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	April 29, 2003

WHAT WE NEED YOU TO DO As its title implies, one of the purposes of this blog is to lay out a specific action plan to restore ecological balance to our planet. This entails dealing with the fundamental cause of the imbalance (i.e. the behaviour of our human culture) in a multifaceted and comprehensive way, instead of just dealing with the ever-more challenging symptoms of it. If you agree this is a worthwhile (if somewhat ambitious) objective, I would ask you to please do four things: Read The Third Way . This summarizes the philosophy behind the 17 projects in the action plan I propose as a starting point.. Read How to Save the World . This is a longer (30 page) explanation of how, an increasing number of us believe, our planet and humanity got to where we are, and how we can fix it. Better yet, read the books listed in the bibliography, which are much more eloquent than my attempted synopses. And please help me improve this document. Spread the word. Take what you like from the above documents, throw out what you don't like, and create your own story, a story of What Needs to be Done and Can be Done, that works for you. Then tell the story. Evolve the meme and pass it on. Select one or more of the 17 projects listed below, as identified in How to Save the World (and explained in the post below). Go do them. If you buy this systems chart (and so far it's received very positive reviews from 'systems thinkers') , the collective success of these projects will go a long way to changing human behaviour, and hence our culture, and therefore restore the ecological balance of our planet. If you know of others working on these projects or variances, or of there's something missing, please tell me. I'm working on P1 and P6 myself. Momentous changes in human behaviour have been achieved before. Dare to believe: It's too easy and too late to say this is all too idealistic and can't work. Each of us doing diligently what we do best on these projects, and persuading others to come on board, can do it. We can change the world. 8:01:23 PM  trackback []  comment []

THE SEVENTEEN PROJECTS EXPLAINED (this is reference material for the post immediately above) Primary (Big Hairy Audacious) Goals: G1 Healthy Communities, Healthy World, End to Suffering: Both physical and emotional health for all of Earth's creatures; Well-being not Wealth G2 Stability & Diversity of All Life on Earth:  Return to the law of limited competition (no destruction of creatures that eat the same food we do, or their food supply); Greatly reduced human population to allow a return to diversity of life on Earth Indirect (G3, G4) and By-Product (G5) Goals:   G3 Reduced Human Impact:  Less use of land and natural resources by humans and human enterprises G4 Natural Habitats & Rights for Non-Humans :  Restoration of most of Earth to natural ecosystems, to a state unimpacted or only marginally impacted by humans; Basic rights to life, freedom from persecution (other than for food), freedom from suffering, and an end to treatment as human 'property' G5 Peace, Security, Economic & Political Stability, and Emotional Health:  All these long-time human goals would be achieved as a by-product of attaining Primary Goals G1-G2 above Technology & Innovation Projects:    T1 Self-Sufficiency Technologies & Innovations :  Examples: Solar energy, advances that allow all communities to be energy self-sufficient; Other innovations that allow each community to supply and provide as many of its basic needs as possible (food, clothing, building materials, transport & communication), so that only luxuries need to be imported or exported outside the community T2 Anti-Aggression Technologies & Innovations :  Therapies, herbs and pharmaceuticals that make humans less violent, since the aggressive impulses that we required for survival in our early evolution are no longer necessary, and are in fact destructive T3 Biological Technologies & Innovations :  Within ethical limits (i.e. without exploiting any animal species for the benefit of another), development of pharmaceuticals & materials that reduce suffering of all life, or allow more to be done with less resources T4 Networked Computers & Collaborative Focus Group Solutions:  Redeployment of computer power to develop additional solutions leading to attainment of Goals G1-G4; Use of the Internet and other collaborative communication tools to produce thought leadership and develop additional solutions cooperatively across disciplines T5 Anti-Polluter Technologies & Innovations :  Development of online lists of polluters and tools that allow citizens to lobby for action against polluters and organize boycotts of offending companies T6 Anti-Fertility Technologies & Innovations :  RU486 and other innovative technologies that reduce human fertility painlessly, equitably and, to the extent possible, voluntarily T7 Inter-Species Communication Technologies & Innovations:  Linguistic and other technologies that aid in deciphering other animals' communications and allowing us to communicate with them Social & Educational Projects:    S1 Re-learn How and Why Communities Work :  Development & teaching to all ages of curricula that explain the logic and efficiency of community-based businesses,  governments, schools,  regulations, economic systems, and other institutions, compared to large, centralized organization models S2 Educate & Foment Dissatisfaction & Critical Thinking:  Revamping education to make critical thinking the #1 core skill;  Publishing magazines & books, and organizing groups to foster dissenting ideas and dissatisfaction with the existing political, economic, social and religious dogma that are causing our current crisis S3 Voluntary Food Production Reduction:  Encouragement of programs to produce less human food as a means of stemming human overpopulation and excessive human land use (read Story of B for rationale for this) S4 Voluntary Fertility Reduction:  Support for ZPG and other organizations leading the fight to get humans to reduce our population voluntarily Economic, Legal & Political Projects P1 Anti-Waste and Anti-Pollution Laws & Taxes:  Elimination of subsidies, revamping of regulations and tax laws in order to prohibit or tax waste, high resource use and pollution, and encourage clean, employment-producing and efficient businesses that promote reuse/reduce/recycle principles P2 Decentralization of Political and Economic Power:  Banning of corporate involvement in the political process, including lobbying and political funding; Elimination of trade regulations and other laws that limit national & local governments' ability to minimize environmental damage and exploitation of employees within their borders;  Devolution of authority over land & resource use, industry, energy, health, education etc. to local community level, and allow taxpayers to vote on how they want their tax dollars allocated (which government departments and programs) when they pay their taxes P3 Laws & Taxes Limiting Human Food Production :  Elimination of subsidies and enactment of laws and tax penalties to reduce food production levels to that needed to support the local community P4 Ban on Ecologically Damaging Technologies :  Examples: nuclear plants, dams, animal testing procedures, some agricultural genetic engineering P5 Stringent Conservation Laws:  Prohibition on taking more out of the land than is put back; Remediation of much of Earth to a 'natural' state free from significant human occupation or interference P6 Animal Rights Laws:  Basic rights to life, freedom from persecution (other than for food), freedom from suffering, and an end to treatment as human 'property', for all Earth animals 7:59:22 PM  trackback []  comment []

© Copyright 2004 Dave Pollard. Last update: 19/02/2004; 2:44:23 PM.