Violence can be prevented
Wednesday, 23 December 2009
Environmental Apocalypse

 

Environmental Apocalypse doesn’t necessarily have anything to do with any prophecies but that isn’t the point there is an enormous amount of damage being done to the planet and it could easily create a snow ball effect where things start getting worse at a much faster rate and it will be to late to stop it until there is an enormous amount of damage. This could lead to wars over dwindling resources and we could wind up with something similar to those post apocalypse scenarios like Mad Max or the Postman. If that does happen it is unlikely that there will be many if any heroes like Costner or Gibson to come along and save the day. This is the real world not Hollywood.

 

Like any other problem we need to find the cause of it and prevent it. Generally speaking this means we need to stop pollution and restore the damage that has already been done. This isn’t the only problem though the economic system and the control structure that created this problem also need to be fixed.

 

The easy part may actually be to understand how to stop pollution and repair it in fact that information is almost certainly already available to the public if they look in the right places. Simple things like using more efficient ways of conserving energy and clean renewable energy like wind solar and geothermal can be a very important part of the solution. There also need to be efforts to replace all the trees that have been cut down. Rivers and lakes need to be cleaned up and more importantly future pollution needs to be prevented. One of the most important things that needs to be done is that the public needs to be educated about conservation and they need to understand that if they continue buying things that are beyond their needs and things that are built in inefficient ways it comes at a long term cost that may be greater than the short term benefit. This doesn’t always mean that the public needs to go without in fact with new technology I suspect that there are already many ways that the Public can maintain if not improve their standard of living if they adopt more efficient ways.

 

The tougher part may be to challenge the current political system and the multi-national corporations that have an excessive amount of political power. This must involve exposing the way things are currently being done in many cases without the knowledge of the public and finding a better way of doing things in the future. In order to do this there has to be a massive public education project so that the public can understand how things are done and participate in the political system. In order to do this they need to understand the basic facts about any given subject. This means we need reform for the Mass Media in the long run. If we can’t get it in the short run then there needs to be a better effort to educate as many people as possible through other grass roots means.

 

The way the Mass Media portrays the economy you might get the impression that all trade is good whether the customer receives a good deal or not. In many cases the Mass Media is often promoting items that have little or no benefit for the consumer and they use a lot of hype to convince the public that they are getting something worthwhile. We need an economic system where the best interest of the consumer are given at least as much consideration ads the best interests of the corporations. In order to do this the public needs a better education about how the economy works. This means that corporate secrecy has to be reexamined. In many cases corporate secrecy often means they should have the right to prevent the public from knowing how much they are getting away with.

 

The public needs to have a better understanding of how much damage is being done to the environment in many ways. This can be done buy creating organized studies of just about everything and presenting it to the public in a way they can understand it. In many cases I suspect these studies may have already been done but they aren’t being presented to the public. This may be because the public is too dependent on the Mass Media for information and they have an incentive to hide it since they are collecting an enormous amount of advertising money from the corporations that are doing the pollution. In many cases the best thing to do is to provide organized lists of all the damage that is being done. If people had any idea how many oil spills there were around the world they would realize that the Exxon Valdez is just a drop in the bucket. This is just one example of how organized list could help educate the public. Other lists or studies could include lists of polluted lakes and rivers, studies to tell people how many rain forests have been cut down. Once people understand just how big the problem is they will be much more inclined to act on it. This will also require a great deal of organization to address these problems once the public understands them.

 

Addressing these problems can’t be done without massive political reform. The biggest threat may be the multi-national corporations who have too much power. This may not be what prophecies referred to but regardless it should be addressed. There needs to be a much better system set up to allow the public to participate in the system and control the elections. This needs to be done in an open manner. A good election reform would involve setting up a system where the public control the election process and handle it more like an interview process. Candidates for office should be required to fill out a job application which should be written by the public with input from expert on any given subject. This should involve questions about how the leaders would handle any given subject starting with the basics based on the most accurate facts available after they are scrutinized for accuracy. The fact that the leaders of our countries have been able to keep so many secrets is part of the problem. There needs to be a right to know for the public in order for them to have the information they need to make decisions.

 

Similar things can be done for other potential causes for Apocalypse or some threat that seems similar to it. These would involve organizing the information available on any given subject like famine or threats from tornados and finding the causes of these problems and preventing them or if that isn’t possible finding the best way to deal with them. For example a good agriculture system should be able to prevent famine but storm can’t be prevented so a good way to deal with them could be to build tornado resistant houses made out of concrete or the strongest material available so they will last.

 

If these things aren’t done it could lead to an increasing amount of desperation among the third world residences when they are deprived of the necessities of life including food water and a safe place top live. These are already recruiting territories for the so called terrorist organizations. This is because the people in these areas may not understand how the system is working but they do understand they are getting the short end of the stick so if the traditional leaders won’t address their concerns they may turn to the terrorists. It has often been said that some future wars may be fought over water not oil because the water in many parts of the world is becoming more polluted with the advancement of the global economy. Environmental protection is often only for those with political power. Those who don’t have it often have their homes destroyed and they no longer have incentive to try to get along with others in the world since others are clearly not concerned about their rights.

 

In order to address this and prevent a snowball effect that can’t be stopped there should be a much better effort to educate the public and set up systems of governments that are truly democratic and stick up for the rights of all instead of just those who have the proper education and know how to stick up for their own rights.

 

For the full HTML version of this blog with table of context see:

 

https://zakherys.tripod.com/nonviolence.htm


Posted by zakherys at 10:36 AM EST

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