Whatever we do, wherever we go, whatever we think we carry our past with us. All of our thoughts and actions carry tendrils that reach back into the past. Most tendrils may only go back into recent living memory, a large number may go back a few generations, a few may go back a long way to medieval times, such as the times of the plague, and one or two may stretch way back into the mist of time, the stone age or even beyond. We are inescapably tied to our past. It shapes and determines how we think for the future.
Today we are plagued by short-termism. This country in particular has no long-term investment view. What is the least input required to be able take out the grosses benefit, that is the ruling mantra. Our ancestors took pride in what they produced, mostly, they put all their skills into making something to hand on to the next generation. What they produced was their measure of worth, their public mark of where they stood in their community. Not for them the quick cheap fix, stuff it in nobody will notice or care. We have inherited those quality products and now routinely trash them with contempt. Today the labour cost is king whilst thousands are idle or employed in lowgrade drudgery work. But hey technology is changing so fast there is no point in making things to last anymore and robots do a much more consistent and faster job than any human. What do I care, nothing to do with me, I will just buy the next model upgrade and see if that works any better.
Sitting on top of this economic model that drives our culture are the Supermarkets, exploiting to the very limits, promoting and using every psychological trick to encourage us to revel in this throw away society. Buy more, buy cheaper, buy because its not going to be there tomorrow, buy, buy. To placate the institutional shareholdings who only look for the percentage gain this minute to the next minute and most certainly have no stake in a week, month or even a years strategy let alone any long term goal. The Supermarkets need to keeping increasing the amount they sell day by day. Squeezing their suppliers and manufacturers to cut corners, to cut standards, to cut quality, anything to reduce costs by that pence here or there. Cutting until just before the point of customer drift. Maintaining high standards and expectations, promoting a strive to improve quality and experience just are not their agenda. Lulled as we are into this false security of trusting our run-of-the-mill supplier, the Supermarket outlet. They are doing what is best for us. Ha. In our name they are corrupting the quality of life we depend on. They do not have a balance sheet on the numbers of people kept in production employment, the plunder of raw resources, the wanton accumulation of discard's to be tipped, they are just exploiting the economic model. The model which states labour is an key expense and throwaway is cheaper then longevity.
Just remember there is nothing intrinsic about labour being a dominate cost factor, just as there nothing intrinsic about cheap throwaway technology. We are bright enough and creative enough to devise alternative economic models, if we choose to. Models, just for example, that reward local production, that reward least use of raw materials, that have long shelf life's, that have upgradeable platforms or reusable core components. There are lots of other options to consider, if we had the will. If we chose not to treat our Earth as infinite landfill site and face the reality of diminishing natural resources. We could if only we cared. We might then rediscover a pride in what we passed on to our children.
Showing posts with label Earth. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Earth. Show all posts
Sunday, 5 October 2014
Wednesday, 2 December 2009
Right to Plunder
Time to roll up the sleeves and get serious.
Our attitude to this Planet has to change, it is not an infinite resource that can be plundered at will and used as a stock-pile to make money out of. We know enough now to understand it is limited and our greed is, or already has, taken us to the point where the end of the earth's resources can be counted.
Already we are talking of running out of oil but that is just a for instance. Whichever way you look there are just too many of us all wanting our share in these limited resources. Gas, rare metals, water, fish, unless it is renewable, it is under threat and has to be in doubt.
So we are not just talking about the buried minerals nor just the flora and fauna that feeds on the surface of our planet but the atmosphere we breath and depend on to create our climate. All is finite, limited and under threat from our continued abuse of our globe. Too many of us expecting more than our share. We have to change tacks. Time for us to accept that we are mere custodians of this planet we live on and we have a responsibility and obligation to our sons and daughters that will inherit the Earth we pass onto them.
It is for us to make sure the Earth we pass on is in no worse a condition than the Earth we inherited. We don't own it we are just temporary custodians.
In principle, if we take something out of our planet that will not replenish itself, if we spoil part of the planets infrastructure that cannot repair itself then we have to make amends to the future generations. If we take out from the planet a resource that will need time to recoup or we spoil virgin soil, these are not free commodities, they have to be paid for, upfront before the event, not a reluctant minimal gesture after the event and after the profits have been taken. Want to take a non-renewable, fine but first pay the full costs of reinstatement to as was beforehand. Even the renewables replacement will have to be paid for first. So pay for the cost of conserving stocks and attendant enforcement before you take your 'free' fish.
Nothing is perfect, so we don't know the full implications of a spoilt or lost resource 50 years down the line but we can best guess the implications as of now. Nor can we fully monetise all the implications but again we can best guess, taking a median position between extremes and all out in the public peer-reviewed. That's a better starting point than the present free-for-all. This conversion into money for the act of spoiling some aspect of our planet for future generations is not a government get out of jail free card. The money has to be ploughed straight back into a relevant conservation or remedial project. To make some amends for the mess we are currently living with. We have to take serious now this planet we live and on start to look after it in a meaningful way.
