Posted by James K on February 2, 2006, at 12:22:42
In reply to Re: okay so maybe i'm missing something..., posted by alexandra_k on February 1, 2006, at 22:24:12
> > The solution, if we find one will be about money. Convincing governments, businessmen, and individuals that life can be more prosperous with greener power usage, safer production techniques, living citizens etc.
>
> ah yes. the mighty dollar. that is of course the only rational consideration at the end of the day... i mean who cares how many starving people there are in the world so long as i have my holiday home and my two motor vehicles and so on and so forth...
>
---I want to expand a little bit about what I meant about the solution being about money. Some of my thoughts about this come from a female lecturer I read about and can't remember the name of. I wish I'd write this stuff down. Anyway, I've stolen some of her ideas and expanded them into my mind.First off, many people who have much are not going to change what seems to be working just out of the goodness of their heart, or because it is right. That isn't just cynical on my part, I believe it's been proven time and time again.
So the idea I alluded to in passing (I was in a rush of babbling at the moment) is that we can demonstrate that their is an economic reason to change. Some examples I think could work.
USA spends money subsidising farmers and farm corporations. We also spend money studying effects of pollution in Mississippi River and Gulf Coast. Pollution from farms and pigs and lawns runs into the river into the gulf creating economic problems for fishers and raising cost and safety of fish. - If we used to money we already spend on subsidies and pollution control, and instead induce the farmers to prevent run-off and use more oranic control methods. If we help them replant the tree lines that used to line farms, their soil wouldn't run away in floods, birds would be around to control insects, some wildflowers, bees around to pollinate crops, currently bee farmers rent out their hives in California for that purpose. - If we teach and give incentives to go to natural lawnscapes with mulching lawnmowers, better looking healthier subdivisions without spending money on chemicals. All saving money we are spending elsewhere to clean up the mess. That's a very local problem and solution to the world wide problems but it's an example of the kind of change of economic thinking that would work.
A more global example would be something like pandemics. The money spent on local prevention and cures, some of it could go to education on better bird farming techniques in Far East. And easing the economic pressures and extreme poverty they live in. In the long run, that will be less expensive than martial law (that was proposed), isolation, quarantine, mass deaths etc.
None of this has anything to do with Iran possibly gaining nuclear weapons which was your original post, except that maybe policies of impovrishment instead of legitimate economic incentive haven't worked well.
We'll never eliminate hate or greed. I don't believe capitalism is the answer to everything, but selective thought out capitalism can help with the greed part of the equation. And well fed and secure people are harder to scare into hateful extremism.
This is part of my naive and underdeveloped theory about how our species can/might last several more generations. I also believe humans are like weeds, hard to get rid off, and that some form of our species will exist far into the future, so it is really about how pleasant it will be for our descendants.
James K
poster:James K
thread:605246
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/poli/20051121/msgs/605472.html