Category Archives: Fresh Water.

THE BEADY EYE SAY’S: PERPETUAL GROWTH IS COMING TO AN END.

26 Saturday Oct 2019

Posted by in 2019: The Year of Disconnection., Enegery, Environment, Evolution, Fresh Water., Humanity., Inequality, Life., Modern day life., Our Common Values., Reality., Sustaniability, Technology, The common good., The essence of our humanity., The Obvious., The state of the World., The world to day., Unanswered Questions., WHAT IS TRUTH, What Needs to change in the World, Where's the Global Outrage.

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( Seven-minute read)

Economics is not an unbiased academic discipline, it’s an ideology. Furthermore, economics is based on the false premise that perpetual growth is achievable.

Can economic growth be sustainably achieved?

Finite resources make perpetual growth theoretically impossible. No amount of technological breakthrough or creative accounting can counter that physical fact.

Is economic growth desirable?

The short answer appears to be no.

Exponential growth will eventually take you to impossible places.

Unfortunately, we live in a world of capitalists that thrive on the great Myth of Perpetual Growth, endless growth, ad infinitum, forever, till the end of time.

It seems as though we are damned if we grow and damned if we don’t.

We’ve now with Algorithms for profit sake got to a position where there’s nothing to keep us in check – so we have to do it ourselves.

It’s a waiting game now – to see if we can learn to behave differently to bacteria in a petri dish before it’s too late and we kill our host.

It’s not worth the risk.

Ecology and economics have to be intertwined, or we’re in serious trouble.

It’s time we all get our head out of the smartphone and become smart.

We can have debates about what we’re going to do about this and that, but if you can’t see the reason in the core of what I am saying, we’ll be having two very different conversations.

There is little point in arguing any longer whether Neoliberalism is to blame for damaging ecology beyond its ability to support us. It has lead to the inevitable collision between an insatiable economic model and a finite planet whose resources are stretched to the hilt.

The perception of the need for perpetual economic growth is a fraud and this assumption creates massive risk when reaching the limits of our natural systems.

With a world population nearly at 7 billion people, the implication for economic growth seems obvious as we cannot assume that the status quo will hold in a changing climatic environment. Reaching the earth’s resource limit is inevitable if it is not already occurring.

However changing our society’s behaviours cannot be achieved through some overseeing organization.

Perpetual growth has been ingrained through exposure to intensive branding and marketing by the very corporations who provide jobs and economic growth, and round and round we go…… Enacting such dramatic change through a highly centralized governing structure that dictates appropriate resource use, population levels, and actively redistributes wealth is a hard sell even in dire times.

As a result, we cannot continue consuming more and more water, spewing out more and more carbon dioxide and burning more and more coal.

In the past 22 years, half of all of the oil ever burned has been burned.

At present, the global population is increasing by 83 million people annually and we are already consuming natural resources as if we have “1.5 Earths.”

If every person used as many resources as the average North American, more than four Earths would be required to sustain the total rate of consumption. Other words if everyone lived like the average American, the Earth could sustain only 1.7 billion people — a quarter of today’s population.

27 billion people will inhabit the planet by the end of the century and hidden in every calorie of food eaten are 10 calories of fossil fuels.

Technology can lead to greater efficiencies, it requires energy — it does not create it.

Water is obviously a key component of human life. It is also vital to energy, industry, agriculture and livestock.

With all of this in mind, it’s time to abandon the perpetual growth economic model and move instead to a model that stresses conservation, efficiency, recycling and renewability. Clearly, the world is on an unsustainable path and, by definition, anything that is unsustainable won’t last.

Above all else, we must redefine the quality of life as something other than just having “more.” The goal should be to simply have enough. Our quality of life should not be measured by “stuff,” but instead by the things that make life rich; our relationships, our hobbies, our work and our passions.

GDP merely measures what people are willing to pay for, which is not necessarily connected to the use of energy, or any other physical resource.

