Tuesday, October 25, 2011
Critical Thinking
If we are going to solve our current governing problems we must all learn to apply Critical Thinking to our problem solving efforts. If we only exchange one form of government based on politics for another one base on political decision making, we will find ourselves faced with the same problems again. If we replace politics with critical thinking and the scientific method we would be addressing our problems with real workable solutions and not with greed, ego or bias.
Saving Humanity
Proposal to Save Humanity
By Dennis Renner
A solution to the water crisis would also solve the issues of global warming and our health care crisis in America. As strange as it may seem these three issues are intertwined and inseparable. As global warming accelerates the loss of our glaciers, our supplies of fresh water are reduced on a global scale. In this proposal we shall examine how the fresh water shortage, America’s health crisis, and global warming are all a result of human choices. There is no argument on this issue, only arguments on how to provoke a change in our choices. Choices, now devastating to our planet and all of humanity.
Lets take a look at water usage and conservation practices. We hear a lot about being careful when we brush our teeth not to leave the tap running. Go to natural desert landscaping instead of lawns. We all know that to install water saver shower heads and toilets would help to conserve and not waste this precious resource. All these ideas are good and should be implemented into our daily lives.
As individual human beings we each use hundreds of gallons to thousands of gallons of fresh water everyday in a way that most people never think about. It is not our sinks, showers, toilets, dishwashers, washing machines, lawns or even our swimming pools. What is it that uses so much fresh water you ask? It is the water we use to grow and produce our food. In America we have a population of 303,824,650 citizens according to the 2008 estimate. For our purposes here we will call it 304 million. Out of that 304 million Americans there is a group of 6 million that use 300 gallons a day for every single person in order to produce their food intake. This group uses one billion eight hundred million gallons of fresh water everyday.
Sounds like a lot of water per person doesn’t it. Lets not get to hasty in our judgments just yet for there is a group of 12 million Americans that use a whopping 1,200 gallons of water a day per person to produce their daily food intake. This group uses fourteen billion four hundred millions gallons of fresh water everyday.
You might think with how glutinous these two groups above us are on water usage that it is no wonder we have a water shortage. Its would seem amazing that their would be any water left for the last group.
So here we are at the last group, 286 million Americans. So how many gallons of water a day per person do you think this group uses? Well on average this group uses an unbelievable 4000 gallons of fresh water per person to produce their daily food intake. This group of Americans uses one trillion, one hundred and forty four billion gallons of fresh water a day to produce their daily food intake.
If you add up all the fresh water that these three groups of Americans use every single day for food production you began to get a picture of why there is a fresh water crisis. We are using it up at a rate far beyond what nature can provide. At current usage we are going to run out. Oh by the way our combined daily water use for all three groups is.
One trillion, two hundred and eighty nine billion, eight hundred million gallons of fresh water used to feed America for one day.
Well we all have to eat don’t we? Of course we do, but just think about it, how come some American individuals can get by on 300 gallons a day while other are using 4000 gallons of fresh water a day. Why the difference? Here is another question. If you take a five-person family that is using 20,000 gallons of water a day to produce their food, how can they afford that much water to produce their food at current water prices. The answer is they can’t afford it.
So why is there such a difference between these groups of Americans and their water usage for food production? The answer is in the foods that they choose to eat. Our first groups of 6 million Americans are Vegan. They choose to not eat any meat or animal products of any kind; they eat only a plant-based diet. The second groups of 12 million Americans are Vegetarians. They choose to eat eggs, dairy and a plant based diet. The eggs and dairy account for the extra 900 gallons of fresh water used. The third and largest group with 286 million Americans chooses to eat a diet containing meat, dairy and eggs.
Lets reiterate this so it is easy to understand.
The individual vegan uses an average of 300 hundred gallons of fresh water per day for their food production.
The individual ovo-lacto vegetarian uses an average of 1200 gallons of fresh water per day for their food production.
The individual meat eater uses an average of 4000 gallons of fresh water per day for their food production.
So you might ask; “How can this be? “ Why does a diet containing animal foods use so much more water? Here is a quick explanation. To produce one pound of beef it requires 2,500 gallons of fresh water. A hundred times the amount of water it takes to grow a pound of wheat. The production of meat, dairy and eggs uses an exorbitant amount of water compared to any plant crop. The sad part of this is that the animal food industries receive huge water subsidies from the state and federal governments. If consumers had to pay the true cost of water at the store a pound of hamburger would be $35.00. If you add all energy costs associated with beef production a pound of beef would cost $90 dollars. With all the environmental costs added in, a pound of beef would cost over $800 dollars.
So let’s have some more fun with the math, I will use Lake Mead as an example. Lake Mead is the largest man made reservoir in the United States. It is a 110 miles long with 247 sq. miles of surface area. It can hold 28.5 million-acre feet of water. That is 9.2 trillion gallons of water when it is full. At current levels it is somewhere around 4.6 trillion gallons. Half empty or half full depending on how you look at things. One thing for sure is that the water level is continually dropping.
Let’s imagine for a moment that all 286 million Americans from the third group made a choice to go vegan. In one day that would save one trillion, fifty eight billion, two hundred million gallons of fresh water. If they continued their vegan diet for a month (31 days) they would save thirty two trillion, eight hundred and four billion, two hundred million gallons of fresh water. That would be enough water to fill Lake Mead three and a half times. Just imagine if Americans chose to go vegan in little of no time all our reservoirs would be full again.
In reality this would only work once animals were no longer being raised for food and their numbers came down to a sustainable level.
Okay that solves the water crisis but how does that fix global warming and America’s health crisis. Well it’s a nasty big secret that the meat industry rather you not know. Raising so many millions of animals for slaughter has a nasty side effect. Millions of animals raised for slaughter produce massive amounts of methane gas. The worlds cattle population emit into the atmosphere 100 million tonnes of methane each year, significant enough levels to heat up the planet. Methane is a green house gas that holds 25 times the heat that Co2 holds. It is estimated that half of all the global warming is caused by methane produced by animals being raised for food. Methane from animals being raised for food is responsible for more global warming than all the cars and industry combined. Not only that, all these animals produce tons and tons of sewage wastes. A lot of that waste is polluting our rivers streams and aquifers, further damaging our fresh water resources.
If the insanity of raising all these animals ended so would their production of methane. Methane cycles out of the earth’s atmosphere much quicker than Co2; in as little as 8 years we could be turning global warming around. I wish this was the end of this issue but raising meat adds to global warming in another way. Animal production has a huge carbon footprint. When you add up all the petroleum products it uses for farming the hay and grain. Trucking the animals and running the feed lot operations. Trucking them to the slaughterhouses processing the meat, refrigeration, and shipping to your local stores. By the time you add this all together, every pound of meat produced used a gallon of petroleum. Every gallon of petroleum produces 20 pounds of Co2 that ends up in our atmosphere.
Look at it this way. A thousand pound steer uses 1000 gallons of petroleum. That is enough fuel to power the average car for more than a year. Every quarter pound hamburger sold for .99 cents uses $8.50 in water and another .50 cents in petroleum. That doesn’t cover the energy to cook it or the labor to prepare it or packaging. I think by now you can see how heavily our government with your money subsidizes the meat industry.
