economics

The world economic system is in the process of being reinvented. It is taking place by people in sectors of the economy that don't know they are really on the cutting edge of that change.

They are questioning some of the most rooted ideas that have been around for hundreds of years. In the world of science people are questioning the existing incentive mechanisms, the open access to information, the ownership of intellectual property, does innovation drive technology or is it the other way round?

Was the industrial revolution a technology movement or a social movement? It appears that the industrial revolution was really a social movement that introduced, for example - the creation of a class of poor people, the idea of industrial jobs, capital flows. A social movement that created our existing economic model that we are all ruled by.

Here are a few more questions just for starters. Is there such a thing as venture capital philanthropy? Can our present economic system grow forever or are we faced with replacing growth with development?

The people of the world are facing massive change one way or the other, are we going to except the change that is happening without our understanding of what we are doing that is making this change or are we going to assess where we presently are and chart a new course. The course has to start with an economic system that is more democratic than the present one, for the ever expanding idea of growth is just not sustainable and the waste and sacking of the earth environment will only in the end reduce the human population in a way that is going to create massive dislocation and world wide die offs.

It's up to you.

Change world economic system as presently defined

Every ecological disaster over time is forgotten within our collective societal mindset. We who struggle in the global goo of corporate misadventures are confronted with this ever-ending struggle. But now and then there is a massive environmental pollution eruption that our collective mindset acknowledges and recognizes the massive repercussion that a disaster of great magnitude has done.

With this latest disaster, we have to press our concern; we are mandated to do something to fix the root cause that created this latest disaster. We need to offer a comprehensive solution and present that solution in a unifying way that we all can get behind.

The world economic system as presently defined - the ‘free market’ system has to change. It has to change because it is affecting the lively hoods of people and the planetary environment that supports people. We need an ecological economic system that includes the planetary environment that makes it possible for human to exist.

We need to totally restructure how humans exist and relate on this planet.

We need to create an economic system that supports human coexistence with all things natural to this planet. No artificial or incomplete answers for our complete and universal coexistence with this planet.

The root cause of this continuous escalation of destruction is the economic shortsighted dependence on many human endeavors that support and subsidize the existing economic system.

The changes that need to take place are the re-introduction of economic relationships that support and stabilize complete ecological sharing and rejuvenation.

Without an inclusive plan, we will continue to have more destructive ecological events of massive ecological destruction on a greater and greater scale.

We need to start now by using our unique collective worldwide communication technology to accomplish the goal of a totally inclusive planetary economy that begins to change the existing economic paradigm and shifts that paradigm in a totally new direction.

Where did the red cars go?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=--oWwuzIutM

Where did the red cars go?

Los Angeles once had red cars
They tooled around LA everyday
They ran on electricity
From the north to south bay

They carried people from home
To places of fun and games
They carried people to work
From their towns of many names

These red cars ran on tracks
The tracks ran all over LA
They were great fun to ride
Because you could enjoy the day

Life was really great
The sky was blue
The air you could even breathe
And everyone loved it too

Life was good in LA
It was fun to live in such a town
People came from all over
To live and love and be a clown

The red cars one day vanished
The sky turned blue to brown
Gone like the sun had vanished
The reds cars could not be found

Does nature have rights? Should nature have rights?

Here's an ordinance that celdf.org is proposing for Pennsylvania.



An Ordinance by the Second Class Township of ________, _________ County, Pennsylvania, Acknowledging the Rights of Natural Communities and Ecosystems and Establishing a System of Enforcing and Protecting Those Rights

Against Corporations and Other Business Entities



Section 1. Name. The name of this Ordinance shall be “The Rights of Nature Ordinance.”