The world will be confronting shortages of hydrocarbons, metals, water and fertilizer, which will dramatically affect global agriculture. The latter is critical.

So why are we unable to change direction.

Because of the threat, transnational organizations have over the nation-state.

Because no one is willing to bear the costs.

Because of the amount of power capital has over labour.

As it stands, nearly half the world’s population — more than 3 billion people — lives on roughly $2 per day.

The solution is to get profit for profit sake to pay:

By introducing a World Aid commission of 0.05% on all High-frequency trading, on all sovereign wealth funds acquisitions on all foreign exchange transaction over $50,000, on all gambling and lottos wins creating a perpetual world aid fund.

By issuing United Nation Green Deal non-trading Bond.

By the introduction of a World Day of non-consumerism Advertising.

By building non atomised Societies that are attached geographical – belonging not defined by competition.

By eating together one a week.

The question is how do we communicate this obvious message, in the face of corporate control of the media, and increasingly academia, science and the political system?

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THE BEADY EYE ASK’ S: WHICH GLOBAL ISSUE SHOULD WE BE WORKING ON TO HAVE THE GREATEST IMPACT?

09 Tuesday Apr 2019

Posted by in Artificial Intelligence., Climate Change., Education, Environment, Evolution, Fresh Water., HUMAN INTELLIGENCE, Humanity., Inequality., Life., Our Common Values., Poverty, Reality., Sustaniability, Technology, The common good., The essence of our humanity., The Future, The Obvious., The world to day., Unanswered Questions., United Nations, WHAT IS TRUTH, What Needs to change in the World, Where's the Global Outrage., World Leaders

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(Ten-minute read)

By not be able to coordinate any universal action we now pose the greatest threat to our own survival.

Future civilisation might well create a world without need or want, and make mindblowing intellectual and artistic achievements but in this new age, what should be our biggest priority as a civilisation be?

We could build a far more just and virtuous society but if we let civilisation end, then none of this can ever happen.

An overwhelming amount of political attention goes on concrete issues that help the present generation in the short-term since that’s what gets votes but at the cost of future generations that have no way to stand up for their interests, whether economically or politically.

You might be surprised if you ask the above question using AI.

Climate change comes some way down the list.

Natural risks are still quite small in absolute terms.

The risks from nuclear weapons are greater than all the natural risks put together. So, it seems like the chance of a massive climate disaster created by CO2 is perhaps similar to the chance of a nuclear war.

Since these risks are caused by humanity, they can be prevented by humanity, but what stops us is the difficulty of coordinate action.Image associée

Take Artificial Intelligence.

(There is a 50% chance we will develop high-level machine intelligence in 45 years, and 75% by the end of the century.)

It is difficult to predict what something smarter than us would do.  A sufficiently powerful system might be difficult to control, and so be hard to reverse once implemented.

What’s less appreciated is that new technologies will present further catastrophic risks.

Like genetically engineer a virus that’s as contagious as the Spanish Flu, but also deadlier, and which could spread for years undetected. That would be a weapon with the destructive power of nuclear weapons, but far harder to prevent from being used.

So, let’s ask the question again.

What should be our biggest priority as a civilisation be?

(The flippant answer is we first have continued to exist so that we’ll have the chance to solve all our other problems.)

Improving technology? Helping the poor? Changing the political system? Free Education? Geo-engineering?- to mention a few.

Most of the best ways to tackle these risks are not easily taken by for-profit entities because the beneficiaries live in the future and can’t pay you.

For instance, a better-educated population would probably elect more enlightened leaders (cough). Improve the decision-making ability of people and institutions, this would help to make society, in general, more resilient, and solve many other problems.

However, in order for education to achieve anything, it would have to be on a very large scale to have any noticeable effect.

Improving technology holds the possibility of enormous gains, but also enormous risks.

Avoid accidents from AI systems are the most neglected of all risks.

More to the point, no matter what you think has happened in the past, if we look forward, improving technology, political organisation and freedom gives our descendants the potential to solve our current problems, and have vastly better lives.

