After to many weeks of thinking about Annie Leonard's Story of stuff, I am finally ready to share some of my thoughts with the rest of the world. This issue is truly one of those you could easily trap yourself in, in order to find a solution. The sad thing is that I don not see any salvation to this earth destroying problem in the near future. What is even sadder is that it is us humans who has put ourselves in this situation about 50 years ago without, considering the consequences of our actions. So my first question mark is; when are we ever going to accept the fact that every action has a consequence? From when we are old enough to understand, most children are taught that if I do not behave I will not get a Popsicle. Action vs consequence. If I do not wash my clothes I will not have any clean clothes to put on tomorrow. Action vs consequence. If the consumption is high, we will use more resources and in a couple of centuries we will be out of resources. And we will have more endangered and extinct species than ever before, the air will be so polluted we will not be able to breathe. These are just a few of the consequences of our consumption. And my very pessimistic view of it all.
However, with the on going financial crisis combined with seeing The Story of Stuff, reading The Zahir by Paulo Coelho and doing research about Barack Obama's economic issues, I have a had a truly exhilarating idea. Perhaps a bit naive one, but IF the government and media would promote this instead of consuming, I actually do believe it would have an impact. And it has everything to do with consumption vs environment.
As most of us know or will find out, every time something brakes or fall apart it is possible to learn why it fell apart and build something new and better. And that goes for relationships as well as an economic crash. So now that the economy is on its knees and the consumption is the lowest it has been the last 50 years or so, isn't this the perfect chance to make the environment essential for our financial market instead of consumption? Imagine that e.g. people would be obsessive with recycling instead of shopping? As Annie Leonard mentions in the video, people with power made the economy spin by making us (consumers) dependent on consuming. What if they had made us and the economy dependent of a healthy environment instead? And now that our consuming society is falling apart, wouldn't it be the perfect time to change and rebuild our values and the foundations for our economy?
Some experts have predicted that in two years over 8 million people in the 30 wealthiest countries are going to be unemployed. At the same time we don't have enough people working for the environment to make a change fast enough. But what if all these people could have new jobs that would contribute to a better environment? The most essential thing for most people is to earn money they can live of, many don't really care what they work with and a big part don't have an education. Why not use all of these people who will loose their jobs to work for a better environment? It would probably require reeducation or educating a lot of people, but wouldn't it be worth it in the end? And it would require a starting fund from the government. But once people have figured out a way to make money in this business it would carry itself, like any other business market.
Another thing that Barack Obama is planning on carrying through as president of the US, is to end tax brakes for companies who send their business overseas, and make them create jobs in their homeland instead. This is something I also believe would, in time, make the economy more stable; every individual country should be able to take care of them selves. As it is today, wars are fought over resources that are shipped overseas, like the Sierra Leone diamonds and oil. If it wasn't profitable for third world countries to sell material to us in the west countries, "moneywars" as I would like to call them, would end. Surely there would be other things to fight about if we took away the possibility to fight over money, there will always be, but if we can take away something which is a foundation for wars, shouldn't we do so? Also, if foreign companies returned their business to their homeland, I believe that third world countries would be forced to develop their own economy and enterprise. Third world countries are depending on us, and we are not exactly helping them to move forward. Instead we should teach them how to create well fare and stability for themselves. And help them not to make the same mistakes as we have done throughout industrial history.
What I really want to promote is a society adjusted to the environment, not an environment adjusted to the society. Because that is what we have at the moment. And if this is the societies starting point, I believe it would solve more global problems than just the environmental.
My idea is not fully developed but: How could I/we make the government notice this opportunity?
However, with the on going financial crisis combined with seeing The Story of Stuff, reading The Zahir by Paulo Coelho and doing research about Barack Obama's economic issues, I have a had a truly exhilarating idea. Perhaps a bit naive one, but IF the government and media would promote this instead of consuming, I actually do believe it would have an impact. And it has everything to do with consumption vs environment.
As most of us know or will find out, every time something brakes or fall apart it is possible to learn why it fell apart and build something new and better. And that goes for relationships as well as an economic crash. So now that the economy is on its knees and the consumption is the lowest it has been the last 50 years or so, isn't this the perfect chance to make the environment essential for our financial market instead of consumption? Imagine that e.g. people would be obsessive with recycling instead of shopping? As Annie Leonard mentions in the video, people with power made the economy spin by making us (consumers) dependent on consuming. What if they had made us and the economy dependent of a healthy environment instead? And now that our consuming society is falling apart, wouldn't it be the perfect time to change and rebuild our values and the foundations for our economy?
Some experts have predicted that in two years over 8 million people in the 30 wealthiest countries are going to be unemployed. At the same time we don't have enough people working for the environment to make a change fast enough. But what if all these people could have new jobs that would contribute to a better environment? The most essential thing for most people is to earn money they can live of, many don't really care what they work with and a big part don't have an education. Why not use all of these people who will loose their jobs to work for a better environment? It would probably require reeducation or educating a lot of people, but wouldn't it be worth it in the end? And it would require a starting fund from the government. But once people have figured out a way to make money in this business it would carry itself, like any other business market.
Another thing that Barack Obama is planning on carrying through as president of the US, is to end tax brakes for companies who send their business overseas, and make them create jobs in their homeland instead. This is something I also believe would, in time, make the economy more stable; every individual country should be able to take care of them selves. As it is today, wars are fought over resources that are shipped overseas, like the Sierra Leone diamonds and oil. If it wasn't profitable for third world countries to sell material to us in the west countries, "moneywars" as I would like to call them, would end. Surely there would be other things to fight about if we took away the possibility to fight over money, there will always be, but if we can take away something which is a foundation for wars, shouldn't we do so? Also, if foreign companies returned their business to their homeland, I believe that third world countries would be forced to develop their own economy and enterprise. Third world countries are depending on us, and we are not exactly helping them to move forward. Instead we should teach them how to create well fare and stability for themselves. And help them not to make the same mistakes as we have done throughout industrial history.
What I really want to promote is a society adjusted to the environment, not an environment adjusted to the society. Because that is what we have at the moment. And if this is the societies starting point, I believe it would solve more global problems than just the environmental.
My idea is not fully developed but: How could I/we make the government notice this opportunity?
