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== Further reading ==
== Further reading ==
This site is evolving, if you would like to contribute we have some ideas about '''[[further stages]]''' but we need help crystallizing what we think might work.
This site is evolving, if you would like to contribute use the Cryptopad above. We have some ideas about '''[[further stages]]''' but we need help crystallizing this page first.


==== References ====
==== References ====
<references />
<references />

Revision as of 02:41, 11 January 2022

Hey, thanks for coming, if we have contacted you directly it's because we think you might be able to help. It may be that a collapse of our current societal organisation is inevitable, but perhaps here we can nurture a seed of a parallel system. This site is not being edited by a particular person but by BurnZero, the name of the anonymous collective editing it. The site consists of the ideas that we believe might be able to help us, these ideas are presented in an editable Wiki (much the same format as Wikipedia) format. Anyone can change the text by registering an account, which will record your IP in the revision history (much the same as a blockchain). We invite you to read what is below, if you would like to jump in a change something immediately please do so however, alternatively, if you would like to make anonymous suggestions use the Cryptopad below or register an account using a VPN. All changes will be reviewed by the collective and published if agreed upon. If you need help with this click here.

Cryptopad

When a good doctor is presented with a diseased patient, they initially fix the symptoms whilst biding time to search for the root cause. The doctor knows that if further investigation is not done to fix the originating problem the symptoms could get much worse and the whole thing could collapse. The same cannot be said for how we are dealing with the ecological crisis. We are addressing the key symptoms:

  • Chemical pollution
  • Ocean acidification
  • Ozone depletion
  • Nitrogen cycle failure
  • Phosphorous cycle failure
  • Freshwater overuse
  • Deforestation
  • Biodiversity loss

With various prescribed treatments.

  • Switching to a plant-based diet (saves 0.8 tonnes of CO2-equivalents per year)
  • Reducing air travel (each return transatlantic flight avoided saves 1.6 tonnes),
  • Living car-free (saves 2.4 tonnes) or using Electric Vehicles.
  • Having smaller families (saves 58.6 tonnes per child)
  • Using Greener Energy - one of the best solutions, however, it is arguable that we cannot improve our existing infrastructure to get us out of this (Jevons Paradox).

But are we wasting precious time by treating the symptoms but not the underlying cause? Are these symptoms all tributaries from a much larger source? Would it not be best to damn the main river than to damn each stream?

There are many reasons why we have not been able to address this individually we all suffer from psychological fallacies such as heuristics and cognitive biases and collectively we are effected by popular delusions ingrained into us by social media echo chambers feeding us confirmation bias.

One uniting factor of these symptoms is the fact that a 100 companies are responsible for 71% of global emissions[1]. These 100 companies are united by the fact that they are one type of corporate entity.

Humans as individuals tend to act humanely however in groups which are united by a common cause pursuit of profit, the entity has been shown to act sociopathically[2] i.e. ignoring the inherent externalities of profit. We feel like we have been here before reduced quality of life of workers, inflation.

Its arguable that we are governed as a Corporatocracy where economic, political and judicial system are controlled by corporations or corporate interests through lobbying mechanisms. However we need to remind ourselves in a democracy corporates can only do what they do under the authority of the state. It is the fact that they're in cahoots is the problem. This arises from during the campaign stage of any politician they need funds to pay for advertising, Facebook ads, leafleting, cold calling etc this money comes historically from corporates looking to increase profits by offering donations as a long term investment.

MPs uniform, informative however impractical.

To combat this, for instance the Australian Government has published all donations that party candidates have received via the Australian Electoral Commission[3]. However not many people know of this as it is difficult to find and poorly displayed. We have made a much more transparent version.

Ideally to full understand who is telling us what to do it should be mandated that all politicians wear badges much like sportsmen wear the brand of the company that is sponsoring them. Alternatively, we could adopt a very simple, proven change which would reduce the influence corporations have on our democracy, ban direct corporate sponsorship and implement a voucher system so that everyday voters can contribute to parties whilst getting rid of corporate influence.

Democracy Voucher

A democracy voucher is a method of public financing of political campaigns used in municipal elections in Seattle, Washington, United States. It was approved in 2015 and debuted during the 2017 election cycle. The program provides city residents with four vouchers, each worth $25, that can be pledged to eligible candidates running for municipal offices. It is funded by a property tax and is applied on a first-come, first-served basis.

Further reading

This site is evolving, if you would like to contribute use the Cryptopad above. We have some ideas about further stages but we need help crystallizing this page first.

References

  1. Carbon Majors Report - https://b8f65cb373b1b7b15feb-c70d8ead6ced550b4d987d7c03fcdd1d.ssl.cf3.rackcdn.com/cms/reports/documents/000/002/327/original/Carbon-Majors-Report-2017.pdf?1499691240
  2. Encyclopedia of Corporate Social Responsibility: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-28036-8_128
  3. Annual disclosure return:https://www.aec.gov.au/parties_and_representatives/financial_disclosure/guides/donors/index.htm

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