Then, among the catastrophic risks, climate change gets the most attention, while issues like pandemics and AI are the most neglected.

An issue can be big but comparatively well-known and crowded, like climate change, or it can be small but neglected, like land use zoning reform.

In most countries, there is no government agency that naturally has mitigation of these risks in its remit.

So, even if we only focus on the impact on the present generation, these

catastrophic risks are one of the most serious issues facing humanity.

Probably part of the reason most people aren’t immediately ready to jump into action is that there appear to be so many problems and no simple solution presents itself for any of them.

One approach is to address each risk directly. Or rather than try to reduce each risk individually, we can try to make civilisation generally better at managing them – if we could all coordinate — if every nation agreed to contribute its fair share to reducing climate change, then all nations would benefit by avoiding its worst effects.

Unfortunately, such an approach in our capitalist consuming world is pie in the sky.

The truth is we only do so out of self-interest.

As we are witnessing with the Paris Climate Agreement made on 12 December 2015 when it comes down to the nitty gritty no one wants to pay either in the short term or long term.

It would be great if we could make the government have more concern for future generations.

To enable a universal action it has to be unseen and paid for by all without knowing. 

You only have to look at the reaction of the yellow jackets movement spontaneous calls to protest against the increase of the internal consumption tax on energy products. A rebellion of the provincial under-classes that typifies the 21st century (web-populism, fake news and a visceral, exaggerated hatred of both media and political elites).

Like the 5Star Movement in Italy, they started as an internet rebellion against representative democracy.

We all live in an apocalyptic bubble of social media- SO IF WE ARE TO GENUINELY TACKLE ANY OF THE WORLD PROBLEMS IT REQUIRES A PERPETUAL FUND THAT GENERATES ITS FUNDS FROM PROFIT FOR PROFIT SAKE NOT INCREASED TAXES.

(SEE PREVIOUS POSTS)

Such a fund would turn the United Nations from a begging organisation into a world organisation with clout.

AI CALCULATES 19% chance of extinction before 2100.

It’s possible to grow the capacity of a community faster than you can grow your individual wealth or career capital. WE NEED TO USE OUR BUYING POWER TO EFFECTS CHANGE.Résultat de recherche d'images pour "images of global issues"

Why?

Because we will need to change our way of thinking and the extent of how we consume resources.

To achieve food and water security. To stop HABITAT AND BIODIVERSITY LOSS AND OCEAN DESTRUCTION – TO CREATE A MORE MODERN AND EFFECTIVE UN. 

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THE BEADY EYE SAY’S : IF WE ARE TO AVOID A MELT DOWN NOT JUST BY CLIMATE CHANGE BUT BY SOCIAL MEDIA. WE ALL KNOW THAT WE NEED TO REINVENT SOCIETY REAL QUICK,

06 Thursday Dec 2018

Posted by in 2018: The Year of Disconnection., Algorithms., Capitalism, Climate Change., Environment, Fourth Industrial Revolution., Fresh Water., Humanity., Modern Day Democracy., Our Common Values., Politics., Populism., Poverty, Social Media, Sustaniability, Technology, The essence of our humanity., The Obvious., The world to day., Trade Agreements., Unanswered Questions., War, What Needs to change in the World, Where's the Global Outrage., World Politics

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(Twelve -minute read)

Most mainstream textbooks have the word “economics” in their title as if no differentiating adjective exists.

THE NASTY REALITY IS:

AS THE WORLD POPULATION GROWS IT WILL BE TO THE DETHRONEMENT OF THE PLANT AND TO THE SUSTAINABILITY OF ANY ECONOMIC SYSTEM WHETHER IT IS CAPITALIST OR OTHERWISE AS CAPITALISM HAS ALWAYS HAD A NEED FOR POVERTY TO KEEP COST DOWN.

However, through social media, the poor are no longer invisible and the consequences of this are now beginning to becoming evident.