Okay we have solved the water crisis and global warming but what about America’s health crisis? Okay here is my proposal. I would not want to see legislation dictating what Americans can and cannot eat. I propose that we let the free market system work. Let’s pull all the government subsidies off of, beef, pork, chicken, fish and the eggs industries and while we are at it we should include the alcohol, and tobacco industries. Now let’s divert all that money into a universal health care system for all Americans. This will in time produce a huge dividend to solving our health care crisis. By removing the subsidies off of meat most Americans would eat far less of it. It is simple economics. If Americans had to pay $90.00 a pound; eating meat would go out style. A hamburger costing $24 dollars might not have the appeal that it does now. An affordable veggie burger might look far more appetizing.
Eating meat is just as healthy as smoking cigarettes. Just like the tobacco industry will never admit their products cause lung cancer. The animal food producers will never admit that their products can cause, colon, breast, prostate, pancreatic, esophageal, and many other cancers. They will never admit that eating their products leads to diabetes, high blood pressure, obesity, osteoporosis, arterial sclerosis, and heart attacks. The fact is that eating meat is directly related to all these maladies. The science is in; if you want to increase your odds on a long and healthy life, cut the animal products out of your diet. A whole foods plant based diet is the proven way to avoid the diseases listed above. ( Read the "China Study" by T.Colin Campbell, PHD)
There is another component to this story. While we are feeding eighty to ninety percent of our grains to produce obese animals for food; approximately sixty million people will starve to death on this planet this year. Forty million of those will be children. This can only be described as a crime against humanity and another cost of our meat eating diet.
How severe is this problem?
You might be walking down the isles of your favorite store today thinking everything looks fine. All the shelves are full. I see no problem because of fresh water shortages here. Well let’s look a little further. At current water usage water experts claim that by 2017 the water level in Lake Mead will drop to the point that hydroelectric production will end. By 2021 Lake Mead will run dry. The ramifications from this will be disastrous. Electrical power shortages through out the southwest. Water for irrigating crops in Arizona and Southern California will be severely impaired. The ripple effect will be felt across this nation.
The next domino to fall will be the Olagala reservoir; it once contained more water than all five great lakes combined. It is the lifeblood of the Midwestern United States. At the rate we are pumping it dry it will be gone in another 10 to 20 years leaving the central region of United States a giant dust bowl.
As you can see by now we have to make a change in the ways we deal with our fresh water supplies. Change is coming whether we like it or not. It is up to us to decide what those changes will look like. In the end all the water saving devices we can use in and out of our homes will only slow down the inevitable disaster. The only real answer to these problems is addressing the issue of the biggest waster of fresh water, the production of animal based foods. Choosing a diet low in animal products will secure Americas water needs for generations to come.
Think one person cannot make a difference. If one American changes from a meat eater to a vegan, in one year that person alone will have saved, one million, three hundred and fifty thousand, eight hundred gallons of water.
That is why my family and I choose to be vegan. It is our way of helping humanity deal with the issues of a Global Water Crisis, Global Warming and Americas Health Crisis.
Please join with us in demanding that the subsidies for alcohol, tobacco, and all animal food products be stopped. Government subsidies should never be used to harm Americans or destroy their children’s future.
A solution to the water crisis would also solve the issues of global warming and our health care crisis in America. As strange as it may seem these three issues are intertwined and inseparable. As global warming accelerates the loss of our glaciers, our supplies of fresh water are reduced on a global scale. In this proposal we shall examine how the fresh water shortage, America’s health crisis, and global warming are all a result of human choices. There is no argument on this issue, only arguments on how to provoke a change in our choices. Choices, now devastating to our planet and all of humanity.
Lets take a look at water usage and conservation practices. We hear a lot about being careful when we brush our teeth not to leave the tap running. Go to natural desert landscaping instead of lawns. We all know that to install water saver shower heads and toilets would help to conserve and not waste this precious resource. All these ideas are good and should be implemented into our daily lives.
As individual human beings we each use hundreds of gallons to thousands of gallons of fresh water everyday in a way that most people never think about. It is not our sinks, showers, toilets, dishwashers, washing machines, lawns or even our swimming pools. What is it that uses so much fresh water you ask? It is the water we use to grow and produce our food. In America we have a population of 303,824,650 citizens according to the 2008 estimate. For our purposes here we will call it 304 million. Out of that 304 million Americans there is a group of 6 million that use 300 gallons a day for every single person in order to produce their food intake. This group uses one billion eight hundred million gallons of fresh water everyday.
Sounds like a lot of water per person doesn’t it. Lets not get to hasty in our judgments just yet for there is a group of 12 million Americans that use a whopping 1,200 gallons of water a day per person to produce their daily food intake. This group uses fourteen billion four hundred millions gallons of fresh water everyday.
You might think with how glutinous these two groups above us are on water usage that it is no wonder we have a water shortage. Its would seem amazing that their would be any water left for the last group.
So here we are at the last group, 286 million Americans. So how many gallons of water a day per person do you think this group uses? Well on average this group uses an unbelievable 4000 gallons of fresh water per person to produce their daily food intake. This group of Americans uses one trillion, one hundred and forty four billion gallons of fresh water a day to produce their daily food intake.
If you add up all the fresh water that these three groups of Americans use every single day for food production you began to get a picture of why there is a fresh water crisis. We are using it up at a rate far beyond what nature can provide. At current usage we are going to run out. Oh by the way our combined daily water use for all three groups is.
One trillion, two hundred and eighty nine billion, eight hundred million gallons of fresh water used to feed America for one day.
Well we all have to eat don’t we? Of course we do, but just think about it, how come some American individuals can get by on 300 gallons a day while other are using 4000 gallons of fresh water a day. Why the difference? Here is another question. If you take a five-person family that is using 20,000 gallons of water a day to produce their food, how can they afford that much water to produce their food at current water prices. The answer is they can’t afford it.
So why is there such a difference between these groups of Americans and their water usage for food production? The answer is in the foods that they choose to eat. Our first groups of 6 million Americans are Vegan. They choose to not eat any meat or animal products of any kind; they eat only a plant-based diet. The second groups of 12 million Americans are Vegetarians. They choose to eat eggs, dairy and a plant based diet. The eggs and dairy account for the extra 900 gallons of fresh water used. The third and largest group with 286 million Americans chooses to eat a diet containing meat, dairy and eggs.
Lets reiterate this so it is easy to understand.
The individual vegan uses an average of 300 hundred gallons of fresh water per day for their food production.
The individual ovo-lacto vegetarian uses an average of 1200 gallons of fresh water per day for their food production.
The individual meat eater uses an average of 4000 gallons of fresh water per day for their food production.
