|
|
| Line 1: |
Line 1: |
| When a doctor is presented with a patient with an issue, they first assess the severity of any disease. If the issue's cause is not immediately apparent, the doctor will treat the symptoms to make the patient more comfortable in order to bide time to order further investigations as to the root cause. The same cannot be said for how we are dealing with the [[ecological crisis]], we are addressing the '''key symptoms''':
| | ''Look down, we stand on the bones of thousands of generations past.'' |
|
| |
|
| * Chemical pollution
| | ''Look up, the sky a prediction of Fermi's dark future.'' |
| * Ocean acidification
| |
| * Ozone depletion
| |
| * Nitrogen cycle failure
| |
| * Phosphorous cycle failure
| |
| * Freshwater overuse
| |
| * Deforestation
| |
| * Biodiversity loss
| |
|
| |
|
| ...with various '''prescribed treatments'''...
| | We stand on the cusp but we distract ourselves to death. |
| | |
| * ''Switching to a plant-based diet (saves 0.8 tonnes of CO<sub>2</sub>-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|electric vehicles]]
| |
| *''Having smaller families (saves 58.6 tonnes per child)''
| |
| * ''Using greener energy (one of the best solutions however [[Jevons Paradox]] may negate this)''
| |
| | |
| ...but we are wasting [[Ecological Crisis Timeline|precious time]] by '''not addressing the underlying cause'''.
| |
| | |
| Our modern age is becoming increasingly littered with potential solutions to the collapse but they distract us from addressing the underlying issue. This isn't anyone's fault, we all suffer from [[psychological fallacies]], [[psychopharmacology]], evolved [[heuristics]] and [[cognitive biases|cognitive unconscious biases]]. Collectively, through our ever more sophisticated communication networks, [[framing]], [[gas lighting]] and riding waves of [[hype cycles]] via social media echo chambers reinforce [[popular delusions]] of [[Ecomodernism|ecomodernists]] saving us through [[startup culture]] and decoupling of carbon emissions from economic growth. It is a wonder how we all continue to operate given the mass bombardment of obfuscating information delivered directly to our pockets. Our quick fix is to disband our own analysis and turn to institutions for answers however, they lack credibility as they are corrupted by undisclosed funding. The answer we often get back is that the problem is multifactorial and as a consumer, it is best to stick on with the prescribed treatment. However, by concentrating on the minutiae we distract ourselves from focusing on actions which could make a large difference instead of a small.
| |
| | |
| One uniting aspect of these '''''symptoms''''' can be inferred from the fact that ''100 [[corporate]] entities are responsible for 71% of global industrial emissions''<ref>Carbon Majors Report - <nowiki>https://b8f65cb373b1b7b15feb-c70d8ead6ced550b4d987d7c03fcdd1d.ssl.cf3.rackcdn.com/cms/reports/documents/000/002/327/original/Carbon-Majors-Report-2017.pdf?1499691240</nowiki></ref>''.''
| |
| | |
| Humans, as individuals, tend to act [https://www.etymonline.com/word/humane humanely] however, in groups which are united by a common cause such as the pursuit of profit, the collective entity has been shown to act sociopathically<ref>[https://link.springer.com/referenceworkentry/10.1007%2F978-3-642-28036-8_128 Encyclopedia of Corporate Social Responsibility]: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-28036-8_128</ref> i.e. ignoring the inherent ''[[externalities]]'' of profit. We feel like [[History repeating|we have been here before]] reduced quality of life of workers, inflation.
| |
| | |
| Arguably, we are governed as a [[wikipedia:Corporatocracy|Corporatocracy]] where economic, political and judicial systems 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 working collusion that 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.
| |
| == Transparency ==
| |
| [[File:MP donor.png|thumb|MPs uniform, informative however impractical.]]
| |
| To address this issue the Australian Government has published all donations that party candidates have received via the Australian Electoral Commission<ref>Annual disclosure return:https://www.aec.gov.au/parties_and_representatives/financial_disclosure/guides/donors/index.htm</ref>. However, its publication is poorly advertised and the data itself is difficult to analyse as it is poorly displayed. We have made a much more digestible, [[Political transparency|transparent version]].
| |
| | |
| Ideally to fully 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.
| |
| | |
| A '''[[wikipedia:Democracy_voucher|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 ====
| |
| <references />
| |