It is a grim truism of modern life that everything from civil rights violations and health crises to environmental degradation and educational barriers are disproportionately suffered by the people least financially and socially equipped to deal with them.

Capitalism today still represented itself as freeing serfs, slaves, etc,  with freedom becoming capitalism’s self-celebration, which it largely remains today.

Yet the reality of capitalism is different from its celebratory self-image.

IT IS NOW a form of algorithmic trading in which funds trade on the small fluctuations in asset prices without ever owning the assets, with us the powerhouse in the making of fortunes that put colossal resources in the hands of a relative few, while at the same time, see others without even the means to sustain themselves.

Combined the above with climate change and poverty and THE FORTH INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION (AS IT HAS BEEN CHRISTENED BY THE ADVANCES IN TECHNOLOGICAL) IS CREATING A CAPITALIST WORLD THAT IS REMOVING IT FROM VIEW.

DRIVEN BY CONSUMPTION PRODUCING ALGORITHMS JUST FOR PROFIT FOR THE ONE PERCENTERS, WHILE OUR GOVERNMENTS ACT LIKE THERE IS NO ALTERNATIVE TO GROWTH AT ALL COSTS.Poverty has always accompanied capitalism (as Thomas Piketty's work documents yet again).

Wherever you look you will see that enormous gap between rich and poor growing and this gap between rich and poor is now threatening to destroy us and the world we all live in.

To those who think capitalism and inequality need each other.

Capitalism requires inequality of wealth, runs this right-of-centre argument, to stimulate risk-taking and effort; governments trying to stem it with taxes on wealth, capital, inheritance and property kill the goose that lays the golden egg.

It took war and depression to arrest the inequality dynamic, along with the need to introduce high taxes on high incomes, especially unearned incomes, to sustain social peace.

Now the ineluctable process of blind capital multiplying faster in fewer hands is underway again and on a global scale with self-serving greed in the form of profit-seeking algorithms.

Anyone with the capacity to own in an era when the returns exceed those of wages and output will quickly become disproportionately and progressively richer- APPLE, MICROSOFT, E BAY, AMAZON- and when we buy their products online are in fact vote for them and their system.

The mass of employees are not free inside capitalist enterprises to participate in the decisions that affect their lives (e.g., what the enterprise will produce, what technology it will use, where production will occur, and what will be done with the profit workers’ efforts help to produce). In their exclusion from such decisions, modern capitalism’s employees resemble slaves and serfs.

So the speeding train of capitalism is “back on track,” resuming its rush toward stone walls of excess debt, stagnant mass incomes, capital relocating overseas, etc.

YOU CAN WATCH THIS PROCESS IN REAL TIME WITH  BREXIT, OR AMERICA FIRST.

In Britain, it may be true that the top 1% pays a third of all income tax, but income tax constitutes only 25% of all tax revenue: 45% comes from VAT, excise duties and national insurance paid by the mass of the population.

As a result, the burden of paying for public goods such as education, health and housing is increasingly shouldered by average taxpayers, who don’t have the wherewithal to sustain them. Wealth inequality thus becomes a recipe for slowing, innovation-averse, rentier economies, tougher working conditions and degraded public services.

All in all, you could say that no real changes have been made in global capitalism OTHER THAN IT IS NOW RUN BY ANALYSING ALGORITHMS THAT RECOMMEND WHERE, WHEN AND HOW WITH TO SATISFY SHORT TERM PLEASURE.

UNFORTUNILTY it is simply depriving us and our children of fundamental rights of a decent & caring society, fearless & dignified living, by a deprivation of the material conditions for the reproduction of society, and a failure to develop the full capabilities of human beings.

OF COURSE, our collective sense of justice is outraged as we are witnessing in the recent Paris Riots, the Climate Change Conference in Poland sponsored by coal trying to set rules to govern pledges that will be broken as soon as the ink dries and the ongoing Brexit charade which has nothing to do with peoples wellbeing.

Where does all of this leave us other than with an ominous sense of impending implosion reverberates throughout the world with national politics and culture waning no one seems to know or care.

