This is a blog post from isenhand, a member of the SustainabilityForum.com.
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Problems! Problems have two aspects to them. First, problems have a cause and second they have symptoms. Take for example the common cold. It has a cause. One of 2000 different viruses cause the common cold but it also has symptoms; runny nose, sore throat, headache etc.
In trying to solve a problem it’s often easer to tackle the symptoms than the cause. Its easer, for example, to treat the symptoms of a cold then to treat the virus. However, talking the cause of the problem would represent the best way to deal with a problem.
Let’s take another problem; global climate change or global warming. How do we tackle this problem? Many see the problem as too much CO2 in the atmospheres so many solutions centre around trying to reduce the amount of CO2. We have things like the Kyoto agreement and carbon trading all trying to reduce the amount of CO2 to reduce the effect that people have on the environment. But I wonder, are we actually tackling the problem or are we tackling the symptoms of the problem?
We live in a socioeconomic system that must grow but even worse than that, it must grow exponentially. I see this as the real cause of global warming. Not so much the CO2 but the reason we throw out so much CO2 in the first place. To see what I mean, let’s imagine that we reduce our CO2 emissions to an acceptable level, what ever that may be. But things wont stop there. Out economies will grow. We will produce move and more. We will consume more and more goods. Our CO2 will this start increasing. With an exotically growing economy, how long will it take before we wipe out all our reductions in CO2 emissions?
Without actually tackling the cause of the problem. Without actually tackling the problem of economic growth all our efforts look like they will only delay the effects of global warming and not actually solve the problem.
SO, if we really wish to tackle the problem of climate change we need to seriously look at our socioeconomic system and change that. One possibility would involve moving away from a money based system to a resource allocation system. A society that localises as much as possible and works from a network formed around sustainable communities.
Dr. Andrew Wallace PhD
About the author:
Dr. Wallace is the Director of the Network of European Technocrats, which is an organisation that promotes an alternative socioeconomic system for a sustainable world based on the application of science to society.
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