So you might ask; “How can this be? “ Why does a diet containing animal foods use so much more water? Here is a quick explanation. To produce one pound of beef it requires 2,500 gallons of fresh water. A hundred times the amount of water it takes to grow a pound of wheat. The production of meat, dairy and eggs uses an exorbitant amount of water compared to any plant crop. The sad part of this is that the animal food industries receive huge water subsidies from the state and federal governments. If consumers had to pay the true cost of water at the store a pound of hamburger would be $35.00. If you add all energy costs associated with beef production a pound of beef would cost $90 dollars. With all the environmental costs added in, a pound of beef would cost over $800 dollars.
So let’s have some more fun with the math, I will use Lake Mead as an example. Lake Mead is the largest man made reservoir in the United States. It is a 110 miles long with 247 sq. miles of surface area. It can hold 28.5 million-acre feet of water. That is 9.2 trillion gallons of water when it is full. At current levels it is somewhere around 4.6 trillion gallons. Half empty or half full depending on how you look at things. One thing for sure is that the water level is continually dropping.
Let’s imagine for a moment that all 286 million Americans from the third group made a choice to go vegan. In one day that would save one trillion, fifty eight billion, two hundred million gallons of fresh water. If they continued their vegan diet for a month (31 days) they would save thirty two trillion, eight hundred and four billion, two hundred million gallons of fresh water. That would be enough water to fill Lake Mead three and a half times. Just imagine if Americans chose to go vegan in little of no time all our reservoirs would be full again.
In reality this would only work once animals were no longer being raised for food and their numbers came down to a sustainable level.
Okay that solves the water crisis but how does that fix global warming and America’s health crisis. Well it’s a nasty big secret that the meat industry rather you not know. Raising so many millions of animals for slaughter has a nasty side effect. Millions of animals raised for slaughter produce massive amounts of methane gas. The worlds cattle population emit into the atmosphere 100 million tonnes of methane each year, significant enough levels to heat up the planet. Methane is a green house gas that holds 25 times the heat that Co2 holds. It is estimated that half of all the global warming is caused by methane produced by animals being raised for food. Methane from animals being raised for food is responsible for more global warming than all the cars and industry combined. Not only that, all these animals produce tons and tons of sewage wastes. A lot of that waste is polluting our rivers streams and aquifers, further damaging our fresh water resources.
If the insanity of raising all these animals ended so would their production of methane. Methane cycles out of the earth’s atmosphere much quicker than Co2; in as little as 8 years we could be turning global warming around. I wish this was the end of this issue but raising meat adds to global warming in another way. Animal production has a huge carbon footprint. When you add up all the petroleum products it uses for farming the hay and grain. Trucking the animals and running the feed lot operations. Trucking them to the slaughterhouses processing the meat, refrigeration, and shipping to your local stores. By the time you add this all together, every pound of meat produced used a gallon of petroleum. Every gallon of petroleum produces 20 pounds of Co2 that ends up in our atmosphere.
Look at it this way. A thousand pound steer uses 1000 gallons of petroleum. That is enough fuel to power the average car for more than a year. Every quarter pound hamburger sold for .99 cents uses $8.50 in water and another .50 cents in petroleum. That doesn’t cover the energy to cook it or the labor to prepare it or packaging. I think by now you can see how heavily our government with your money subsidizes the meat industry.
Okay we have solved the water crisis and global warming but what about America’s health crisis? Okay here is my proposal. I would not want to see legislation dictating what Americans can and cannot eat. I propose that we let the free market system work. Let’s pull all the government subsidies off of, beef, pork, chicken, fish and the eggs industries and while we are at it we should include the alcohol, and tobacco industries. Now let’s divert all that money into a universal health care system for all Americans. This will in time produce a huge dividend to solving our health care crisis. By removing the subsidies off of meat most Americans would eat far less of it. It is simple economics. If Americans had to pay $90.00 a pound; eating meat would go out style. A hamburger costing $24 dollars might not have the appeal that it does now. An affordable veggie burger might look far more appetizing.
Eating meat is just as healthy as smoking cigarettes. Just like the tobacco industry will never admit their products cause lung cancer. The animal food producers will never admit that their products can cause, colon, breast, prostate, pancreatic, esophageal, and many other cancers. They will never admit that eating their products leads to diabetes, high blood pressure, obesity, osteoporosis, arterial sclerosis, and heart attacks. The fact is that eating meat is directly related to all these maladies. The science is in; if you want to increase your odds on a long and healthy life, cut the animal products out of your diet. A whole foods plant based diet is the proven way to avoid the diseases listed above. ( Read the "China Study" by T.Colin Campbell, PHD)
There is another component to this story. While we are feeding eighty to ninety percent of our grains to produce obese animals for food; approximately sixty million people will starve to death on this planet this year. Forty million of those will be children. This can only be described as a crime against humanity and another cost of our meat eating diet.
How severe is this problem?
You might be walking down the isles of your favorite store today thinking everything looks fine. All the shelves are full. I see no problem because of fresh water shortages here. Well let’s look a little further. At current water usage water experts claim that by 2017 the water level in Lake Mead will drop to the point that hydroelectric production will end. By 2021 Lake Mead will run dry. The ramifications from this will be disastrous. Electrical power shortages through out the southwest. Water for irrigating crops in Arizona and Southern California will be severely impaired. The ripple effect will be felt across this nation.
The next domino to fall will be the Olagala reservoir; it once contained more water than all five great lakes combined. It is the lifeblood of the Midwestern United States. At the rate we are pumping it dry it will be gone in another 10 to 20 years leaving the central region of United States a giant dust bowl.
As you can see by now we have to make a change in the ways we deal with our fresh water supplies. Change is coming whether we like it or not. It is up to us to decide what those changes will look like. In the end all the water saving devices we can use in and out of our homes will only slow down the inevitable disaster. The only real answer to these problems is addressing the issue of the biggest waster of fresh water, the production of animal based foods. Choosing a diet low in animal products will secure Americas water needs for generations to come.
Think one person cannot make a difference. If one American changes from a meat eater to a vegan, in one year that person alone will have saved, one million, three hundred and fifty thousand, eight hundred gallons of water.
That is why my family and I choose to be vegan. It is our way of helping humanity deal with the issues of a Global Water Crisis, Global Warming and Americas Health Crisis.
Please join with us in demanding that the subsidies for alcohol, tobacco, and all animal food products be stopped. Government subsidies should never be used to harm Americans or destroy their children’s future.
Time to Progress
Time to Progress
By Dennis Renner Global warming, resource depletion, plant and animal extinction, and a myriad of other social and health issues are facing humanity and our planet.
There are so many major problems facing humanity today that it is almost too depressing to think about them. Perhaps that is why religion is so popular. It offers people a form of escapism from reality.
All these problems need fixes and yet humanities current institutions are gridlocked and unable to work together to solve these impending disasters that could be modern civilizations undoing.
Industrial expansion is in conflict with our environment, economics is in conflict with almost every aspect of human existence and our natural world. Religion and politics are in conflict with science. Isolated in our separated man made borders both real and imagined, personal interests are in conflict with the greater well-being. Humanity is failing to see the big picture and the scope of dangers we are creating for ourselves and all life on this planet.