Our TV screens with Christmas coming we are bombarded with the worst images of Capitalism – advertisers promoting materialism, alongside appeals to donate money to save everything from children in Yemen too abandoned animals.

While it is heartbreaking the worst part is that our governments are complicit.

Despite the famine, despite the bombing of a busload of school kids in Yemen countries like the US, UK, France, and Canada are still supplying the Saudis with hundreds of billions of dollars in tanks and missiles.

However, it has little effect as we look on from a distance sitting at home before our own little stages our TV’s, our I Pads, our Smartphones, our courtyards of miracles where an image sweeps across the previous one without trace.

Everything is on a reduced scale, even emotions.

That’s the trouble with shadow political power structures. Their true shape and purpose stay hidden while they capture democracy.

From all this, we shall draw some conclusions, in the absence of any convincing certainties one has to pretend that we shall solve Climate Change  (that is going to drive more inequality and eventually the extinction of our biodiversity, followed by us due to the lack of fresh water or clean air.) and currents world conflicts that are only the tip of the coming wars over diminishing natural resources.

What needs to happen?

Let’s put the plant first before space exploration, before material productivity consumption, before cultural identity, before consumerism, before America first, before Brexit isolation, before trade deals, before nuclear power, before religious beliefs, before skin colour, before short-term pleasure, before us.

Let’s go for a diverse economic system where toxic wealth inequalities are less indulged rather than a monopolised marketplace.

Let’s enshrine Water and Fresh air into all our actions.Résultat de recherche d'images pour "pictures of social media icons"

Any of the above can now only be achieved by using the power of Social media which is being used in ways that shape politics, business, world culture, education, careers, innovation, and more.

THE PROBLEM WITH SOCIAL MEDIA THAT IS HAVING A REAL IMPACT ON SOCIETY IS THAT IT IS LEADERLESS.

On one hand, it generates insights, stimulates demand, and create targeted product offerings but when people are presented with the option of ‘liking’ a social cause, they use this to opt out of actually committing time and money.

Social sharing has encouraged people to use computers and mobile phones to express their concerns on social issues without actually having to engage actively with campaigns in real life.

On the other hand, it without social media, social, ethical, environmental and political ills would have minimal visibility.

Increased visibility of issues has shifted the balance of power from the hands of a few to the masses.

Capitalism understands the above more than our world organisation or governments.

Social networks feed off interactions among people, they become more powerful as they grow. Each person with marginal views can see that he’s not alone. And when these people find one another via social media, they can do things — create memes, publications and entire online worlds that bolster their worldview, and then break into the mainstream.

Social networks are helping to fundamentally rewire human society.” Because social media allows people to communicate with one another more freely, they are helping to create surprisingly influential social organizations among once-marginalized groups – Popularism- Short-term politics with no long-term aspirations promoting social ills.

Across the globe, mobile devices dominate in terms of total minutes spent online. This puts the means to connect anywhere, at any time on any device in everyone’s hands.

Their support is limited to pressing the ‘Like’ button or sharing content.

Is it not time that we demand that our internet platforms introduce a dislike button.

So far humans have had a monopoly on decision making but we are sleepwalking with Data Analyzing algorithms eroding our societies that have the sole purpose of predicting our next purchase or move.

Artificial intelligence in its current form is mostly harmless but that’s not going to last.

Fueled by powers of machine learning with no end in sight it is encroaching into to our homes without human examples or guidance, without any knowledge of the domain beyond basic rules of promoting profit.

WHAT IF ANYTHING CAN BE DONE?

We need to ensure that Ai Systems are provable safe and beneficial, and unbias regardless of how intelligent they become.

Imagine the havoc and harm they will inflict with greater power, scope and social reach.

When developers are at a loss to explain the behaviour of their creations we will then need Ai to explain to humans why they reached certain decisions, or what their conclusions actually mean.

At the moment we are seeing poorly thought out systems released into the world without any real ethical or safety standards. Governments and our out of date international world organisation have a role to play, by introducing and enforcing standards and regulations.