Section 2. Authority. This Ordinance is adopted and enacted pursuant to the authority granted to _______ Township by all relevant state and federal Constitutions and laws, including, but not limited to, the following:



The founding documents of the United States, which recognize that governments are created to secure and protect inalienable and fundamental rights;



The Constitution of the United States, Article IV, §4, which requires the United States to guarantee a Republican Form of Government;



The Constitution of Pennsylvania, Art. 1, § 2, which provides that all power is inherent in the people, and that all free governments are founded on the peoples’ authority and instituted for their peace, safety, and happiness;



The Constitution of Pennsylvania, Art. 1, §27, which recognizes that Pennsylvanians are trustees of the natural world;



The general authority granted by the Constitution of Pennsylvania and the Second Class Township Code to make and adopt all such ordinances, bylaws, rules, and regulations as may be deemed expedient or necessary for the proper management, care, and control of _________ Township and its finances and the maintenance of the health, safety, peace, good government, and welfare of ________Township;



Pennsylvania Statutes, Tit. 53, Municipal and Quasi-Municipal Corporations, §66506, which authorizes _____________ Township to enact ordinances necessary for the proper management, care, and control of the Township and its finances and the maintenance of peace, good government, health, and welfare of the Township.





Section 3. Findings and General Purpose. The ________ Township Board of Supervisors recognizes that:



(1) Governments are created to secure and protect inalienable and fundamental rights;



(2) People and their communities are trustees of nature, and communities of nature and ecosystems form part of the natural trust;



(3) It is well-settled law that trustees are required to protect and preserve the trust,



(4) As trustees, people and communities are obligated to protect and preserve natural communities and ecosystems;



(5) Natural communities and ecosystems are currently being destroyed, degraded, and weakened by corporations and other business entities;



(6) Governments empower those corporations and other business entities through the bestowal of constitutional “rights” and powers upon them;



(7) The environmental regulatory system merely regulates how quickly natural communities and ecosystems will be destroyed and degraded;



(8) The environmental regulatory system has failed to protect and preserve natural communities and ecosystems because regulations focus solely on minimizing the adverse environmental impacts resulting from certain activities,



(9) The environmental regulatory system fails to protect and preserve natural communities and ecosystems because it treats those communities and systems as property;



(10) Creation and validation of the environmental regulatory system thus fails to satisfy the duties of humans and communities to be trustees of natural communities and ecosystems;



(11) Recognition by humans and communities that natural communities and ecosystems have fundamental and inalienable rights is necessary to satisfy the obligation and duty of people and communities as trustees;



(12) Creating a process for the legal enforcement of those fundamental and inalienable rights by people and communities is necessary to fulfill peoples’ role as trustees for natural communities and ecosystems.



Section 4. Specific Purpose. The specific purpose of this Ordinance is to acknowledge the inalienable, fundamental rights of nature, and establish an enforcement system whereby people and communities can protect and vindicate the rights of nature against actions taken by corporations and other business entities.



Section 5. Statement of Law. Natural communities and ecosystems possess inalienable and fundamental rights to exist and prosper, and no corporation or business entity – or persons acting in corporate or business capacities – shall deny those rights, or interfere with the vitality or functioning of those communities or ecosystems.



Section 6. Statement of Law. Every living creature within the Township of ____________possesses an inalienable and fundamental right to be an integral part of a community of nature and ecosystem, and no corporation or business entity shall deprive or deny living creatures that right.

Section 7. Statement of Law. The Township Board of Supervisors shall not make or enforce any law which shall abridge the rights of natural communities and ecosystems.



Section 8. Statement of Law. The enumeration in this Ordinance, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by natural communities, living creatures, and ecosystems within the Township of ___________________.



Section 9. Enforcement. When this Ordinance or the underlying rights recognized by this Ordinance are violated, it shall be the duty of the Board of Supervisors of the Township of _____________to file an enforcement action against any corporation, business entity, or persons acting in corporate or business capacities. Such action shall seek to protect, preserve, and vindicate the rights of nature as recognized by this Ordinance. Any natural person shall also have the authority to file an action in the appropriate judicial forum against any corporation, business entity, or persons acting in corporate or business capacities, which has violated, is violating, or threatens to violate, the rights of animals or ecosystems within ___________ Township as outlined by this Ordinance. Protecting, preserving, and vindicating the rights acknowledged in this Ordinance shall include seeking both punitive and compensatory damages against a corporation, business entity, and/or managers of those entities, under the authority of state and federal civil rights statutes.



Section 10. Enforcement. For purposes of the enforcement of the rights acknowledged in this Ordinance, natural communities and ecosystems shall be considered “persons” within 42 U.S.C. §1983 and other federal and state laws adopted to vindicate and enforce rights.