After spending a great deal of time studying these issues. I have come to the conclusion that we are trying to solve modern technical problems, in a fast moving world, with outdated, slow, antiquated systems.
Human knowledge has grown exponentially over the last 234 years. Changes have taken place beyond anyone’s comprehension from the seventeen hundreds. It is unrealistic to expect knowledge from the horse and buggy era to be able to meet the needs of our modern world’s computer-age.
Antiquated Systems: lets look at our government institutions. Here in the United States we boast proudly that we are a democracy. You hear the word bantered about like it is the end all solution to every earthly problem; and yet everyone is frustrated at how dysfunctional our democratic government has become. We as a people have become so divided on the issues that government suffers from partisan-constipation. Government by representation has gone from representing the citizens to representing the big money interests of the corporations. Very few feel it is serving the best interests of its citizens. According to the top 6 polls at (Polling Report.com) “Congress’s job rating ran between 63% to 72% disapproval for January 2010.” and it has only gotten worse as time goes on.
Democracy has always been flawed as best put in this simple quote. “Democracy is two wolves and a sheep voting as to what’s for dinner;” or “Democracy is only as good as the majority of its voters.” America was supposed to be a republic where the Bill of Rights protected everyone’s civil rights from the dangers of majority rule. Today many of our civil-rights and freedoms have been lost to our form of democracy, but I am not here to rant on democracy’s pros and cons but simply to explain that in our modern world that current democratic forms of government are as out dated as despotic rule, and are not meeting the needs of the people or fixing the problems that we are facing. Politics in itself is archaic and often creates more problems than it solves. Our current government is also incapable of rendering solutions to deal with our problems because of it ties to an archaic monetary system that puts profits ahead of human and environmental issues.
Political government decision making, under our current system is corrupted by human emotions like greed, fear, religious dogmas, and prejudice. Most politicians are uneducated in the fields of science. They are ill-equipped to comprehend and provide viable solutions. Unfortunately when they seek expert advice it often comes from corporate insiders whose research data is based on stockholder profits.
This leads me to another one of our outdated institutions; our economic institution, although modernized, it still mimics archaic financial systems of the past, promoting social stratification, injustice, exploitation, prejudge, poverty, wars, crime, and need less to say, suffering and death. At the heart of our current economic system there is still underpinnings of master and serf . When we examine these two institutions with scrutiny we see that they do not fit into our modern world’s ideas of justice, fairness, equality or function.
Both of our current governing and economic systems have served their purposes in the past but they are failing greatly to meet the needs of our fast moving, technically advancing world. Using institutions that are based in emotions and political wrangling is trying to solve highly technical problems with antiquated backwards thinking. It just doesn’t work. We must progress governing to the next logical step.
If we are going to solve the major issues that humanity is facing we are going to have to progress our systems of governing and economics by applying the scientific method to all our decision making processes. Any new economic system must incorporate human and environmental needs over profit. In fact the entire idea of profit must be one base on equality and how well humanity and the environment are doing as a whole, from a scientifically sustainable perspective.
Every problem facing humanity could be solved using the scientific method. It might produce answers and solutions that some humans may not always appreciate at first. Like a bitter pill that saves your life; the outcome could be a world without the injustices, inequality, exploitation of human and planetary resources, that has led to the crimes and wars ever plaguing humanity . It offers us a rational logical way of governing that could move all of humanity toward a more peaceful and positive future. It could provide the solutions and actions necessary to reverse global warming, amend resource depletion, and put a stop to accelerated extinction.
Perhaps you agree with me that this would be a good Idea but feel that I am naive in thinking that such a perspective could be accomplished. As for example just look at how long most people hold on to their religious institutions despite any objective evidence that any of their gods ever existed. I too am afraid that despite how dysfunctional, dogmatic, corrupt, exploitive, unjust, and hated our systems of government and financial institutions are. A percentage of people will irrationally still cling to them like a child clings to their favorite teddy-bear. Just remember that at one time democracy was the new and improved idea over despotism.
As many of us are excited by new and better ways of doing things others are just as rooted in social and cultural stagnation. The only way to make a change is to educate others that there are solutions to these problems. Next time you hear someone complaining about the economy, or our government bring up the fact that there are viable solutions. Remind them of all the problems that we have solved using the scientific method. We can replace all the political wrangling and remove a financial system that perpetuates inequality and blocks our ability to fix our problems. After all democracy and our economy are just out-dated human ideas that have out lived their usefulness. Its time to progress.
There are so many major problems facing humanity today that it is almost too depressing to think about them. Perhaps that is why religion is so popular. It offers people a form of escapism from reality.
All these problems need fixes and yet humanities current institutions are gridlocked and unable to work together to solve these impending disasters that could be modern civilizations undoing.
Industrial expansion is in conflict with our environment, economics is in conflict with almost every aspect of human existence and our natural world. Religion and politics are in conflict with science. Isolated in our separated man made borders both real and imagined, personal interests are in conflict with the greater well-being. Humanity is failing to see the big picture and the scope of dangers we are creating for ourselves and all life on this planet.
After spending a great deal of time studying these issues. I have come to the conclusion that we are trying to solve modern technical problems, in a fast moving world, with outdated, slow, antiquated systems.
Human knowledge has grown exponentially over the last 234 years. Changes have taken place beyond anyone’s comprehension from the seventeen hundreds. It is unrealistic to expect knowledge from the horse and buggy era to be able to meet the needs of our modern world’s computer-age.
Antiquated Systems: lets look at our government institutions. Here in the United States we boast proudly that we are a democracy. You hear the word bantered about like it is the end all solution to every earthly problem; and yet everyone is frustrated at how dysfunctional our democratic government has become. We as a people have become so divided on the issues that government suffers from partisan-constipation. Government by representation has gone from representing the citizens to representing the big money interests of the corporations. Very few feel it is serving the best interests of its citizens. According to the top 6 polls at (Polling Report.com) “Congress’s job rating ran between 63% to 72% disapproval for January 2010.” and it has only gotten worse as time goes on.
Democracy has always been flawed as best put in this simple quote. “Democracy is two wolves and a sheep voting as to what’s for dinner;” or “Democracy is only as good as the majority of its voters.” America was supposed to be a republic where the Bill of Rights protected everyone’s civil rights from the dangers of majority rule. Today many of our civil-rights and freedoms have been lost to our form of democracy, but I am not here to rant on democracy’s pros and cons but simply to explain that in our modern world that current democratic forms of government are as out dated as despotic rule, and are not meeting the needs of the people or fixing the problems that we are facing. Politics in itself is archaic and often creates more problems than it solves. Our current government is also incapable of rendering solutions to deal with our problems because of it ties to an archaic monetary system that puts profits ahead of human and environmental issues.
Political government decision making, under our current system is corrupted by human emotions like greed, fear, religious dogmas, and prejudice. Most politicians are uneducated in the fields of science. They are ill-equipped to comprehend and provide viable solutions. Unfortunately when they seek expert advice it often comes from corporate insiders whose research data is based on stockholder profits.