Changing present capitalist corporate culture won’t be easy, but it needs to start at the top.

Just look at biotechnology some research findings are too dangerous to share with the public.

It is time we all grew up and accept some responsibility for Artifical Intelligence impact on the world.

Why?

Because AI is poised to be one of the most daunting challenges our species have ever faced,  decoupling us from human speed and timelines, operating beyond human levels of control and comprehension.

AT THE MOMENT IT IS RATHER THAN TURNING THE ATHOMISPHRIC DOWN IT IS CONTRIBUTING (IN MOST OF ITS FORM)  TO TURN IT UP.

On a deeper level, the idea of self-referential feedback may be crucial not only in the evolution of life but for its origin as well.

It may even be that the algorithmic nature of cellular automata could be the key to removing a major barrier to explaining life’s origin — defining what life is, to begin with.

It’s pretty hard to explain the origin of something if you don’t know what it is.

When the environment changes, the rules for surviving may change as well. Life’s activity generates feedback that influences the rules of life.

You can’t blame scientists for conceiving of the universe in terms familiar from their everyday life. That’s just the way that thinking works, whether it’s about the laws of nature or anything else. And you have to admit that nowadays computers have invaded everyday life so thoroughly that it’s only natural for scientists to think about nature in a computational way.

If the world is a computer, life is an algorithm, so all algorithms and how they

work, and for what reasons, should be made public to ensure both social and

  “environmental justice.” Résultat de recherche d'images pour "pictures of computer algorithms"

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THE BEADY EYE ASK’S: DO YOU KNOW THE WORLD YOU LIVE ON

04 Tuesday Sep 2018

Posted by in 2018: The Year of Disconnection., Arms Trade., Artificial Intelligence., Capitalism, Climate Change., Education, Enegery, Environment, Evolution, Fourth Industrial Revolution., Fresh Water., G7., HUMAN INTELLIGENCE, Humanity., Life., Modern day life., Natural World Disasters, Oil, Our Common Values., Politics., Populism., Post - truth politics., Reality., Space., Sustaniability, Technology, The cloud., The common good., The essence of our humanity., The Future, The Obvious., The world to day., Unanswered Questions., United Nations, War, Wealth., What Needs to change in the World, Where's the Global Outrage., World Organisations., World Politics

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( A FIVE MINUTE READ)

 

7.6 BILLION OF US LIVE ON IT

BUT VERY FEW OF US KNOW WHAT IT IS WHERE IT IS OR WHAT WE ARE DOING ON IT OR TO IT. How Big Is Earth?

IT IS 6.378KM IN RADIUS, 6.6 SEXTILLION TONS IN WEIGHT, WITH A SURFACE AREA OF 197 MILLION SQ MILES MADE UP OF 71% WATER, 29% LAND OF WHICH 5% IS LIVABLE ON.

IT IS 4.54 billion years old, plus or minus 1%.

We humans speaking 7, O97 LANGUAGES of which 23 accounts for half the world’s population has been on it for a mere 0.004% of the Earth’s history.

humans on earth

IT HAS 15,000 BIRTHS PER HOUR. 360,000 PER DAY, 132 MILLION PER YEAR WITH 56 MILLION DEATH PER YEAR.

IT HAS 10.7 percent LIVING IN EXTREME POVERTY WITH 68.5 MILLION DISPLACE PEOPLE, OF WHICH 25.4 million are refugees, over half of whom are under the age of 18 with 1% OF RICH PEOPLE owning half the world’s wealth.

 IT IS THE 5TH LARGEST PLANET IN OUR SOLAR SYSTEM WITH ABOUT 10 BILLION WITH TONS OF CONCRETE POURED ON IT EVERY YEAR.

3% OF THE WORLD IS COVERED IN URBAN AREAS WITH 33 BILLION METERS OF ROADS.

After water concrete is the single most widely used material in the world – and it has a carbon footprint to match.

