A few days ago it hit me. A one-sentence summary of the problems we are facing today:
Our planet and economy are in trouble because we use resources from the past and money from the future.
Fossil fuels contain the energy of ancient sunlight. It also contains the carbon that accumulated during millions of years, which we now release in a few decades. The trillion dollar mountain of debt that keeps on growing every day fuels our economy now, but needs to be repaid in the future.
In both directions we underestimate the implications of our actions. Both our climate and the global financial system are highly complex systems that don’t behave in a linear way. Small changes can accelerate due to positive feedback loops; minor adaptations can trigger huge systematic changes. We ignore the risks because of our addiction to our comfortable consumerist way of life. We consciously choose to adhere to a destructive form of capitalism and close our eyes for the overwhelming evidence that all is not well on the financial and climate front.
As a society we do not seem to be able to match our focus on enjoying the ‘now’ with finding a solution in the now. Our sense of urgency is tainted by a system that places costs far away, both geographically and in time. We find comfort in climate critics and financial regulators who tell us that nothing is amiss. We hope that these problems will simply go away like acid rain and the dotcom bubble did before. We do not (want to) recognise the systematic nature of what we are facing today. Even where we agree on the problems we get bogged down in political debate and competitive considerations. We are not doing what is required; but at best what we feel we can afford. And it is simply not enough.
Any progress will be slow – too slow – if we do not face the brutal facts and act accordingly. We need to surpass the political debate and lobbyists and focus on the truths we cannot deny. Let’s start with a basic premise that for our society to be sustainable it has to function in the present; without depending on a far away history nor future.
We need to get off fossil fuels and put an end to the money-as-debt system. The first transition has gotten a lot of attention in the last few years, the latter is largely unknown to the wider public. The truth is that we cannot fix a system built on debt with more debt – as we are doing at the moment. At some point the money-debt pyramid will collapse because society cannot support any more debts. More and more countries are now dangerously close to defaulting.
The problem is that we need debt, because we need th money. No debt, no money; that is the way our system works. This is the reason why countries, business and individuals can all be in debt at the same time. To whom? To the banks that have the unique right to create money out of nothing and charge interest for the service. Although this makes sense in the situation where banks lend out money saved by others, this is not the case. It is new money, based on debts that need to be paid off in the future.
The economic power of Now implies an energy supply that relies on the power that the sun provides each day as it comes. It also implies a money system that is based on money – value – that is present in the economy today. We need to change now, and stop shifting our problems to future generations. Instead of an economic system that aims to extract as much value as possible we need a system that is self-sufficient within the timeframe it operates. Our society will never be sustainable if we don’t fix both of these issues. We need to focus on the now, both in terms of the way our global economy operates, as well as the moment to act out this change. Because in the end, as Eckart Tolle observed in his book ‘The power of now’, the only moment there will ever be is a long and continuing now.
Our planet and economy are in trouble because we use resources from the past and money from the future.
Fossil fuels contain the energy of ancient sunlight. It also contains the carbon that accumulated during millions of years, which we now release in a few decades. The trillion dollar mountain of debt that keeps on growing every day fuels our economy now, but needs to be repaid in the future.
In both directions we underestimate the implications of our actions. Both our climate and the global financial system are highly complex systems that don’t behave in a linear way. Small changes can accelerate due to positive feedback loops; minor adaptations can trigger huge systematic changes. We ignore the risks because of our addiction to our comfortable consumerist way of life. We consciously choose to adhere to a destructive form of capitalism and close our eyes for the overwhelming evidence that all is not well on the financial and climate front.
As a society we do not seem to be able to match our focus on enjoying the ‘now’ with finding a solution in the now. Our sense of urgency is tainted by a system that places costs far away, both geographically and in time. We find comfort in climate critics and financial regulators who tell us that nothing is amiss. We hope that these problems will simply go away like acid rain and the dotcom bubble did before. We do not (want to) recognise the systematic nature of what we are facing today. Even where we agree on the problems we get bogged down in political debate and competitive considerations. We are not doing what is required; but at best what we feel we can afford. And it is simply not enough.
Any progress will be slow – too slow – if we do not face the brutal facts and act accordingly. We need to surpass the political debate and lobbyists and focus on the truths we cannot deny. Let’s start with a basic premise that for our society to be sustainable it has to function in the present; without depending on a far away history nor future.
We need to get off fossil fuels and put an end to the money-as-debt system. The first transition has gotten a lot of attention in the last few years, the latter is largely unknown to the wider public. The truth is that we cannot fix a system built on debt with more debt – as we are doing at the moment. At some point the money-debt pyramid will collapse because society cannot support any more debts. More and more countries are now dangerously close to defaulting.
The problem is that we need debt, because we need th money. No debt, no money; that is the way our system works. This is the reason why countries, business and individuals can all be in debt at the same time. To whom? To the banks that have the unique right to create money out of nothing and charge interest for the service. Although this makes sense in the situation where banks lend out money saved by others, this is not the case. It is new money, based on debts that need to be paid off in the future.
The economic power of Now implies an energy supply that relies on the power that the sun provides each day as it comes. It also implies a money system that is based on money – value – that is present in the economy today. We need to change now, and stop shifting our problems to future generations. Instead of an economic system that aims to extract as much value as possible we need a system that is self-sufficient within the timeframe it operates. Our society will never be sustainable if we don’t fix both of these issues. We need to focus on the now, both in terms of the way our global economy operates, as well as the moment to act out this change. Because in the end, as Eckart Tolle observed in his book ‘The power of now’, the only moment there will ever be is a long and continuing now.
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