BBC
Wednesday Night #1350 - Notes for Opening Presentation
Economics for a Flourishing Earth
1. Taking Darwin Seriously. Our ethical systems are largely a-scientific; they took on much of their shape before the scientific revolutions of the last 500 years. Though science does not and should not determine our ethical beliefs, neither should those beliefs be uninformed by science. One consequence of the findings of evolutionary biology over the last 150 years has been to undercut the ideas of human uniqueness and privilege. In the first half of the 20th century significant advances in rethinking ethics/evolution were made by Albert Schweitzer and Aldo Leopold. For Leopold we should re-imagine our place in the world from one of master to community member. A primary objective of our actions should be the maintenance/restoration of the beauty, integrity and stability of ecosystems.
2. Barbarian Invasions. Much of the public ethics of our time is supplied by a new state sponsored (autistic?) religion built around macro-economics. Yet, despite its nearly universal global dominance the current macro-economic order is unable to offer convincing answers to many simple questions. Here are four of them:
1. What is the economy for? Answer according to Abel, Bernanke, and Croushore is “Growth in support of consumption in order to improve our way of life”. Income can rise while wealth falls (as we export our natural resources). The acounting is fraudulent: there is no separation of costs from benefits of growth. [Pollution clean up]
2. How does the economic system fit in the earth’s biophysical systems? Answer: Eh? The authors fail to address any topics such as biodiversity, natural resources, environment, climate change, etc. There is either no reference or one is directed to a single page that dismisses the validity of economic indicators.
3. How much growth is enough?
Answer: Growth is always good, except when it causes inflation. There is a failure to recognize that Growth can become uneconomic.
4) What about waste products; e.g. pollution?
Answer: Since clean water and air are not part of the growth measure, paying attention to them can retard progress.
3. Stewardship Economics. We need to rebuild an economic system based on principles of stewardship such as that proposed by Leopold, and which reflects what we know about how the earth works. Two inescapable features of our planet are that it is open to energy, and - for all practical purposes - closed to matter. “Open to energy” refers to sunlight. It is the ability of green plants to capture it and turn it into usable energy that has made the evolution and maintenance of complex life on earth possible. Photosynthesis is the basis of all our wealth. This energy has both a stock (stored in fossil fuels) and a daily flow.
Earth’s system is closed to matter - for all practical purposes nothing leaves and nothing arrives, so whatever we do on Earth, matter stays here. And since it is a materially closed system, burning the stock is destabilizing the climate by overwhelming nature’s assimilation budget.
The four questions revisited:
1. Going back to Keynes. A principal goal should be social and ecological stability.
2. It is subordinate to, and dependent upon, those systems.
3. The economy should fit within the fair human share of the solar flow. Humans should have a fair share of the earth’s capacity to support complexity (”complexity budge”). At this point human beings are taking approximately 50% of the flow.
4. Waste products from the earth’s crust, and the socio-sphere should not be allowed to accumulate systematically in the biosphere. (Natural Step).
Some redefinitions: Money: The socially sanctioned right to intervene in earth’s complexity budget. Cost: How much life it takes to get something. Comparative advantage: the ability to produce goods and services at the lowest cost to the assimilation and complexity budgets.
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Preamble
The hydra-headed topic of the economy, environment and ethics attracted an SRO and highly diverse group that included a number of new faces including Melissa Holland, Professional Clown and Program Director of Dr. Clown; Huguette Allard, formerly of IATA and now a consultant in fund-raising and management issues; Nicolas Bertrand, Business & Biodiversity Officer of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) with his wife, Cherryl André de la Porte who recently completed her Doctorate in water resource management; Kathy Fazel, Vice President of Phillips, Hager & North; Katia Opalka, a Legal Officer at the North American Commission on the Environment. Returning after a long absence were Sandra Meehan from the CBD’s Implementation and Technical Support division and her husband Dr. Ashraf Ismail of McGill’s Food Science Department and the supervisor of the Infrared spectrometry project whose interests relate to Biosafety.
“Be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth” Genesis 1:28
In viewing the rather frightening, current snapshot of the only known spot in the universe where life exists, whether the Bible is viewed as immutable truth or beautiful literature, Man’s stewardship of the earth has proven to be self-serving and in the longer term, self-destructive. Whether it be the fish in the sea, the fowl in the air or fellow creatures on earth, none has developed Man’s skill at acquiring physical wealth in the current generation at the risk of leaving a barren, lifeless planet as a heritage. It is becoming increasingly accepted as factual that Nature’s climate cycles are being affected by Man’s abuse of the planet.
All life on earth is dependent on energy, the sole source of that energy being the sun’s rays, absorbed and transformed into usable energy on Earth by plant life, as well as the legacy of reserves of latent energy in such forms as petroleum and coal. In the final analysis, this system remains the sole source of all life and wealth. Unfortunately, despite the work carried out by Schweitzer and Leopold, there is no ethical framework within which to work in order to get ourselves out of the problems that we have created.
It is well to remember that the word “economy” comes from the Greek for “one who manages a household”; derivations had not only the sense “management of a household or family” but also senses such as “thrift”, “direction”, “administration”, “arrangement”, senses that are singularly lacking in terms of management of our environment.
The maintenance of Earth’s ecosystem is not compatible with our economic system. We are or overrunning the earth systems, causing desertification, rising of sea levels (80 vertical meters over several centuries) due to melting of land ice, depletion of carbon reserves, especially petroleum, and the elimination of animal species.
As is currently evident in Canada, it is possible for income to rise as wealth declines (as we export our natural resources). There is a battle between human ethics and unbridled human greed, the latter appearing to be the current winner. What is required in the economy is that social and economic stability, be subordinate to the availability of resources.
