Nothing in nature is centralised. Lots of little things unite to make up the complexity of the vast variety of eco-systems. This is the fundamental and vital fact that the Green Party, governments, and indeed the great majority of people fail to understand. We ignore this fact at our peril.
Consider political power; the more a government tries to impose its own uniform way of doing things on local communities, the more resentful and rebellious will those communities become, as their local customs and initiatives are undermined or attacked. If a government refuses to listen and becomes more autocratic, it will inevitably have to spend more and more time, energy and money imposing it’s authority.
Now consider the power of the five or six major energy companies in the UK which monopolise the market. With government subsidies (ie our money) they build huge coal, gas and nuclear power stations, and arrays of giant wind turbines. At least 40% of the energy generated is lost down the line – hardly efficient, and vastly expensive. But not only that;
Nuclear power is by far the most expensive way to generate energy if you take into account research and development, building, running and de-commissioning costs. Its also potentially hugely dangerous, and in terms of climate change and rising sea levels, a blindly stupid course of action. Energy generation from coal still accounts for about 50% o fUK energy needs and emits vast amounts of carbon dioxide. Wind energy, in the form of arrays of giant turbines, not only radically alters the landscape, it destroys the spiritual and tranquil nature – those numinous, life-enhancing qualities that cannot be measured, much less appreciated by ‘bean-counters’, or indeed the Green Party whose local president seems to enjoy shooting wildlife!
So what is the answer? As I have said before in this column, the only economic and environmentally wise solution is local energy generation.
If you were to erect a wind turbine on an industrial estate eg Pottington in Barnstaple, few would object and the landscape would not be despoiled. If you were to install two or three small hydro units in rivers and streams running through towns and villages and wave generators beneath the cliffs of coastal communities – again few would be against. If, instead of spending tens of billions of pounds on centralising power generation we had a programme of super-insulating every house and factory (energy conservation) and supplying solar panels, small wind generators, underground heat pumps, underfloor heating, heat-retaining glass etc etc etc, most of our smaller communities would be energy self-sufficient if not energy exporters. Such a programme would raise revenue for those communities and provide huge employment opportunities.
None of these ideas are new. The reason they haven’t been pursued is because of vested interests, and an arrogant belief that we are in control of nature, and to exercise that control we need a centralised command economy. Instead of working with nature and applying our technical knowledge on a small local scale, we stamp on her and then grow misty-eyed as we view the disappearing landscape and wildlife. I would appeal to everyone, if you haven’t read it already, and if you have, re-read E.F. Schumacher’s book Small is Beautiful. It might make members of the Green Party in particular withdraw their disastrous support for the proposed Atlantic array in theBristol Channel and the still static, Fullabrook eyesore!
Co-operation – The Only Sensible Way
Socialism failed: transnational, corporate capitalism, driven by greed, and without patriotism or borders, is squeezing the necks of governments and voters and funding the destruction of the planet. Is there another way? From the outside, a co-operative may look like any other business; it’s what goes on inside that makes it different. Co-operatives are businesses owned and run by their members. Whether the members are customers, employees or individuals, they are everyday people who have an equal say in what the business does, and enjoy a share of the profits the business makes One billion people in the world are members of co-ops and there are thirteen million people who are members of co-ops in theUK. There is a co-op in everyUK postcode. Globally, co-ops are worth 1.6 trillion dollars a year – and growing. In theUk for instance, the co-op Bank was named as the world’s most sustainable Bank in 2010 because of it’s ethics. It turned away half a billion pounds’ worth of business in the last few years because it refused to use it’s customers’ money to fund unethical business ventures such as the arms trade, animal experiments or ventures that would harm the environment etc. During the current financial crisis it has not had to be bailed out by the government. It only lends out from the resources it’s customers deposit with it ie it doesn’t speculate with customers’ money. Because it holds to its values and principals, it has seen a 60% rise in customer deposits in the last three years. The United Nations has designated 2012 as The International Year Of Co-operatives. From America (where many small towns and cities have co-operative energy-generation schemes) to Zambia, co-ops across the globe will be celebrating how we can build a better world.
Financial and Political Corruption – And Blindness
As Warren Buffet said ‘ when the tide goes out you can see who’s been bathing naked’. As we are all now experiencing, the economic tide is ebbing fast, and we can all see what a skinny and loathsome lot our politicians, media barons and bankers really look like. They live by their creed that ‘greed is good and avarice a virtue’. With less and less water to swim in they are desperately trying to cover up their ‘privates’, and blaming each other for the mess they have got us into. The churches and educators have failed too. The former have ignored the threat from the only great global religion – the worship of mammon (money) and are instead obsessed with sexual relationships. The latter have bought into the myth that the purpose of education is not the traditional one of developing the individual’s mind, body and spirit, but to educate for the economy ie to fit ‘clots into slots’ – to produce obedient ‘battery hens’ who will produce and consume without asking questions. In fairness, how can the churches and educators compete with the omnipresent powers of the high priesthood of advertisers who control the media with their dominant message that the more you have the happier you’ll be. Meanwhile, twenty years after the first Rio Conference on the threats to the global environment, what conclusions did world leaders come to at the end of the second Rio Conference at the end of June? Basically, things have got a great deal worse, very little has been achieved since ‘Rio 1’, and nothing much more can be achieved until the problems of the sinking global economy have been dealt with. ie. Keep sawing away at the overcrowded branch of the tree on which we’re all sitting! (So much for homo-sapiens).