Section 11. Severability. The provisions of this Ordinance are severable. If any section, clause, sentence, part, or provision of the Ordinance shall be held illegal, invalid, or unconstitutional by any court of competent jurisdiction, such decision of the court shall not affect, impair, or invalidate any of the remaining sections, clauses, sentences, parts, or provisions of this Ordinance. It is hereby declared to be the intent of the Board of Supervisors of __________ Township that this Ordinance would have been adopted if such illegal, invalid, or unconstitutional section, clause, sentence, part, or provision had not been included herein.



Section 12. Effective Date. This Ordinance shall take effect five days after enactment by the Board of Supervisors of _________ Township.

source: http://www.celdf.org/Ordinances/RightsofNatureOrdinance/tabid/133/Default.aspx

I've started to cobble together a new WiserEarth group page called 'Paradigm Shift' A place for people to edit, ad and read how things need to be changed and maybe how to accomplish that change.

It's hard, there's so much to take into consideration. The are 46 major areas that WiserEarth had decided as areas of focus. These a major areas of concern. Finding common ground is very difficult. Connecting these various 'knowledge groups' in a larger context that might point to a paradigm shift is the task.

Here the group page address: http://www.wiserearth.org/group/GrandPlan

USDA to approve Monsanto's GE Alfaifa?

Vilsack is a hack for Monsanto, Vilsack runs the Ag department, it doesn't matter what we do, BO is best buds with Vilsack - 100 to 1. Monsanto has the whole national and international food chain in hand, even more so with BO working the world. The fix is in and we all voted for the jerk.

When he got rid of Van Jones I began to have my suspicions and if and when BO lets this one happen, I'm totally out of here. I was so pissed off then BO put that fox in the hen house (Vilsack) and if this happens I'm all for dumping BO and letting the corporate interests who are up front about their allegiance take over, the creeps like BO who smile at me and say everything will be OK, just trust me - no way. BO out in 4.

... as you can see, I'm really pissed. This guy is such a woos. He has to really show me some thing to change my mind.

http://action.foodandwaterwatch.org/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=2027 sign the thing, it might help, might is the operating word.

Mind of Knowledge

I’m seventy years old and have been fighting social justice, environmental, political and other categories of issues for fifty years, as I grew older allot of things began to come to order and with that order it became very pronounced that fighting issue after issue without a underlying premise to work from would only dictate the continuous defensive approach to all the issues that I’ve been involved in.

So what to do? What needs to be done? Was there, or is there a simple solution to my frustrated overview of all these issues?

Yes there is and it’s a very simple, yet massive solution – we need a new paradigm.

To get to that new paradigm we need to define what the old paradigm is, or in this case was and I would propose that the old one is what was promoted by Adam Smith so many, many years ago – that paradigm is referred to as ‘the invisible hand’.

In principle it says that what is good for the individual is good for the community.

The problem with that idea is in today’s world economy with the massive numbers of people that now inhabit this earth, the demands those individuals make on the community is overwhelming and because of those individual demands on water, energy, air, plants – the list is long and tangled, the old paradigm of the invisible hand no longer has any relevance to the problems of today.

That being said, I’ll move on to what I think the new paradigm might be.

It replaces the individual with the community and the needs of the community. But the definition of the word community is much broader than just being made up of individuals. Community in this case is defined as the whole, the whole being greater than the sum of its parts, because understanding just the parts does not understand the connections, the starts the stops, the progression of how life develops and how life becomes, lives and dies.

The new paradigm is the continuous learning and understanding of the relationships of the secrets of coexistences between everything in the universe.

One might call it the mind of knowledge.

So I suggest we replace the invisible hand with the mind of knowledge.

This is a collective mind; it’s the mind of all things great and small. There are vast areas of knowledge in everything that exists in the universe. We as humans are put in the position of trying to figure out how it all works. That seems to be the human condition, yet as our condition expands in knowledge it now has become apparent that what we do with that knowledge and information is one, a problem or two, a benefit.

Presently it’s more of a problem than a benefit.

But that problem can be turned into a benefit, by what we all have joined in this thing that is called a wiser earth.

So lets all of us begin to define what the new paradigm is, what is the mind of knowledge?