Why Economics Should Matter to Environmentalists
For the past hundred or more years, environmentalists have been attempting to fix growing problems, only to find that their every small success is overwhelmed by massive failures all around. Ground water is polluted despite our best efforts, oil spills become more frequent, contaminated sites seem to increase (and decay) by the day, top soil is lost, the atmosphere is polluted, species are pushed to the edge of extinction, and yet environmentalists keep persevere, giving it their best, trying to make a difference, but losing ground at every turn.
Why do we fail?
We fail because the economic system which everyone supports everyday only lives by consuming the planet.
For this economic system to grow, it needs energy, and that energy comes from ancient sunlight, petroleum and coal. That fuel is burned, to plow fields, build subdivisions, extract other resources in strip mines, and mountain top removal, and deep water drilling, and tar sands monstrosities.
The global economy must grow because of the particular form of economic and monetary system that we currently have, namely, a debt backed money system exacerbated by high leverage fractional-reserve banking. This sort of monetary system requires that the system continuously grow.
In the past two years, I've been attempting to share with those in the environmental movement information about why we have failed to turn around the environmental destruction that we all despise. I've shared links, articles, organized conferences, and done what I could to increase the recognition that an environmentalist must understand and challenge the very economic system they work within in order for them to have any hope of success.
To succeed, we need to have the tools at our disposal to reform the monetary system, to one that no longer requires growth, and such systems are available, and have been successful historically. We need to be in a position, when this current credit bubble finishes its long collapse, to lead the debate, with the knowledge to reveal the unsustainable and inherent flaws of this system, and to present rigorously studied solutions for a sustainable, equitable, and just monetary and economic system.
To help us succeed in our great struggle, I'm working tirelessly to bringing a speaker to the United States who can help educate us about this system that we are at odds with; about what will happen with it in the near future; about how to prepare so that we still have the money, resources, drive and focus to be able to do our work despite what looks to be a recession of epic proportions.
This fall, I call to all those who see things in this way, to gather in conference to study this destructive, unsustainable monetary system, its interactions with energy and environment, and to determine how to move beyond the paradigm of infinite growth, to one of sustainability.
I know it may seem odd for an environmentalist to be so overwhelmingly focused on economics and monetary reform, but it simply is not possible to achieve sustainability under the current monetary system, but, and this is the good news, there are other monetary systems where sustainability should, and could, be achieved.
I will invite you to listen to Nicole Foss's (Stoneleigh's) talk, and if you are not familiar with peak oil, feel free to jump ahead to the 16-minute mark, and listen to what she has to say, so that we do not find ourselves powerless to do our work.
http://localfuture.org
I draw your attention to the one and only talk published from the 2009 Local Future conference. The talk is by Richard Douthwaite, a researcher attempting to stop the use of fossil fuels, and to reverse climate change. Douthwaite understands that the current monetary system itself is the cause of the environmental problems of the world, and he has a plan that could create a new system of sustainability.
To all of you champions of the environment, I offer you my deepest thanks for everything that you do for the earth and for our future.
Why do we fail?
We fail because the economic system which everyone supports everyday only lives by consuming the planet.
For this economic system to grow, it needs energy, and that energy comes from ancient sunlight, petroleum and coal. That fuel is burned, to plow fields, build subdivisions, extract other resources in strip mines, and mountain top removal, and deep water drilling, and tar sands monstrosities.
The global economy must grow because of the particular form of economic and monetary system that we currently have, namely, a debt backed money system exacerbated by high leverage fractional-reserve banking. This sort of monetary system requires that the system continuously grow.
In the past two years, I've been attempting to share with those in the environmental movement information about why we have failed to turn around the environmental destruction that we all despise. I've shared links, articles, organized conferences, and done what I could to increase the recognition that an environmentalist must understand and challenge the very economic system they work within in order for them to have any hope of success.
To succeed, we need to have the tools at our disposal to reform the monetary system, to one that no longer requires growth, and such systems are available, and have been successful historically. We need to be in a position, when this current credit bubble finishes its long collapse, to lead the debate, with the knowledge to reveal the unsustainable and inherent flaws of this system, and to present rigorously studied solutions for a sustainable, equitable, and just monetary and economic system.
To help us succeed in our great struggle, I'm working tirelessly to bringing a speaker to the United States who can help educate us about this system that we are at odds with; about what will happen with it in the near future; about how to prepare so that we still have the money, resources, drive and focus to be able to do our work despite what looks to be a recession of epic proportions.
This fall, I call to all those who see things in this way, to gather in conference to study this destructive, unsustainable monetary system, its interactions with energy and environment, and to determine how to move beyond the paradigm of infinite growth, to one of sustainability.
I know it may seem odd for an environmentalist to be so overwhelmingly focused on economics and monetary reform, but it simply is not possible to achieve sustainability under the current monetary system, but, and this is the good news, there are other monetary systems where sustainability should, and could, be achieved.
I will invite you to listen to Nicole Foss's (Stoneleigh's) talk, and if you are not familiar with peak oil, feel free to jump ahead to the 16-minute mark, and listen to what she has to say, so that we do not find ourselves powerless to do our work.
http://localfuture.org
I draw your attention to the one and only talk published from the 2009 Local Future conference. The talk is by Richard Douthwaite, a researcher attempting to stop the use of fossil fuels, and to reverse climate change. Douthwaite understands that the current monetary system itself is the cause of the environmental problems of the world, and he has a plan that could create a new system of sustainability.
To all of you champions of the environment, I offer you my deepest thanks for everything that you do for the earth and for our future.