This leads me to another one of our outdated institutions; our economic institution, although modernized, it still mimics archaic financial systems of the past, promoting social stratification, injustice, exploitation, prejudge, poverty, wars, crime, and need less to say, suffering and death. At the heart of our current economic system there is still underpinnings of master and serf . When we examine these two institutions with scrutiny we see that they do not fit into our modern world’s ideas of justice, fairness, equality or function.
Both of our current governing and economic systems have served their purposes in the past but they are failing greatly to meet the needs of our fast moving, technically advancing world. Using institutions that are based in emotions and political wrangling is trying to solve highly technical problems with antiquated backwards thinking. It just doesn’t work. We must progress governing to the next logical step.
If we are going to solve the major issues that humanity is facing we are going to have to progress our systems of governing and economics by applying the scientific method to all our decision making processes. Any new economic system must incorporate human and environmental needs over profit. In fact the entire idea of profit must be one base on equality and how well humanity and the environment are doing as a whole, from a scientifically sustainable perspective.
Every problem facing humanity could be solved using the scientific method. It might produce answers and solutions that some humans may not always appreciate at first. Like a bitter pill that saves your life; the outcome could be a world without the injustices, inequality, exploitation of human and planetary resources, that has led to the crimes and wars ever plaguing humanity . It offers us a rational logical way of governing that could move all of humanity toward a more peaceful and positive future. It could provide the solutions and actions necessary to reverse global warming, amend resource depletion, and put a stop to accelerated extinction.
Perhaps you agree with me that this would be a good Idea but feel that I am naive in thinking that such a perspective could be accomplished. As for example just look at how long most people hold on to their religious institutions despite any objective evidence that any of their gods ever existed. I too am afraid that despite how dysfunctional, dogmatic, corrupt, exploitive, unjust, and hated our systems of government and financial institutions are. A percentage of people will irrationally still cling to them like a child clings to their favorite teddy-bear. Just remember that at one time democracy was the new and improved idea over despotism.
As many of us are excited by new and better ways of doing things others are just as rooted in social and cultural stagnation. The only way to make a change is to educate others that there are solutions to these problems. Next time you hear someone complaining about the economy, or our government bring up the fact that there are viable solutions. Remind them of all the problems that we have solved using the scientific method. We can replace all the political wrangling and remove a financial system that perpetuates inequality and blocks our ability to fix our problems. After all democracy and our economy are just out-dated human ideas that have out lived their usefulness. Its time to progress.
Short Sighted Science
Irresponsible Arrogance
By Dennis Renner
I imagine I will upset quite a few people with this blog. My purpose in writing it is to cause people to think. It's time humanity took a long look into the looking glass.
I hear and see science applauding its' self all the time for the miracle drugs and vaccinations that it has produce for humanity. I also see science applauding its' self for our modern agricultural practices capable of feeding billions more people than ever before. And Humanity in a deluded state said. “It is good.”
When we study other species that we share this planet with we approach it from a purely analytical view point. We understand that evolution in order to create a balance in nature often uses disease, food supply or predators to keep a specie's population numbers in check. We have seen what can happen when a new species is suddenly introduced into a habitat that fails to have these natural balances. For instance the introduction of the European Rabbit into Australia. Here the rabbit had no natural enemies and so it spread like wild fire across the outback eating everything in its path.
After the European Rabbits introduction in 1859, Australia's ecology suffered devastating damage. The European Rabbit has been the suspected cause of the largest species loss in Australia. They are also responsible for devastating erosion across Australia by leaving the top soil exposed. Australia's ecosystem will never return to a pre-rabbit environment.
There is another species on this planet that is doing far more damage than the meek rabbit could ever do. Yes I am speaking of the human species. In an emotional response to the factors that held our populations numbers with-in check, we have arrogantly seen ourselves as some sort of divine creature superior to all others. If predators threatened us we destroyed them. If a disease causes massive death we created vaccines to put a stop to what we saw as pain, suffering and untimely death. We totally disregarded the fact that we needed such diseases to keep our numbers in balance with nature. We also failed to see that even though diseases may kill off large numbers it allows the strongest to survive there by strengthening the species. Yes it is how evolution works but humanity has tried to side step natural selection with the use of science.
The food factor: Today we grow and raise enough food to feed 7 billion people. Some too excess and others at nearly a starvation rate. Never the less through modern farming practices and using industrial chemicals we can produce more food than ever before. (Big Applause) Well maybe we need to look a little closer at our modern miracles before we give too much self praise. Perhaps we have forgotten that in science there is a law known as; Cause and Effect, and that it should always be studied before we act.
Humanity has been blinded by our emotions. We failed to see that our causes like eradicating diseases and producing major amounts of food could have some very serious effects. First, we now see our human population grown to an unsustainable rate. We are using up our natural resource, way beyond our planets ability to replace them. Resources like oil and certain minerals are not replaceable. Arable land is being destroyed at an alarming rate. It is already estimated that the amount of farm land that has been destroyed by modern farming practices equals the land mass of China and India combined. In America we are loosing our top soil, polluting our water ways, and creating dead zones along our oceans coastal regions all do to our scientific modern farming. On top of that we use billions of gallons of oil and natural gas to produce our food. With our current agricultural practices it takes 10 calories of petroleum for every 1 calorie that reaches our plates. Current food production is based on a finite resource.
The truth of all of this is that our modern food production both plant and animal is not even close to being sustainable. The effect will be like hitting a wall. As the human population moves on towards nine billion our petroleum resources, and our ability to feed the worlds population will collapse. To complicate things further our fresh water resources will fail to meet our agricultural needs. All ready many of our reservoirs and underground aquifers are seriously low.
The end result will be a massive human die off. I have read information off some of the scientific sites estimating 5.5 billion human deaths due to the affects of peak oil. Massive disease and starvation are still predicted to be the effect of our irresponsible arrogance and our short sighted scientific efforts.
Summery:
Scientists and the rest of humanity should have seen this coming a long time ago. When considering any new technology it is always important to completely study the environmental effects. Just because we can do something does not always mean that we should do it. The side effects of the oil age, modern farming, and disease control have been proven to be disastrous for humanity. Over population is the result and it is pushing us into another extinction as we loose more and more species due to habitat and environmental destruction. Our mistake was in not realizing that we were symbiotically connected to nature and we needed to live and work responsibly with in nature instead of against it. In our arrogance we humans thought that we could outwit evolution and nature with our superior intellect and god's help.
Surprise!
Post Script:
I in no way am advocating euthanasia or death camps or any such inhumane solution. I do think that through education, cultural and religious dogmas, can be over come and that birth control can be made universal so that pain and suffering from resource depletion can be avoided in a relatively short number of years.
Please remember that Nature cares nothing about our morals or ethics, Nature is just forces in the universe in a constant state of flux. At this moment in time humanity enjoys a life support system that allows life as we know it. Humanity as a collective has now become a force with in nature that can end life as we know it.
Getting Involved in Politics
I often hear the question or a suggestion that I get involved in the political process.
Here are my reasons for thinking this is a really bad idea. First of all politics is like walking through a deep mud puddle. There is just no way to do it without getting dirty.
