My personal demands for the Occupy movement

1: remove the ability of special interests to influence politics, through enacting into law publicly funded elections. Governments should be beholden to all people equally, all nature and future people and nature.2: shift from a system of representative democracy to suitable forms of participatory democracy.3: within national and global policies, place economy firmly as a subset … Continue reading My personal demands for the Occupy movement →

Nature as employer

How is the myth of job creation trumping sustainability perpetuated? I imagine it is a combination of people having immediate needs, more important that planning for the uncertain future, and of widespread ingnorance on what it is that creates jobs. How do people learn that by sacrificing biocapacity now, irreversible job losses will occur in the … Continue reading Nature as employer →

some ideas on how to create sustainable society, part 4

All new houses built could be required by law to install solar geysers and solar panels (if no access to a clean energy generation is available, such as wind power) as well as energy conservation strategies e.g. passive solar, orientation, roofing colour (to reduce the need for air conditioning and heating). All pre-built buildings and … Continue reading some ideas on how to create sustainable society, part 4 →

some ideas on how we create sustainable society, part 3: ecosystems and agriculture

Regarding plants, animals and biodiversity, what one could term natural communities, there seems to be this play-off between conservationists, and human development and resource use. Human development is an easy one to understand and justify, but resource use does not justify turning rainforest into palm oil plantations, soy and cattle enterprises - when all these … Continue reading some ideas on how we create sustainable society, part 3: ecosystems and agriculture →

some ideas on how we create sustainable society, part 2

This covers the idea of assets such as land, energy and water, and how they may be treated when viewed through the lens of sustainability and equality..I believe with a carbon tax in place, locally manufactured goods would become relatively more affordable. This may result in a boost to local industries and the strengthening of … Continue reading some ideas on how we create sustainable society, part 2 →

Some ideas on how we create sustainable society, part 1

These are some thoughts about how to use a carbon tax in the realms of transport.Regarding climate change, the greatest medium- and long-term threat to the survival as a species, transport is a huge contributor to GHG emissions...Despite the frustrations of years of failed global climate talks, we all know there ought to be enforceable … Continue reading Some ideas on how we create sustainable society, part 1 →

ownership

I know, I know, it is too reminiscent of the days of Communism to talk about 'common ownership', and we all know and it is proven that ownership under the capitalist system generally inspires good and efficient care of a resource (using certain criteria), but still....some part of me has always struggled with a system … Continue reading ownership →

Questions

Why is there this system, where one can afford vastly more than the next - this is the free market mechanism, supposedly, that 'creates wealth'. For how many does it create wealth, and what are the social and environmental costs of wealth creation associated and unaccounted for? Must there be poverty and joblessness in order … Continue reading Questions →

A thought on inequality

The fact that we live side by side, and yet some live in squalor and cannot afford some of the basic services and material goods while others lead disgustingly excessive lives, is immoral and should be criminal. One cannot attribute this to the hard work and ingenuity of some and the laziness of others. There … Continue reading A thought on inequality →