In the 1930s Keynes sought to level out the economy in order to diminish the number of unemployed males and smooth the business cycle. Following World War II emphasis was placed on continuous growth, reasoning that the economy should stabilize social and economic activity of the ever-increasing population, however this is increasingly to the detriment of our natural resources as we refuse to plan to live within the envelope. We must not continue attempts to solve problems of poverty by economic growth and inequitable distribution of wealth.
Population size might possibly be attenuated by the disastrous effects of the anticipated higher water levels due to global warming and melting of land ice, but could be more effectively and humanely attained by improving education and wealth in the poorer populations of the world.
It is not necessary to return to a pre-agricultural revolution lifestyle to reduce the pressure on the system and maintain Earth’s balance. There are three variables that can give a framework for figuring out how we can survive prosperously, without pushing the envelope, and harmoniously with other life forms: the number of people, the richness of the people and the technology used.
Such proposals as collecting energy on the moon to be transmitted by microwave to Earth, or populating other planets are not feasible with today’s technology and will not be so for some time.
We currently emphasize the lowering of carbon emissions as a solution, - an important step, but just one part of the solution to the problem. A number of scientists believe that there is both a natural cyclical and an anthropogenic component to global warming. But in any event, limiting carbon emissions is only one part of the picture; we must address overfishing, forest and water management, the explosion of the populations of the cities.
Consumption due to increasing world population is certainly a factor in environmental deterioration. However, individual efforts to cut back on their at times considerable impact (see Alex Shoumatoff’s “An Ecosystem of one’s own“) although somewhat helpful, cannot possibly replace public policy, enforced by global governance. The Russian communist experiment of a planned economy proved to be a dismal failure. World government on the model of the European Union looks promising but remains only a distant dream. Certainly the U.N. has proven incapable of managing current world problems. This will require new institutions to introduce and enforce global guidelines. And there is reason to be hopeful regarding the innovative thinking about what form these institutions might take. For example: the form of trusteeship proposed for climate stabilization by Peter Barnes in his provocative book Capitalism 3.0
What this requires is a change in attitude on the part of the entire population of the planet - how can one accomplish this?
No growth is against human nature
Economics has traditionally been based on the Divine Right to Exploit
Funds for teaching environment science/natural history in the schools are being cut. If our children don’t know about the environment, how can we expect them to protect it?
The Economy
There is a difference in reaction to the generally unanticipated sharp drop in the stock marked following the financial difficulties in the banking sector , largely due to the foreseeable collapse of the sub-prime mortgage market. There is no doubt that the recovery will be a long process and that it was this collapse that led to the rapid decline in the stock market indexes. The majority of Wednesday Night mavens viewed this event as a six-to-nine-month opportunity for cherry-picking, acquiring shares of currently undervalued, solid enterprises. As we read daily of bailouts of banks and financial institutions by foreign interests, one credible expert expressed the view that the effects of the derivatives problem have yet to hit and that banks facing financial difficulty tend to act defensively by conserving their capital, making loans more difficult to obtain, thereby causing recovery to be a long, painful process. Until and unless banks return to their original business, investors should be very shy.
It is anticipated that during the current year the emerging markets will again outperform the developed markets. While North American economies will grow at about 1 - 1.5%, developing economies will grow at slightly above 6%; their populations are young and this is why infrastructure is being developed and consumption is rising.
Peter’s book is a book of humanism. It’s about people, not about profits. It’s about ethics, not about ecology. In this politically correct time, those in public office will not speak that truth to power and to vested interests. Too much money is concentrated in too few hands … our main ecosystem is being destroyed and the species that is being hurt most is the hungry child — and none of that is necessary.
It is sad that the public debate has moved so very far away from an understanding of very serious problems of overpopulation, of lack of technology being sent to the Third World to solve the very problems we have created.
Bush In Kuwait Blasts Iran, Kuwait Blasts Blast
As President Bush concluded his Middle Eastern voyage with a short stay in Kuwait, he used the occasion to make another of his continual claims that Iran is “the world’s leading state supporter of terrorism.” His Kuwait hosts were polite and may even have nodded a head to give the president some encouragement they actually listened carefully to his words. But, within days of Bush’s departure, Kuwait’s foreign minister, Sheikh Mohammed, visited Iran where he made it clear to the world, “My country knows who is our friend, and who is our enemy and Iran is our friend.” He is currently working with Iranian diplomats to resolve several issues between the two nations related to the continental shelf boundary.
One can only wonder if George Bush pays any attention to people when he visits another country. Didn’t anyone on his staff alert the president to the fact his hosts had favorable relations with Iran? Did he discuss with Kuwait officials the gist of his tirade against Iran prior to making the speech? Does George Bush have any grasp on what other nations think about issues of concern to him? Just asking a few questions. The Impudent Observer
Radio
Like the report of Mark Twain's death, reports of the death of radio –at least FM – are greatly exaggerated.
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Canadian dollar is expected to decline against its U.S. counterpart.
The economy
See also JACQUES CLEMENT: Pages ON THE ECONOMY
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QUOTES of the EVENING from recent
Wednesday Nights2007
From #1350 invite
- It’s not a Bush problem, it’s an American problem. He is playing double or nothing. He is trying to shift the responsibility from the Coalition to the Iraqis
- New York City has more police officers than Iraq has troops
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2007 Notes for #1350
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Dear Diana and David,
- a very impressive brochette of guests,
- a friendly and relaxed atmosphere, and…
- attentive and warm hosts.
I truly enjoyed the concept of your Wednesday Night “Happening” and its success recipe:
Sincerely, Huguette Allard
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Stephen S. Poloz
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