A SUSTAINABLE SOLUTION FOR THE GLOBAL CRISIS

The definition of "sustainable development" can be found here: http://www.iisd.org/sd/

• "Sustainable development is a development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs".

This concept should apply not only to the global economy - which is in big trouble these days - but extends to any kind of system that is interacting with the environment now and over time.
 
To understand better the new buzz-word, let's suppose we would like to build an "SD-compliant" house. Based on the principles of the SD, the house will need to have a minimum impact on the environment when built (utility company, waste management company, low maintenance costs) and less impact on the environment thinking over time (basically the house will need to last as long as possible without being demolished or being out of date). Also, this house technology will need to be affordable and easy to be implemented at a large scale. Same when building an affordable car with zero emissions. ...Basically something that will not create problems over time with respect to environment but also thinking at the well-being social environment over decades and decades from now on.
 
For the present century, the trend and the pressure will be to build cities/habitats which will be "SD-compliant" by meeting the following requirements:

• self-sustainable with respect to basic resources - food and energy - i.e. will assure system functionality at a local level. These cities will be located in the vicinity of power plants (hydro / wind / solar / nuclear / ocean wave generated) and will have their own organic-food farms. Of course, the habitats will be integrated in the global economic system but "local self-sustainability" is more a safety net rather than an over-design requirement.
    
• self-sustainable with respect to the "engine" of the city ie. - the economy. Every city will have an optimum mixture of agricultural, energy / industrial, financial, services / tourism, military / government institutions which will be very carefully implemented in the habitat to maintain self-sustainability of the habitat whatever the next economy crisis would strike again the world. The agricultural, energy or the government institutions should be designed such that will atract the surplus of workforce in case of possible future crisis. (News is full of examples about towns that are doomed because big local companies are off-shoring or are in bad financial situation). The preference will be for diversified and smaller companies and offices. The size of the city is also a good topic of research: a small city will get in trouble if one of its companies gets in trouble; a big city will cause too much commuting hassle. Probably 30,000-100,000 habitants (but not limited to) will be the optimum population amount.
   
• - "green compliant" - people will learn to eat differently: no more plastic food bags, food packages and water bottles because they will eat at restaurants and cafeterias integrated in their habitat. The actual houses - apartments or fully detached houses - will be built with energy saving materials and other new building technology to comply with new "green" energy regulations.
  See how a 9-magnitude earthquake resistant building, 5x more energy efficient is built in 360 hours here.
    
• - "pollution-free compliant" with respect to transportation: inside the habitat the transportation will be accomplished by new electrical 1-2 occupancy vehicles boosting 200 or more equivalent mpg consumption. Outside the habitat, from one city to another or for leisure, people may drive the rented hybrid cars. Between cities/habitats a high-speed subway will serve the air transit and inter-city transportation. Yes, the city will not spend millions of dollars on roads and maintaining the roads.
  
• "socially sustainable" - means that people will be engaged in voluntary actions for the community and especially towards children and older people. Everybody will have more free time because they will not need to mow the lawn or to shop for groceries or do the dishes anymore. People will provide help in a better way. The whole community will exhibit and export voluntarism to other part of the country and charitable organizations.
  Yes, every habitat will be home for one of the national olympic athlete teams.
    
• affordability - basically it will be accessible for everyone and will not create social inequality and discrimination.
   

“Less Excess and More Access”: only a policy mix based on this credo will guarantee that our habitats remain viable and achieve genuine “sustainability.”

 

Proposed solution and answers to possible questions:

• The proposed solution which will synergistically attempt to solve - or at least will tackle simultaneously - all the current global problems, is based on the assumption that governments or the private sectors will initiate and provide guidance for the building of these habitats we have described above. How many people are currently living in houses 100 years old or older? How many will live in 2100 in 100-year old houses? Considering that a future SD-compliant habitat will have between 30,000-100,000 habitants, then for the next 100 years or so, for example, every US state will need to build a city every year. Initially a city will be built in several years until the technology gets matured. In 2100 the whole USA will be covered with the new SD-compliant infrastructure and will further continue next century to keep up with the rise in population. The global warming initiative, clean energy, oil-independence, sustainability of the economy, overpopulation, inequality, peace and social well-being will get finaly on the right track. This is the only way to secure our future for generations to come. Any other way will improve just one of these important targets at a time at the expense of the others. Any other way will keep the global economy in distress for years to come.
   
  
• Altough a good percentage of the population will still prefer to live in big cities or in the ranches they own for generations, this is understandable. It's a matter of time to convince the world that this is the only way to live in harmony with the planet. But for the time being we need to get out from the economic turmoil we are currently in.

 

• The good news is that addressing these long-term problems (environment, oil-dependence, overpopulation) would actually help to solve the short-term problems. Increased investment to retrofit the economy for global sustainability would help to stimulate economic activity, growth, and job creation.
    
• These habitats will look like a mixture of shopping malls, exotic Google offices, Disneyland, Olympic sport facilities and Gaylord Opryland covered structures.
  

• Do you know that these cities built in the regions with surplus of energy resources are already in existence? See the Dubai-city architecture and others in the Middle-Est. Their actual purpose it's not exactly to serve the environment and to get sustainability and resource independence, but it's a good step forward.
    
• The magic combination of: 'shovel ready', innovation and clean energy.
    