Politics in our strange form of democracy (really a plutocracy) is not base on truth, facts, science, critical thinking or in the best interests of the country or its' citizens. Politics in America is ruled by profits, greed, corporations, lobbyists, emotions, religious dogmas, and bigotry. Why would any rational person think that entering the political fray would be the answer. Politics by its' nature weeds out the honest and moral individuals that get into office and makes them impotent until they can be replaced by some one who is willing to play the games of deceit, stealing, exploitation, lying, and wielding of power .
If there is one thing I have learned in my life, it is that politicians from either side of the isle cannot be trusted. The other thing I have learned that even the best of them are liars and will say anything to get elected. The system is corrupt.
If a moral person wants to get involved there is nothing stopping him or her except that the game is not played by ethical rules. You will be face by a majority of immoral politicians. In this you have two choices, you can lie and play the game as the other politicians do; or second you can face the challenge of being honest and being an outcast rejected by your peers.
Perhaps we have to look at the flaws in democracy to understand how messy and dysfunctional our form of government is. First it is based off of the vote of the majority as if the majority is always right. Lets take a quick look at this idea. The majority of the people at one time thought the earth was flat. The majority at one time believed in creationism. The majority at one time thought the earth was the center of the universe. The majority at on time believed in some form of demigod. The majority has few critical thinking skills. The majority are very gullible. The majority respond to emotional manipulation by charismatic figures.
The majority are not the most intelligent.
The majority are not scientists.
The majority are not social engineers.
The majority are not economists.
The majority are not the most moral.
The majority are not the most ethical.
The majority are not the best suited to decision making. So why would we choose to participate in a system where the majority rule.
The truth is that the majority don't rule. It is all a farce. This country is run by a very small minority. The ultra wealthy. The country is run by profiteers and corporations through lobbyists that buy the votes of the congressman and senators. It is the ultimate form of government by misrepresentation.
No matter how you look at it, the political system in America is just rotten to the core. Maybe it is not as bad as some political systems in other countries but still it is far from a rational, logical, fare, expedient way to govern. Our glorified ideals of our democratic form of government are just another form of dogma.
As, free thinkers, critical thinkers, we should understand that jumping into the mud pit will only get us as dirty as rest of the politicians, that we all despise and are frustrated with. In the end we would only be caught in the bog of a dysfunctional government.
I see moralists as taking the high road and creating an information system that exposes the flaws in the current system so that humanity can start moving toward a system of governing that is based off of the scientific method, Where decisions are under continual peer review by experts in the field, Where basic human needs, like food, medical care, clothing, shelter, and education are held above the ideas of profits. Where we understand that all of society will gain greatly by providing these basic human needs to everyone. With rational, critical thinking, peer review and the scientific method applied to all of our decision making, humanity might just have a chance at a decent future.
As it is in the current system it is just too messy, slow, and corrupt. That is why we have not addressed global warming. We have not prevented poverty, We have not stopped starvation and hunger. We have not provided universal health care or equality. That is why our education system is failing. That is why we have not extinguished bigotry. The current system will never will solve these problems as long as it is more profitable not too. Our archaic economic system is designed to create and maintain social stratification, exploitation, and injustice. None of these problems can really be solved until it is replaced by a resource based economy instead of a monetary based economy.
I completely reject the idea that we have to work within what system exists. The system that exists is rigged to maintain the status quo. That is why I reject the idea of atheists, entering into the current political system. We need to operate above the fray like we deal with religion. We don't find the answers to religions dogmas' and bigotry by participating in church. Why would we think attending a theistic dominated, corrupt system of government would provide atheists real equality or solutions to humanities really big problems.
Al Gore made a rather profound statement when asked about running for office again. He said “that he found he could be more effective outside of government.” Outside he did not have to answer to the lobbyists or the corporations.
Think about it!
Carnivore or Herbivore ???
By Dennis Renner
The realization of human survival and our food choices are becoming main stream. With our world reaching over 7 billion in population it has become obvious that we cannot feed everyone on animal based foods. 90% of the calories that we feed to animals are lost in the production of animal based foods. It is just not sustainable. The argument goes that humans require animal based foods in their diet in order to be healthy. Is this true and did we evolve to eat animal based foods as many claim?
If you believe in evolution then you have to accept what science has discovered about the human body and how it has evolved. The idea that primitive man ate a diet primarily of meat is flawed. At best early man was an omnivore with the greatest part of his diet being plant based.
Let’s look at comparative anatomy of herbivores and carnivores. There are many similarities, but there are very distinct differences. First off herbivores have no claws; Carnivores have claws, and long sharp teeth on the end of a long snout for ripping and tearing hide and flesh. Herbivores molars are not pointed but flat for grinding. Herbivores jaws have the ability to move sideways to aid in there mastication. Carnivores and omnivores have very little sideways jaw movement and swallow their food whole. Herbivores have pores in their skin to perspire through; Carnivores perspire through the tongue to cool down their bodies. Carnivores have evolved very acid saliva with no enzymes for digestion. Herbivores have alkaline saliva with ptyalin enzymes to help digest fruits and grains. Carnivores have very strong hydrochloric stomach acid to help digest flesh. Herbivores have evolved stomach acid twenty times weaker than carnivores. Carnivores have evolved a relative short digestive track to pass the material through quickly so as to not absorb too many fats. Herbivores have evolved very long digestive tracks in order to aid in extracting nutrition from plants.
Now let’s look at human anatomy and see how the human has evolved. Humans have no claws, their teeth are flat and their jaws move sideways for grinding and chewing their food before swallowing. Humans have pores in their skin that they perspire through to cool themselves. Humans have evolved hydrochloric stomach acid twenty times weaker than all carnivores. Humans have alkaline saliva with ptyalin enzymes for digesting fruits and grains. Humans have evolved a very long digestive tract like other herbivores.
When you examine how the human anatomy has evolved it is obvious that we are herbivores. There is a lot of scientific evidence but one of the most notable is that humans will generally become ill or dye when eating uncooked flesh like a wild carnivores. Humans do not contain the stomach enzymes that kill harmful bacteria and parasites that carnivores do. Also all carnivores produce enzymes that neutralize the uric acid in their diet, humans produce no such enzymes. When a human eats a diet high in animal products they suffer a number of heath problem associated with uric acid. Gout, kidney stones, kidney failure, arthritis, certain cancers, cardio vascular disease. and now uric acid has been connected to chronic brain ischemia in humans.
Humans do not digest animal proteins well, and animal based foods cause many detrimental health issues for humans. Second because humans are anatomical evolved herbivores we thrive on plant proteins. Science clearly shows herbivore anatomical evolution in humans.
Still the great human hunter is how many choose to see our ancient ancestors. It is true animal proteins have made up a percentage of human diet for some time now but to have evolved our human anatomy took millions of years and it clearly shows that for most of that time we were herbivore.
( Clarification, Omnivores also share jaw designs, stronger levels of stomach acids, long snouts and many other traits more related to carnivores than herbivores.)