As you read this, there are more than 40 conflicts unfolding in countries around the world. Yet these are just the most visible look beyond them and there are plenty more.

Total world military expenditure rose to $1739 billion in 2017.

We can blame terrorism and the fear it inspires despite the statistically unimportant number of casualties it inflicts, or the contemporary media and the breathless cycle of “breaking news”, but the truth remains that the wars that seem to inspire the fanatics or have produced so many headlines in recent years prompt deep anxiety.

And with climate change and profit-seeking algorithms things are only going to get worse.

Surely the needs of humanity should always come first. While there are people on Earth who need help, they should be helped, rather than seeing money spent on sending robots onto other planets. Humanity is the number one priority; keeping the human race alive is a necessity.

But we cannot live without the other species we share the earth with. Okay, guess quickly: how many species do you think we share the earth with.

A trillion.

While that may (or may not) be true, the next sentence is spuriously precise: “Every hour three species disappear. Every day up to 150 species are lost.”

Even putting aside the apparent mathematical error in that claim (on the face of it, if three species are disappearing every hour, 72 would be lost every day) there is an obvious problem in generating any such number. No-one knows how many species exist. And if we don’t know a species exists, we won’t miss it when it’s gone.

BP claimed the earth has enough oil left for about 53 more years at current production levels

So far Nasa has spent trillions on trying to get off it.

Science may well give us good things.

We all know Velcro came from NASA.

But why bother spending all this money exploring space and finding out there was water on Mars at some point in the last few thousand years (we have water in Earth) when these same great minds could be applied to finding better ways to power humanity’s insatiable desire for energy, to feeding the starving millions around the globe, and generally making life down here better before looking up into the heavens.

It seems the authoritative powers have their heads way, way up in the clouds.

Earth first:

14 billion pounds (6B Kg.) of garbage are dumped into the ocean every year. Most of it is plastic. Americans make up 5% of the world’s population, and yet, produce 30% of the world’s waste and use 25% of the world’s resources.

More than 95 percent of the world’s population is breathing polluted, unsafe air.Résultat de recherche d'images pour "pictures of earth from space"

THIS IS THE EARTH YOU NOW LIVE ON SURROUNDED BY JUNK.

NOT THE EARTH ON YOUR SMARTPHONE NOR THE ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENT EARTH.

IF YOU WANT TO GROW UP ON THIS BEAUTIFUL PLANET LET YOUR VOICE BE HEARD.

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THE BEADY EYE LOOKS AT THE FUTURE OF FRESH WATER.

26 Thursday Oct 2017

Posted by in Environment, Fresh Water., HUMAN INTELLIGENCE, Humanity., Life., Politics., Sustaniability, Technology, The Future, The Obvious., The world to day., Unanswered Questions., United Nations, What Needs to change in the World, Where's the Global Outrage., World Leaders, World Organisations.

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( Seven minute read)

Fresh water is emerging as the most critical resource issue facing humanity.

No technology can double the flow of any River, or enhance other surface and ground water resources. It would indeed be a wonderful achievement to see these technologists produce crops without water!

At first glance, human health seems unrelated to natural resources.

Historically, decisions to protect the environment have been based on isolated crises and are usually made only when catastrophes strike. By 2050 almost 40 per cent of the world population will live in areas of high water stress.

The human carrying capacity of the world will not be addressed until the situation becomes intolerable or, possibly, irreversible.

There is no need for me to remind you that water is a finite resource, that is essential to human existence. “There’s not an infinite supply of water nor will there be.

Résultat de recherche d'images pour "pictures of freshwater"

Our climate — whether you want to call it global warming or climate change — is different from it was 50 years ago.

New NASA data show how the world is running out of water. 

The world’s largest underground aquifers – a source of fresh water for hundreds of millions of people — are being depleted at alarming rates, according to NASA satellite data.

Twenty-one of the world’s 37 largest aquifers have passed their sustainability tipping points, meaning more water was removed than replaced during the decade-long study period. Water demand will outstrip supply by 2030.

