Politics The Midwest Way!
The Ecology Democracy Network was started by Ken Pentel in 2008 to create a new pro-active way of doing politics that will care for our collective home, Earth. The network is young, but growing quickly - take a look around to see what you think, and get involved!Ecology Democracy Network November 2024 Calendar
Ecology Democracy Network September 2024 Report
Dear Supporters and Trackers of the Ecology Democracy Network,
Scale, scale, scale: As I have outlined, the focus of the Network is to reverse ecological overshoot. The structural driver of overshoot that the Network has identified is the growth-imperative; yet growth and decomposition are why we are here, so growth is essential, and at times is beautiful, but the growth-imperative built into our economy purports that we can infinitely grow on a finite planet This is proving to be dangerous.
And without something to put humans in check we will continue to alter our planet and the ongoing collapse will continue. At this point it seems we are incapable of stopping this growth-imperative momentum and simultaneous ecological collapse, either because we have social/economic/political incentives to continue on this path, and/or we are acting out as any biological being would (exhausting all energy available to us).
Just to refresh, the drivers of ecological-overshoot the Network has so-far identified as priorities are: population, consumption (GDP), debt, interest-bearing-debt, financial instruments (Derivatives, etc.) and computerization.
This is where the GPI comes in. As I was growing up as an environmental activist in the mid-1980’s the concept of environmental sustainability caught my attention and was becoming a reframing of the goal of the eco-movement (Brundtland Report: Our Common Future 1987). At the same time, among the array of politically-mined conservatives the idea of “less-government, less-taxes, less-regulation” became the rally cry. Well, in a growth-imperative global economy neither sustainability nor less of anything can be achieved. (Example: The most recent 2nd quarter 2024 GDP growth in the US was 3%; at this rate we will need to double the existing economy in 23.5 years; the dominate political and economic players cheer this on: “The US economy grew last quarter at a healthy 3% annual pace, …” AP 8/30/24)
And for a myriad of reasons, what the GPI starts to do - in relation to meeting the scale of planetary consumption - is guide the global economy toward living within the Earth’s biophysical limits and within its carrying capacity, reversing the growth-imperative and leading us toward more of a steady-state economy.
The sources I use for this information are from Maryland, Vermont, Oregon and Hawaii GPI reports: The Maryland report shows from 1960-2010 the difference in the scale of the economy between the GDP and the GPI, the GPI is 37% less; Vermont from 1960-2010 the GPI is 43% less ; Oregon through the same time period, the GPI is 52% less, and the Hawaii 2022 report shows, between 2000-2020 on average, the GPI 55% less on scale than the GDP.
What this reveals is, over time, the scale of our economic and ecological footprint within the US and globally, using the GPI accounting as a guide, would give us humans and our fellow creatures a chance to balance our relationship with Earth, reducing social, economic, and ecological stress.
Salud,
Ken
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Donations are needed: http://www.ecologydemocracynetwork.org/donate.php
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Excerpts from: The Overpopulation Podcast, with Host’s Nandita Bajaj and Alan Ware, with Guest William (Bill) Rees, 12/5/23 (https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=3MVmkIYy9aI&pp=ygUJYmlsbCByZWVz):
Alan: …overpopulation and overconsumption are primary drivers of ecological overshoot. And yet, we constantly bump-up against environmental organizations/environmentally-minded media commentators that focus very exclusively on overconsumption in overdeveloped countries and leave any role population plays in either the overdeveloped or underdeveloped countries. …
Bill: …the human enterprise as a whole is consuming too may resources far beyond the regenerative capacity of ecosystems, and we waste far in excess if the assimilative capacity of the natural systems; climate change is an excess-waste management problem.
…let’s clear it up; consumptions is an issue here, but the reality here is every human being is a consumer, …we can show using the eco-footprint analysis, …others have shown using just carbon dioxide emissions analysis, if you look at just income increases, which is associated with consumption increases vs. population growth, population growth now is the larger contributor to the growth of the human footprint and carbon emissions…than is income growth.
…we can’t separate these two things, because one of the reasons population growth in every income category is more important is because as the population is growing so is the per capita income, particularly in middle and low income countries, so the two are lock-step. …every increment of the population adds substantially more than would otherwise be the case to the overall problem.
We’ve made a bit of a taboo here, I mean I’ve been called a …Eco-Fascist …because I’ve tried to point out that population is a core part of this problem…
….again it is true that the richest quarter of the people on the planet are historically responsible for 75% of the overshoot, but the fact of the matter is we are in overshoot. …even if there was total equity it wouldn’t be sufficient. Please underscore this, that even if we were totally equal, the world would still be in overshoot, and the reality is that may require as much as a 50% reduction in economic throughput in order to re-equilibrate the human enterprise at the productive capacity of the planet.
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Below is from an excerpt from a conversation between systems scientist Nate Hagens and ecologist Corey Bradshaw on the podcast The Great Simplification 7/25/24 (https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=qJwsJhFK98o ):
Corey: I personally think the worst invention humans came up with is not the nuclear bomb and wasn’t chemical warfare, it was actually in corporatization, …the creation of a company going public, …you outsource the ownership to people who aren’t making the decisions, you divorce ethical decision-making from profit maximization.
And so I think the worst thing that ever occurred is the creation of the stock market. That one brilliant idea provided the template for the destruction of the planet. And that to is when it really started, because there is no way you can incorporate good human decision-making that’s morally and environmentally ethical when your decision makers have nothing to do with these decisions; all they want is the bottom-line.
Nate: …one of the lines in my movie, and I say it often: We outsourced our wisdom and decision-making to the market.
Corey: …another thing we could do is make all political donations illegal. …
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To end corporate personhood and end money equaling speech look to Move to Amend: www.movetoamend.org
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Incentives lead to behavior
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