Politics:
A Bad System of Governance
Imagine if you will that our founding fathers were unwilling to invest in new ideas of governing. That even if they didn't like the monarchy they still clung to the ideas of despotic rule. I shudder to think how different our country would be today. I think our founding fathers wrote an amazing document in our Constitution. I think the great experiment of mixing democracy and a republic together was an incredible stroke of genius for the time. I think creating a governing body with checks and balances had great foresight and that separation of Church and State is an essential element.
So what happened? The United States Government in recent years has not had a positive approval rating from it citizens in I cannot remember when. There is a real sense that it is completely dysfunctional and crippled by partisanship, corruption, and that our entire system is now controlled by the wealthy corporations. For instance; I cannot think of any American I know that thinks selling military arms to Saudi Arabia would be a good idea. It is common knowledge that they support terrorism, and yet our government recently sold them 60 billion dollars worth of arms. Corporate defense contractors just made a bundle, but at what cost to peace and security in the world and here at home?
When I talk about replacing our current broken government I certainly am not talking about returning to some past form like despotism or totalitarianism. I am talking about creating something new and better that keeps the best ideas of our founding fathers and adds modern ideas and tools that allows our government to work with the knowledge and speed of today's fast moving world. Lets face it. Our current system is not meeting the needs of its' citizens. The current state of politics and our economic system have become so antiquated and slow it cannot solve our current problems.
Don't get me wrong I am not calling for violent revolution of any kind. I am merely talking about creating a think tank that can come up with solutions to fix or replace our ailing economic system and revamp the current government to where it can once again function in an effective way so that it can get things done, like actually address the problem of global warming and our energy crisis.
It is a little know fact that politicians are not equipped to deal with our modern problems, They are not social engineers, They are not scientists, They are not actually governing experts of any kind and yet they are the ones elected and put in charge of fixing this mess. Lets look a this from a hypothetical example.
Senator Joe just got elected to office. Like most politicians he was a corporate lawyer with a nice desk job until this point. His whole career has been getting people to see his clients point of view regardless of right or wrong. Now he is faced with a real pollution mess from a factory pig farm in his district back home. The sewage from this swine production plant is poisoning the ground water and the local rivers and streams. The local citizens have very serious concerns about the health effects and the damage that it is doing to the environment. He personally has no training in toxicology so he seeks information on the subject that just happens to come from experts that work for the pork industry. Oh yea he is also reminded that he received a very large campaign contribution from the Pork lobby that helped to get him elected to his seat. Well being a fine politician he goes to work on this problem not by getting the pig farm to stop polluting but instead to have a bogus report put forward by experts that were provided by the pork industry to help side step the EPA. The report claims no ill effects will come from the factory farm for the residents or the environment. The few poor folk that live near the mess will suffer the health problems and the environment will be destroyed but the really important thing is that the Senator will get a very large campaign contribution from the corporation profiting from the pigs and he will promote to his constituents in the next campaign how he save those jobs at the pig farm against those pesky environmentalists. With massive amounts of corporate campaign money he will win by a land slide.
This scenario is the way things have been going for a long time. That is why we have ended up with super-fund sites, and cancer belts and dead zones in our oceans. Corporations with there money and influences have managed to manipulate the system and avoid being responsible for the harms they cause us all.
The first suggestion I would make is to get rid of the unfair lobbying practices and corporate influences on Washington.
Lets once again make the politicians beholding to the citizens and not to corporate money. This would serve to stop a lot of the corruption. It would allow us to clean up our air, land, and water, move us toward green technologies and get us off oil and coal. It would keep and create good jobs here in America. Real solutions for health care, could be realized without the influences of insurance companies trying to get rich off the suffering of our citizens.
With out a revolving door between corporate influences working in all our government agencies like the FDA and EPA, these agencies would work to protect our citizens and country instead of corporate profits.
Getting rid of the unfair lobbying system that we have now would have a tremendous positive ripple effect through out America. We also need to be sure that all government employees do not have ties to corporations and are not allowed to work for them after leaving there government positions. The current revolving door between corporations and government jobs is a blatant conflict of interest that should not be tolerated at any level.
We all know the system is bad. Hell we hear the complaints from people like you everyday. We see the polls and yet nothing has changed in my life time. Politics has only gotten worse. Corruption has only gotten worse. We still end up in wars that kill our young for the sake of greed. Corporations are still poisoning our air, water, and land. We are still addicted to oil and coal despite the fact other countries are successfully making changes to greener technologies.
It is time once again to take our government back from the wealthy corporations and fix our problems before it is too late. We need to be as brave, resourceful, and inventive as our founding fathers in facing these challenges and get things back on track in this country.
The Big Picture
The Big Picture
By Dennis Renner
Looking for perfection in an imperfect world. I think a lot people have become discouraged with small Political Movements because they expect perfection but instead find many of the foibles that troubled them with in the establishment. I believe the root of these problems is that we take our governing problems with us into our political movements. Most of these ideologies still rely on principles of democracy or consensus for their social governing systems. At the root of these systems is politics and political decision making that has plagued humanity for ages. Political decision making is rooted in emotions, egos, and greed. If it is attached to a profit based economic system then it is doubly dysfunctional and socially stratifying. In our current system of democracy at state and federal levels, it has become the ultimate system of governing by misrepresentation. Corporations through lobbyists now buy the votes of our congressman and senators in order to control financial markets and their every growing profits. A system of political capitalism that is now clearly out of control, unsustainable and does not serve the interest of its citizens or humanity.
As a student of social change I believe that there is a solution and a better way to govern community and humanity. It is a system that already is in practice in business and the scientific community and has proven to work since the time of Galileo.
We need to replace governance by politics, with critical thinking, logic, and the scientific method; followed by peer review and assessment. Everyone with in the community needs to be educated and understands how critical thinking skills are applied and how to utilize the scientific method. All members will need to participate so that decision making will involve all the variables of humanity and our symbiotic relationship to our environment, habitat, and resource potential. This is the only true way to create a sustainable permaculture.
Here is the problem with our current systems. We only look at the profit motive which greatly restricts our positive actions and stymies our sustainability. Secondly because our environment, and our symbiotic relationship are rarely ever brought into our political decision making processes. That is until after damage is done, to the environment, and humanity. In our current system politicians are left to make our laws and rules through a decision making process that is ruled by emotion, ego, and greed (profit), Facts on the subject are supplied by the profiteers. The problem is that politicians are not engineers, scientists, sociologists, environmentalists, or experts of any kind when it comes to our problems that need to be solved. We never see the rules of critical thinking applied on the Senate floor or city councils. Yet the politicians are the ones left to make the decisions that affect us all. When political decision making is tied to a capitalistic monetary base economy, profit always rules over the needs of the citizens and the environment. Thus our current problems, and conditions.
A system where decision making is based on critical thinking, logic, and the scientific method, where real experts from all walks of life become involved. Engineers, environmentalists, biologists, farmers sociologists, and scientists, all the real experts work together to create sustainable solutions. When this type of governing is combined with a resource based economy then both sustainability and our symbiotic relationship with nature can be obtained. Because there is no profit there is no conflict of interests, because there are no corporations, citizens are free to help humanity untethered. Because there are no conceptual monetary shortages, human social issues of poverty, crime, and war will be greatly reduced or done away with.