This principle spreads wider and relates not just to the planet, its biosphere, flora and fauna but also to the accumulated history of man's activities on the earth. The rich mosaic of artifacts we inherited needs to be conserved for future generations, for it explains what we are. Not every single scrap that has history marked on it, but those that are lodged as relevant and significant to the place, time or progression. Most of our vast accumulation of detritus from the past will fail the test suggested leaving some room to move forward.
If a property passes the test and is relevant and significant, then those features and their setting deemed so must be preserved, repaired and a new apt use found, with all costs carried by the custodian owner or forfeit their claim. Once every avenue has been explored and there are no viable options, only then can the owner opt for demolition or significant change. As a pre-requisite the owner to pay up-front for a complete 3D and physical archive of those deemed features and settings, reclaimation of all re-usable materials and payment for future proofed archiving of such records, in consideration of the history lost to later generations.
Just to loop back to an earlier post, to turn green soil into a building plot is not a free right that can be issued by the government. It belongs to our future and the least is an up-front payment to remove all evidence of mans intervention and return the soil back to its prior condition. As above such money not trickling into government coffers but put into immediate use to rescue land or a building in peril.
Nothing is for free and an appropriate contribution to the loss for future generations must be made before commercial gain can be taken.
Our attitude to this Planet has to change, it is not an infinite resource that can be plundered at will and used as a stock-pile to make money out of. We know enough now to understand it is limited and our greed is, or already has, taken us to the point where the end of the earth's resources can be counted.
Already we are talking of running out of oil but that is just a for instance. Whichever way you look there are just too many of us all wanting our share in these limited resources. Gas, rare metals, water, fish, unless it is renewable, it is under threat and has to be in doubt.
So we are not just talking about the buried minerals nor just the flora and fauna that feeds on the surface of our planet but the atmosphere we breath and depend on to create our climate. All is finite, limited and under threat from our continued abuse of our globe. Too many of us expecting more than our share. We have to change tacks. Time for us to accept that we are mere custodians of this planet we live on and we have a responsibility and obligation to our sons and daughters that will inherit the Earth we pass onto them.
It is for us to make sure the Earth we pass on is in no worse a condition than the Earth we inherited. We don't own it we are just temporary custodians.
In principle, if we take something out of our planet that will not replenish itself, if we spoil part of the planets infrastructure that cannot repair itself then we have to make amends to the future generations. If we take out from the planet a resource that will need time to recoup or we spoil virgin soil, these are not free commodities, they have to be paid for, upfront before the event, not a reluctant minimal gesture after the event and after the profits have been taken. Want to take a non-renewable, fine but first pay the full costs of reinstatement to as was beforehand. Even the renewables replacement will have to be paid for first. So pay for the cost of conserving stocks and attendant enforcement before you take your 'free' fish.
Nothing is perfect, so we don't know the full implications of a spoilt or lost resource 50 years down the line but we can best guess the implications as of now. Nor can we fully monetise all the implications but again we can best guess, taking a median position between extremes and all out in the public peer-reviewed. That's a better starting point than the present free-for-all. This conversion into money for the act of spoiling some aspect of our planet for future generations is not a government get out of jail free card. The money has to be ploughed straight back into a relevant conservation or remedial project. To make some amends for the mess we are currently living with. We have to take serious now this planet we live and on start to look after it in a meaningful way.
This principle spreads wider and relates not just to the planet, its biosphere, flora and fauna but also to the accumulated history of man's activities on the earth. The rich mosaic of artifacts we inherited needs to be conserved for future generations, for it explains what we are. Not every single scrap that has history marked on it, but those that are lodged as relevant and significant to the place, time or progression. Most of our vast accumulation of detritus from the past will fail the test suggested leaving some room to move forward.
If a property passes the test and is relevant and significant, then those features and their setting deemed so must be preserved, repaired and a new apt use found, with all costs carried by the custodian owner or forfeit their claim. Once every avenue has been explored and there are no viable options, only then can the owner opt for demolition or significant change. As a pre-requisite the owner to pay up-front for a complete 3D and physical archive of those deemed features and settings, reclaimation of all re-usable materials and payment for future proofed archiving of such records, in consideration of the history lost to later generations.
Just to loop back to an earlier post, to turn green soil into a building plot is not a free right that can be issued by the government. It belongs to our future and the least is an up-front payment to remove all evidence of mans intervention and return the soil back to its prior condition. As above such money not trickling into government coffers but put into immediate use to rescue land or a building in peril.
Nothing is for free and an appropriate contribution to the loss for future generations must be made before commercial gain can be taken.
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