This may be one of those rare instance in which a son agrees with his father.
Ed ----- Original Message ----- From: "R. James Weick" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "'Ed Weick'" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; Sent: Tuesday, July 17, 2007 11:27 AM Subject: RE: [Futurework] Money, Energy transfers, Global Dumbing >I agree with my father ... the scenario is not overwhelmingly rosy ... > but wealthy nations may not be as seriously impacted in the short term, > because they control resources, wealth and technology, but for how long? > > In contrast to what is expected ... this summer has been cooler in NL > ... but coolness has been attributed, not reassuringly to the presence > of greater concentrations of ice along the eastern seaboard as the polar > ice cap continues to shrink at an increasing rate, now shedding > peripheral regions. > > Despite this, and hopefully out of desperation SUV's and large trucks > with V8's are increasingly affordable ... you can get a new one here in > NL for ~$30K roughly the price of a high quality compact car that makes > more environmental sense ... to cost of a fill up for large truck SUV is > ~ $140 ... a tank of gas will get you 1/2 way across the island ... in > contrast a compact that cost ~$60 to fill will get you all the way > across the island ... > > When are we going to see the kind of political leadership that will > finally regulate the auto industry, tax the hell out of gasoline; > tripling current price levels would be a start in NA, and impose the > kind stringent emission regulations on all industries required to > effectively cut global emissions? In NA we will have to adjust but we > can afford to do this... we are just too bloody ignorant. > > Walls are coming ... and sooner than we think ... the next couple of > decades will see the end of the polar ice cap and a real drastic change > in our perception of our place in this world... > > R. James Weick M.Sc. (Earth Sciences) > 9 Edinburgh Street > St. John's, NL A1C 4P8 > Cell: (709) 687-5985 > Phone: (709) 722-5257 > Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > > -----Original Message----- > From: Ed Weick [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: July 17, 2007 10:26 AM > To: futurework > Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subject: Re: [Futurework] Money, Energy transfers, Global Dumbing > > I repeat what I said in an earlier posting: "It's not money, it's us". > I > won't repeat the rest of what I said, but it had something to do with us > > using anything we can, and certainly money, to make ourselves > individually > or tribally wealthier and more powerful. > > How might that be changed? A few evenings ago I watched part of a TV > interview of a man who kept insisting that to work properly a free > enterprise economy needs three things: a market, a good set of laws > governing market behaviour, and morality. Being a religion guru, he > kept > emphasizing morality, and I can't say I disagree with him. His general > point was that we can all repeat little bits of catechism like the > Golden > Rule or "a penny saved is a penny earned" without having them have any > impact on our behaviour. > > In economics 101, we were taught that money is supposed to be a medium > of > exchange and a store of value. In its function as a medium of exchange, > it > was supposed to provide a sound and stable way of moving goods and > services > around the economy. In today's world, ever so much of it is used to > make a > quick buck by trading our money for another currency or by betting that > securities, many of dubious value, will go up in price in a relatively > short > time. As a store of value, it has pretty well lost its meaning. A > dollar > today ain't going to be a dollar tomorrow. > > So, what has to change? I keep thinking about what the religion guru > said > about morality. We have to change our way of doing things and to do > that we > have to change the way we think about things. Can we? At this stage of > > development as Homo Sapiens Sapiens, I doubt very much that we can. We > have > been liberated from the trees and given new toys, but that's about it. > > Yet some things do seem to work when one thinks of cases like Conrad > Black, > Enron and WorldCom. Cheaters and chiselers have been indicted. But > will > that change us? Again, I seriously doubt it. For every way that's > stopped, new ways of cheating and chiseling will be found. > > Complicating everything is the fact that we have now become thoroughly > globalized. What we can't produce here, we can produce over there. > What we > can't get away with here, we can get away with over there, etc. > > When it comes to resource use, it's become pretty obvious that we are > going > to hit a wall -- perhaps a series of walls. I notice in today's paper > that > the price of food is rising rapidly, making it more difficult to provide > > food aid to the third world poor. A reason given is that agricultural > land > is moving from food to ethanol production. And if we haven't already > arrived at peak oil yet, we will soon and begin the downward slide to > the > unaffordability of the many things we now take for granted. > > Which brings me back to morality. I believe we become more moral when > we > absolutely have to, not before. I sometimes toy with a dreamlike > scenario. > We hit a series of walls and then hit a big one that brings us down into > a > dark world like the one Cormac McCarthy depicts in his Pulitzer Prize > winning novel "The Road". Those of us who are left will wend our way up > to > the monastery on the hill and there we will plant potatoes, carrots and > onions and learn to live together cooperatively and peacefully. We will > > have found a livable morality. At least for a time. > > Ed > _______________________________________________ Futurework mailing list Futurework@fes.uwaterloo.ca http://fes.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework
