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| 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 society 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 and 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 are reviewed by the collective and published if agreed upon. |
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When a doctor is presented with a diseased patient, they first assess the severity of the disease. If there is time the doctor will address the symptoms and order further investigations as to 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 Jevons Paradox may negate this)
...but we are wasting precious time by not addressing the underlying cause.
Our modern age is becoming increasingly littered with reasons not to identify and address the root cause en masse. We all suffer from psychological fallacies, evolved heuristics mixed in with cognitive unconscious biases. Collectively, through our ever more sophisticated communication networks, framing and social media echo chambers reinforce popular delusions of startup culture saving us with techno utopianism. It is a wonder how we all continue to operate given the mass bombardment of obfuscating information. One way to obtain clarity is to disband our own analysis and turn to institutions for answers however through modern distrust or fear of litigations again it is difficult to get a straight answer. The answer we often get back is that the problem is multifactorial and as a consumer, it is best to carry 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 emissions[1].
Humans, as individuals, tend to act 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[2] i.e. ignoring the inherent externalities of profit. We feel like we have been here before reduced quality of life of workers, inflation.
Arguably, we are governed as a 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.
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 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.
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
- ↑ Carbon Majors Report - https://b8f65cb373b1b7b15feb-c70d8ead6ced550b4d987d7c03fcdd1d.ssl.cf3.rackcdn.com/cms/reports/documents/000/002/327/original/Carbon-Majors-Report-2017.pdf?1499691240
- ↑ Encyclopedia of Corporate Social Responsibility: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-28036-8_128
- ↑ Annual disclosure return:https://www.aec.gov.au/parties_and_representatives/financial_disclosure/guides/donors/index.htm