Resource based economies are designed to work like those economies found in nature. Where all biological life works in symbiosis. Because profit is not a component of a resource based economy the restrictions and damage that profit causes are eliminated. Resource based economies are egalitarian by nature, where all the needs are met and based off of resource supply with sustainability and permaculture applied to the collective behavior.
It is hard for some people to grasp the idea of an economy where money, interest, debt and taxes do not exist. Where profit is only viewed as the over all improvement of life for all of humanity and the health of our environment.
I do think we can all agree that an economy that is based in equality, where governance is shared by all and the decision making process accesses experts in their respective fields to serve for the greater good of humanity and our environment is a giant step in the right direction. No need for political parties or elections, no need of political leaders, no need of ego, greed or emotional based decisions. No more laws that are unjust, immoral, unethical, and only profit the rich. No more economics that work to divide us into social classes but where all share equally in our resource needs. Where we all can voluntarily contribute to the common good of our friends, neighbors, community and humanity as a whole. Where exploitation, bigotry, poverty and wars are recognized as the results of our current out dated systems of political governing. Where resource depletion and social stratification, and our crumbling unsustainable civilization are the results of our current archaic monetary system.
There has been lots of experiments in different types of governing through out history. Whether it has been a Dictatorship, a Totalitarian, a Monarchy, Communist, Socialist, or Democracy. All have failed because of the human element of of politics. Politics brings out the worst, and corrupts any system because it unfairly rewards those in control. This sets into motion social stratification, a division between the haves and the have nots. It rewards the greedy, and punishes the poor. Thus growing the roots of discontentment which leads to revolution and war. We can see this happening so clearly in many countries today including our own.
The missing element to successful governance is Critical Thinking applied to our decision making process. It alone filters out the elements of politics. A panel of experts gathered together in an open forum all following the rules and formula of critical thinking will only look for solutions in an objective way that benefits humanity and our environment. All variables will be given equal weight in the decision making process. After a solution hypothesis is derived then the scientific method goes into action. The solution is tested to see if it is viable. Other groups are also welcomed into this process to see if the finding are reproducible. Also unforeseen side affects are looked for. This is the peer review part of our solution. If our solution passes peer review and shows to be successful then it can be put into use. But that is not where the system stops. It will always be open to review and scrutiny. This way it can be tweaked, improved, or done away with if in the long term it fails to meet its goals or a better solution is found. This solution could be a rule or a law or a physical infrastructure or an action. As long as it does not interfere with egalitarian principles, and shows to be a benefit to humanity, and our environment in a sustainable way. Then the new solution is applied to governance. This form of decision making will not be stymied by cost, profit, taxes, interest, and debt. It will only need to fit with in the boundaries of available resources, equality, and sustainability.
It is time to educate our selves about a better system of governing. I think it is time to implement a new system of economic values. Only then will humanity be able to live up to its true potential. Not perfection but a giant step in the right direction.
Thursday, October 20, 2011
The True Cost of Food
The True Cost Of Food by ivanwaveWhat we eat collectively greatly effects the environment and our own health. Sit back and take a look at how the choices we make impacts our world.
Local Currenties - Protecting your Community from a Weakening Dollar
Community currencies are a great way for local communities to work together to keep goods and services available. They are also a great way to secure jobs that benifit your community in times of economic crisis. They do not have any of the faults that our current FIAT currencies contain like inflation, usery, and social stratification.
Fourth Corner Exchange is an up and running successful community currency that is now being used in the northwest.
http://www.fourthcornerexchange.com/
Fourth Corner Exchange is an up and running successful community currency that is now being used in the northwest.
http://www.fourthcornerexchange.com/
The Money Fix
Here is a real good documentary on the monetary system that also provides viable solutions to protect your communities from the current economic crisis.
Money As Debt
For our first post we will be addressing the monetary system. Unfortunately it is a subject poorly understood by the public. That is why the bankers and economic markets have been able to commit such crimes against the worlds citizens.
It is paramount that this ignorance come to an end. Please help educate your friends and family about how this monetary system works. This 47 minute video does a very good job of explaining how our current monetary systems functions, along with a very brief history of how our economy got to where it is today.
If you have any questions please post them in the comment area.
It is paramount that this ignorance come to an end. Please help educate your friends and family about how this monetary system works. This 47 minute video does a very good job of explaining how our current monetary systems functions, along with a very brief history of how our economy got to where it is today.
If you have any questions please post them in the comment area.
Welcome to Halcyon Transitions
The purpose of this blog is to educate and and share ideas on positive changes for our villages, cities, countries, and world. It is a pacifists point of view to effect change for the improvement of humanity and our symbiotic relationship with the other species. To also recognize this symbiotic relationship to the world in which we live and depend upon. The mission of this blog is to create an open forum to discuss and organize community change in order to circumvent the failures in our current social circumstances so that a peaceful transition can take place.
Monetary change
Sustainability
Perma-culture
Eco-villages
Simple living
Community currencies
Organic gardening
Community gardening
Veganism
Vegetarianism
Peak oil
Peaceful resistance
Community volunteerism
Resources
Humanity
Science Method
Critical thinking
Social engineering
Forms of self governing
Education
Preventive medicine
Preventive lifestyles
Egalitarianism
Peaceful coexistence
Climate change
Therefore the name Halcyon Transitions, meaning (Peaceful Change). The list above is only a tool to open the doors to countless subjects that need to be addressed and understood by local communities in order to come up with solutions to the problems that we are all facing today and into our future. By educating and sharing our knowledge of solutions we can prevail in a positive and productive way in order to avoid some of the chaos and suffering attached to a global economic crash.
Please join us by simple having a Goolge acount. It can be a gmail, YouTube, or any of the other free and easy to use Google acounts. Then feel free to add comments to posts or if you have a post get with me and we will try and get it published for you.
Sincerely, Dennis Renner
Monetary change
Sustainability
Perma-culture
Eco-villages
Simple living
Community currencies
Organic gardening
Community gardening
Veganism
Vegetarianism
Peak oil
Peaceful resistance
Community volunteerism
Resources
Humanity
Science Method
Critical thinking
Social engineering
Forms of self governing
Education
Preventive medicine
Preventive lifestyles
Egalitarianism
Peaceful coexistence
Climate change
Therefore the name Halcyon Transitions, meaning (Peaceful Change). The list above is only a tool to open the doors to countless subjects that need to be addressed and understood by local communities in order to come up with solutions to the problems that we are all facing today and into our future. By educating and sharing our knowledge of solutions we can prevail in a positive and productive way in order to avoid some of the chaos and suffering attached to a global economic crash.
Please join us by simple having a Goolge acount. It can be a gmail, YouTube, or any of the other free and easy to use Google acounts. Then feel free to add comments to posts or if you have a post get with me and we will try and get it published for you.
Sincerely, Dennis Renner
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