OUR CHANGING WORLD
A Peek Into the Environmental Economy
Plotting the Road to a Green Future
Newton’s 3rd Law of Motion, an immutable Law of Nature, says: “For every action in nature there is an equal and opposite reaction.” The introduction of any change leads to compliance or counteraction. Our every action either makes things better or worse.
Our actions have not been good for a long time, as the state of society and the environment visibly shows.
In 2006, the world used 85 million barrels of oil per day. Today it is 100 million. We know that this consumption rate generates carbon dioxide levels that endanger our existence and that of many other species. Agriculture is responsible for 15% of greenhouse gas emissions. We can justify this as we need to grow food, but we cannot condone the waste of the 1,3 billion tons of food we throw away every year. The production and rotting of this food create a lot of carbon dioxide and leaves many people hungry.
Much more difficult to digest is the fast fashion industry that contributes 10% to global carbon emissions. Fast fashion thrives on a throwaway culture, and the products are usually made from cheap plastic fibres that don’t decompose. Also, we use around 3000 litres of water to make a cotton shirt and 9 000 litres for a pair of jeans.
Downsizing our vanity a little would do the world a lot of good.
Becoming a Billionaire With a Clear Conscience
Unfortunately, our world is in shameful shape and needs an extensive fix. On the positive side, there is ample opportunity for many entrepreneurs to become billionaires while doing good. Predictions are that we will lose 6 million jobs in carbon-intensive industries by 2030 and create 18 million jobs aligned with the net-zero transition. It is easy for entrepreneurs to decide which sector is a better bet, and the faster they accelerate towards net-zero industries, the sooner they will become billionaires.
Businesses that adopt this logic should rapidly start transitioning their resources towards the environmental economy. Besides moving into the fast-growing business sector, being seen as a leader in climate repair bolsters the company’s brand. Consumers increasingly realise the health benefits of the clean air we breathe, the water we drink and the surrounding of pristine nature.
More than ever before, businesses today need to link their strategy to the cause beneficial to humanity, and the most virtuous cause at the moment is climate change. Companies can prove their environmental bona fides to consumers using blockchain technology, while those paying lip service to dupe consumers will be exposed and get the opposite effect.
The opportunities to build a green portfolio are outstanding. Since 2004 global sustainable investment has grown tenfold and now tops $30 trillion. It will likely grow even faster in the future. According to Forbes, 70% of millennials favour brands that support a cause they care about.
Millennials, born between 1977 and 1995, are starting to take over from baby boomers and will soon be making laws that will reward companies practising sustainability and punishing polluters. Therefore, companies that want to prosper in future must focus on the long-term policy of creating wealth without harming the environment and making the world more hopeful.
The UN special envoy for climate action and finance Mark Carne said: “Companies that ignore climate change and don’t adapt will go bankrupt without question.”
The market will compensate executives and investors for delivering long-term value rather than quarterly results. There is increasing evidence that consumers, companies and investors vote with their wallets and companies with sustainable and regenerative business models are gaining a competitive advantage.
The Intense Search for an Equitable Economic System
For more than a century, the media has been saturating our minds with the idea that capitalism is the only system that works. It left no room for another solution. Amassing material wealth was an absolute achievement.
The other angle, one that capitalism is a vicious system that produces wealth by indiscriminate destruction of the environment and people, has been muted. The burning of forests, ripping up grasslands, destroying wetlands, polluting air and water, killing species by destroying their environment, and endangering every living thing on Earth is justified as collateral damage of making a profit. So are many people that lose their livelihood, health and life due to financial scams on a global scale.
Capitalism based on constant growth is unsustainable due to Earth’s finite resources. If we don’t find an alternative, we will all die soon, and no wood for a coffin, nor profit.
Our options are to carry on along the same path or sharply change direction to avert catastrophe. A problem with changing the course is a conflict of interest between two powerful groups: a vast majority of people looking for a better life and an elite minority whose only objective is profit.
For this powerful elite who control the economy, political process, and the principal means of mass communication, the only measure of success is the monetary bottom line, excluding every other consideration. Capitalists’ attitude is that natural resources only have value when turned into a product. Only the cut-down tree has value.
On the other end of the equation are the masses who create hefty profits for elites but have difficulty providing decent lives for their families. They want a comfortable life, clean air and water, a chance to enjoy uncontaminated forests, prairies, swamps, and other bounties of nature.
The aspirations of these two groups are diametrically opposite, and they are in an increasingly growing confrontation. If we don’t resolve this conflict, things might get out of control. We have a volatile situation between workers and bosses developing globally.
Calming things down will be tricky.
The fastest and most beneficial way is a compromise. The elites must realise the seriousness of the situation and stop manipulating financial instruments to hit abstract targets in the abstract economy of numbers, such as the next high on the stock market. They must understand that they are not alien masters of the universe but humans on planet Earth.
They must search for and unearth human feelings, which still must be buried somewhere deep within their psyche. They also must understand that slavery, human suffering, the death of billions of animals in fire or floods, and other calamities occurring due to climate change are not acceptable practices for increasing profit.
Over the decades, elites managed to rig the game, centralise power and resources in their hands, and probably think that they were invulnerable. So did the Russian nobility and Czars until the revolution of 1917.
We must compromise.
Elites must use their considerable intellectual and material resources to create a better and more equitable world. The masses have to let bygones be bygones and collaborate with elites to make it happen.
Politicians have to come to the table and prove their mettle by making peace between nations. We do not have time for confrontations and sabre-rattling. We need collaboration and cooperation.
These are critical times for humanity, and the time for trickery has passed. Politicians have to work hard and unite the world around a common purpose.
Now that we sorted the basics out can get going in building an environmental economy. Businesses still need to make money, but the purpose of money in the green economy is to make Earth a better place for all its inhabitants instead of amassing wealth.
Instead of the raw capitalism that brought us to this point, we should transition to more humane capitalism sprinkled with a healthy dose of idealism and realism until we develop a better solution.
We must fund climate-based start-ups at an accelerated rate to build a climate economy as fast as feasible. Environmental investors can provide the required capital to direct the economy in a sustainable direction, and those start-ups can influence consumer behaviour and consumption.
All corporations need to commit meaningful percentages of their revenues into environmental programs and report back the impact of those programs as a part of their PR effort.
In addition, oil and gas conglomerates must reduce the amount they’re investing in harmful activities and invest these savings into environmental programs.
Packaging manufacturers must commit to collecting an equal amount of trash to what they produce.
Being businesses, social enterprises can franchise. This approach allows for creating a duplication of process flows and the transfer of knowledge and resources. This transfer can speed things up considerably, allowing the new businesses to benefit from a proven business strategy and brand recognition.
There must be many other collaboration possibilities that we can find, and actively seek, to speed up the regeneration of the environment and society.
By combining the positive aspects of capitalism and the idealism inherent in humans, we can create an economic and social system that is sustainable in material and spiritual resources.
Ante
November 2021
