly what Equal Money intends as part of its central goals:
“All nations need to do everything they can to reduce their emissions of fossil fuels regardless of actions or lack of them by any other country, he said."
From the Equal Money Goal Page:
Energy
The Equal Money System will reduce the use of non-renewable energy resources by 95% through removing the profit motive and replacing it with the production of effective products of the best quality available equally to all, supplementing energy needs with renewable energy sources.
“Protection of the Earth’s biodiversity must take centre stage in all policy and economic decisions.
A key element in meeting this unprecedented challenge is “…to see ourselves as utterly embedded in Nature and not somehow separate from those precious systems that sustain all life”, writes England’s Prince Charles commenting on the Ehrlich’s paper.
Stewardship
Within an Equal Money system it will be recognized that Humans are a part of the Ecosystem they live in. The word 'eco' stands for 'home' - and thus, each human will be responsible for maintaining the Balance and Harmony within their home, within their Ecosystem. This involves the Monitoring of the Well-Being of the Plants and Animals within one's Environment and to Intervene when Disharmony occurs as a result of Human Impact, so that a new Equilibrium can be established.
How much longer do we want to wait and keep our eyes closed? We know what to do and we know that any amount of time that we wait longer will create unrecoverable damage.
Like Prince Charles said: To continue with ‘business as usual’ is an act of suicide on a gargantuan scale,”. We have an opportunity to change this before it is out of our hands. The only rational thing to do, is to prepare the way and implement an Equal Money System -- where we can once and for all assume responsibility for ourselves and the world we live in .