Water scarcity will become such an issue that it will hinder economic growth, spurs migration and sparks conflict, creating large and uneven consequences across the globe.

What’s at stake

Water shortages will be the catalyst of future conflicts.

There are 276 transboundary lake and river basins in the world, fewer than half of which are covered by treaties. Some 148 countries include territory within such basins, which account for an estimated 60 per cent of global freshwater flow.

Combine water scarcity with political instability, increasing resource demands and climate change, and the ‘perfect storm’ for conflict can be created.

What if anything can be done? 

There is no global government in relation to the environmental agenda.

All of our basic resources, such as land, water, energy, and biota, are inherently limited. The biological resources determine the current and future status of the support services for human life.

The chances of reorienting globalization to the aims of a sustainable society is all but impossible

Because consumerism collides with ecological issues over environmental ones.

Because of the transnational character of environmental degradation.

Because the current world order is not suited do dealing with global environmental problems.

Because there is an absence of responsibility of political leaders ( Mr Trump) towards adverse effects on the environment.

Because the importance of water to life means that providing for water needs and demands will never be free of politics.

There is no easy answer. 

Along with increased urbanization, world population  — and economic growth, all of which demand and consume larger and larger amounts of water.

Other than we must avoid letting humans numbers continue to increase to the limit of the Earth’s natural resources and forcing natural forces to control our numbers by disease, malnutrition, and violent conflicts over resources.

The water problem is daunting.

With more than 99% of human food coming from the terrestrial environment -One of the biggest competitors for water is agriculture. Some 70 percent of global water use is tied to the industry.

As the supply becomes more erratic with climate change that continues unabated. Food price will spike caused by droughts inflaming latent conflicts and driving migration.

We can no longer avoided the effects of a world water shortage it will have life-threatening and global economic consequences.

It’s almost taken for granted that we will have water, but we can’t do that anymore. Global warming has already begun to show how it can impact the world’s water.

( The picture below depicts the amount of freshwater on the globe.)

Earth's water

Here are a few ideas that might help.

We need major education about the use of water.

We need to get our heads together on how we manage groundwater.

We need to putting a sensible price on water to invite investment and encourage conservation, increasing the availability of information and doubling down on innovation can go a long way toward solving the problem.

We need to install smart meters nation WIDE TO ALLOW a restructure of the price of consuming fresh water.

So that the first few gallons per person per day are cheap or free, with escalating costs beyond that. Water for necessities such as drinking, cooking and hygiene should be affordable.

Beyond that, water for lawns, filling swimming pools, washing cars and other uses should be more expensive.

We need to decide as a society whether green lawns and landscaping, golf courses, swimming pools and unnecessary agriculture (like tobacco and coffee) are worth the use of water.”

While our planet as a whole may never run out of water, it’s important to remember that clean freshwater is not always available where and when humans need it.

By the year 2025, 48 countries will be affected by water stress or scarcity – affecting around 35% of the projected global population in that year. Population growth alone will push an estimated  a further 17 countries, with a projected population of 2.1 billion, into water-short categories within the next 30 years.

Only 64 of the world’s 177 large rivers (1,000km and longer) remain free-flowing, unimpeded by dams or other barriers.

There are more than 45,000 large dams in over 150 countries with about 1,500 more currently under construction.

At the moment 780 million people lack access to clean water and 2.5 billion lack adequate sanitation services; most of these people live in the poorest countries.

The world needs nothing less than a Blue Revolution if not Fresh Water will ultimately affect everyone and everything on this blue planet.

Once we realize that we live in an interdependent world, we will hopefully refrain from making decisions that are short-sighted. Instead, we will look at the long-term gains of peaceful cooperation.

Unfortunately with the Technological Revolution decoupling us from the environment there is little chance of any peaceful cooperation.

There is only on solution – make profit for profit sake pay a World Aid Commission of 0.001%. ( see previous posts)

Saogal fada cugat.

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