• J. M. Keynes (1883-1946) as an economic doctor saw the cause of mass unemployment and prescribed artificial demand expansion by the government, thus saving a lot of unemployed people.
    
• Has the nation which built the Hoover-Dam lost its appetite for building large-scale projects? Our first priority for the economy is job creation, with focus on the most affected sectors of the economy. “Building and inventing stuff” is what the current US government declared it is most excited about.
    
• The cost of borrowing for a nation to fund public expenditures, if it borrows solely from its resident citizens and in the nation's currency, is nil.
    
• Now is a good time to spend money on large-scale projects because construction companies in this weak economy are hungry for work and the costs are relatively low as a result. Also, bank reserves and corporate capitals are at a record high.
    
• Let's reclaim the American dream from an exciting perspective: from the future.
  

                                                                    * * *
( Thanks to Project-Syndicate for their permission to reuse some ideas and quotes from their website )

THE NEED FOR CHANGE

• As Einstein suggested, in order to solve a problem we have to leave the framework within which we created the problem, we have to study our new system, its conditions, and based on our examinations we have to create a totally new human system.
     
• History is replete with instances where crises had always been converted into opening new vistas for viable solutions.
     
• Interesting to see that most of people acknowledge the crisis situation and some of them hope that through some miracle, or the cyclical nature of crisis situations we will simply pull through. But simply waiting for cyclical revival or some miracle growth will not help us but will make our future attempts much more difficult.
     
• Only swift and sustained recovery can stem the rise in the human cost of economic stagnation.
      
• We need to shift the public perceptions from pessimism and concern about the future to an optimistic mindset of growth and stability. We need resolute action to address the uncertainty confronting the global crises and to chart a path toward self-sustaining recovery.
      
• We need a  “roadmap” restore momentum.
      
• The global economy in 2013 could be a very difficult environment in which to find shelter.
   
• "No snowflake in an avalanche ever feels responsible." (Voltaire, French philosopher)
     
• We built our lifestyle on infinite quantitative growth without restrictions of resources,  all which turned out to be false and illusory. Wouldn't we all much prefer some thinking out-of-the-box, to build a new system?
     
• It's not the end of the world, but a new beginning.
     
• The economy does not work like engineering systems where the system is controlled through a negative-feedback (eg. a regular car has tens or hundreds of such negative feed-backs).  When a global crisis occurs (resource limitation/demand/deficit), the built-in positive feedback of the economic system is spiraling down the whole economy.  We need a  different thinking:  an engineering way of thinking not an 'economist' way of thinking.
      
• Let's look on the bright side: a collapse in the economy may be just what is needed to place the focus where it belongs, on adjusting our lives to the reality:  we need a sustained ecosystem with less impact on climate change, sustained energy, less pollution or fuel consumption, more family and leisure time, secured lifestyle and jobs.  There is no law against these.  You can maximize them at infinite.
     
• The good news is that addressing these long-term problems would actually help to solve the short-term problems like our economic crisis. Increased investment to retrofit the economy would help to stimulate economic activity, growth, and job creation.
     
• We need to advance an agenda that would address the underlying ills.

                                                                *  *  *

             ( Thanks to Project-Syndicate for their permission to reuse some ideas and quotes from their website )

2012 GLOBAL OUTLOOK

• Four years after the start of the global financial crisis, the world economy remains fragile and unemployment is unacceptably high.  This year, even more dire news.
     
• For starters, the eurozone crisis is worsening. Farther to the west, US economic performance is weakening below potential.  Dark clouds are rolling in from every direction.
    
• Moreover, political gridlock over fiscal adjustment is likely to persist, regardless of whether Barack Obama or Mitt Romney wins November’s presidential election.
    
• Long-simmering tensions in the Middle East are already exacerbating the economic slowdown.
    
• Unsustainable budget deficits and public debt in most advanced economies have severely limited the scope for further fiscal stimulus.
    
• It would seem that we are headed for that global perfect storm.
     
• Cyclical nature of crisis?  Can we afford a "cyclical" war then?
  Can we afford to do nothing but wait?
    
• The politics in both the US and Europe over the next decade is going to be about who eats the present losses.  Guess who?
    
• These times will be remembered as the time when many ever-optimistic Americans began to give up hope.
       
• Youth-led protest movements like Occupy Wall Streeters, have made clear that something is very wrong with the capitalist system.
      
• When it comes to political or economy forecasts, our crystal balls are very cloudy.
    
• Distressed countries?  Distressed people?  Countries and people on a death spiral?
  Will the recovery be too late for some of them/us?
      
• Seems that we have to choose between leaders who have proven wrong and future elected ones who have not yet proven their inability – but who could make matters even worse.
    
• America likes to think of itself as a land of opportunity and proudly exports this imagine to the other countries.  These days the American dream is to win at lottery with much higher chances of winning.
   

 ... and we could add some more worrisome points to the picture like the oil crisis, overpopulation, global ecological crisis, poverty and inequality, religious fundamentalism, excessive war budgets and organized crime which have added more fuel to the fire.  Yes, seems that we are headed for that "global perfect storm" or better:  "end of the world" because "pre-war times" or "capitalism reform" sound too preposterous or radical for us.

*  *  *
             ( Thanks to Project-Syndicate for their permission to reuse some ideas and quotes from their website )