I think there is a more basic issue regarding "investment". Do we really need trillions of dollars of new infrastructure to deal with the climate and overshoot threats? I suggest the answer is NO. What is most urgent is that we stop doing the bad stuff (fossil fuel use, mining, deforestation, agricultural practices that destroy soil fertility, etc, etc). This will require refocusing expenditures on activities that meet peoples' basic needs rather than generating profits. We need an dramatic reduction in overall "investment" to eliminate ecological overshoot. We cannot add trillions of dollars of additional investment for an energy transition to maintain BAU without further speeding up our headlong flight toward irreversible ecological tipping points. Much of the financial wealth that now exists should never be spent if we are serious about eliminating overshoot. Most of this financial wealth is a fiction in any case (not based on physical assets), and should simply be destroyed. Spending it will only destroy the only biosphere in the solar system.
Really like your emphasis on conserving rather than harmful overspending. That’s a good yardstick to go by. If we did the simple cures first. For instance, I live a half mile from the pacific ocean, so my uninsulated apartment is often cold with onshore breeze. Wasted electricity and gas to heat the place. Such a simple and obvious fix. Also how can people drive with one person in the car and create these urban traffic jams.
I really appreciate the breakdown you’ve done here and had a chuckle re: selling Vatican art HA! How about a small tax on gasoline and air travel purchases that some of which could be used toward bus/mass transit credits for individuals. Also switch to hemp agriculture, for all the many products and food it could provide. Make forests healthy and sustainable to imitate old growth composition. Put a tax on lumber to move us to hemp so we can increase trees. Give individual and multiple housing incentives and requirements to retrofit and build energy saving measures improvements. Mandate a school organic garden in every school. Teach permaculture as part of the biological and cultural education curriculum in every grade through college. Get past anthropogenic worldview to an earth centered wholistic understanding of our mutual interconnectedness of all life and earth systems so we understand the connections and consequences of our lifestyles. Of course, money out of politics and the rehabilitation of our broken political and economic system etc etc. Study the more successful countries and cultures… what do they do right? (Scandinavia etc)
Money in pension funds world wide! Think of the irony of pensions investing 100s of billions in the oil based businesses that are fast tracking the demise of their participants home.
Not meaning to judge or sound arrogant but relying on others to reduce our own environmental impact is kinda lazy. Sure work on green infrastructure, reduce travel, renewable energy etc but short term action works too. Anyone and everyone can (and should?) adopt and advocate a vegan lifestyle today. Thoughts? PS not just a plant diet.
I think there is a more basic issue regarding "investment". Do we really need trillions of dollars of new infrastructure to deal with the climate and overshoot threats? I suggest the answer is NO. What is most urgent is that we stop doing the bad stuff (fossil fuel use, mining, deforestation, agricultural practices that destroy soil fertility, etc, etc). This will require refocusing expenditures on activities that meet peoples' basic needs rather than generating profits. We need an dramatic reduction in overall "investment" to eliminate ecological overshoot. We cannot add trillions of dollars of additional investment for an energy transition to maintain BAU without further speeding up our headlong flight toward irreversible ecological tipping points. Much of the financial wealth that now exists should never be spent if we are serious about eliminating overshoot. Most of this financial wealth is a fiction in any case (not based on physical assets), and should simply be destroyed. Spending it will only destroy the only biosphere in the solar system.
Really like your emphasis on conserving rather than harmful overspending. That’s a good yardstick to go by. If we did the simple cures first. For instance, I live a half mile from the pacific ocean, so my uninsulated apartment is often cold with onshore breeze. Wasted electricity and gas to heat the place. Such a simple and obvious fix. Also how can people drive with one person in the car and create these urban traffic jams.
I really appreciate the breakdown you’ve done here and had a chuckle re: selling Vatican art HA! How about a small tax on gasoline and air travel purchases that some of which could be used toward bus/mass transit credits for individuals. Also switch to hemp agriculture, for all the many products and food it could provide. Make forests healthy and sustainable to imitate old growth composition. Put a tax on lumber to move us to hemp so we can increase trees. Give individual and multiple housing incentives and requirements to retrofit and build energy saving measures improvements. Mandate a school organic garden in every school. Teach permaculture as part of the biological and cultural education curriculum in every grade through college. Get past anthropogenic worldview to an earth centered wholistic understanding of our mutual interconnectedness of all life and earth systems so we understand the connections and consequences of our lifestyles. Of course, money out of politics and the rehabilitation of our broken political and economic system etc etc. Study the more successful countries and cultures… what do they do right? (Scandinavia etc)
Money in pension funds world wide! Think of the irony of pensions investing 100s of billions in the oil based businesses that are fast tracking the demise of their participants home.
Not meaning to judge or sound arrogant but relying on others to reduce our own environmental impact is kinda lazy. Sure work on green infrastructure, reduce travel, renewable energy etc but short term action works too. Anyone and everyone can (and should?) adopt and advocate a vegan lifestyle today. Thoughts? PS not just a plant diet.