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<font face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif">Hi all,<br>
<br>
Today, in a response within a blog debate about energy, I suddenly
discovered that I had just crystallized into one page, the
case for using a final 'Green Bubble' via capitalism to leverage a
clean energy and sustainable future for the planet. (It forms an
interesting, and even harmonizing, counterpoint to the socialism
vs libertarianism debates that we have recently had on the Active
list.)<br>
<br>
Here it is (also attached). Please spread it around if it
resonates. Hopefully it will catch fire so that people start
grasping this concept.<br>
<br>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt">The Green Bubble
Manifesto<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt">While it would
fundamentally solve a lot of problems to phase out capitalism (a
task we should have begun at least a couple of decades ago), at
this particular point in history, we have little choice but to
use the deeply flawed mechanisms of capitalism to get a new
green economy off the ground, because it will be the only way to
do so quickly enough to deal with the looming climate crisis.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt">At this stage,
capitalism is hopelessly stuck in having to generate a series of
larger and larger economic debt bubbles just to keep itself from
collapsing. Because such bubbles have to be paid back with
interest, this cycle will never stop and will never cease
dangerously escalating in size (and impact on the physical
world).<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt">However, because
we have to completely revolutionize our entire energy and
transportation infrastructure in the next two decades on this
planet in order to come even close to keeping the atmosphere
from spiraling into an utterly disastrous series of climate
warming tipping points that will destroy our civilization, it is
pretty obvious that we should use another, even larger
capitalist bubble expansion, to leverage that badly needed rapid
retooling of our energy economy into being.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt">This is the
obvious solution in the short term. We need national, state, and
local governments to together pump an infusion of trillions of
dollars into a global WW2 scale Green New Deal, which will
rebuild our entire civil infrastructure to run on renewable
energy and mass transit by somewhere between 2030 and 2040.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt">This will create
another, even larger, interest driven capitalist bubble. However
it will be far more benign than our previous bubbles, and will
actually be relatively stable, because after that renewable
infrastructure is built (and its installation costs are paid
off) it will flood our economy with essentially free energy from
the sun and wind for upwards of a century; the selling of which
energy can be used to pay off the interest payments on the
funding of the bubble. (The savings from much more efficient,
lower cost transportation and shipping will also help pay off
that interest debt.)<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt">And once that
universal, nearly free energy is flowing, its economically
decentralizing influence will indeed help us phase out
capitalism, a task that we absolutely must begin as soon as we
can before capitalism destroys literally everything.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt">Because
capitalism depends on endless growth to fund endless ever
expanding finance interest bubbles (as referred to above) it is
literally eating this planet alive at an extremely rapid and
exponentially expanding pace.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt">If we don't
immediately shift to a clean decentralized energy economy and
then immediately gear down capitalism itself such that we
quickly transition to a sustainable, rather than 'growth'
economy within the next few decades, we and the planet are
doomed. And I would think that the most educated capitalists are
beginning to figure that out now.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt">The first step
toward this transition to sustainability would be phasing in
what I would describe as 'nonprofit capitalism' in which income
and property ownership are gradually lowered until no person can
make more than a couple hundred thousand dollars a year, and
each is also limited to a sane amount of personal physical
ownership of cubic feet of living space and 'stuff'; with any
excesses from sales and service prices going to either R&D
or to national, state and local governments to further retool
the economy into becoming one which will not destroy the Earth.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt">This is our 21st
Century manifesto, if we have the courage to take it up.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt">Eric Brooks<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><st1:place><st1:city><span
style="font-size:11.0pt">San Francisco</span></st1:city><span
style="font-size:11.0pt">, </span><st1:state><span
style="font-size:11.0pt">CA</span></st1:state></st1:place><span
style="font-size:11.0pt"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt">6, September,
2011<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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