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Climate-protection Ideas

 

This website was created after observations by Prof. Müller during an Egypt holiday and an emerging out an idea that should be communicated to the world. Because there could be more unusual ideas, a start should be made for their distribution.

 

This site aims to provide a place for unconventional ideas to combat climate change. The avoidance of emissions is indispensable. However, other solutions may be able to contribute. But they practically do not exist in the public debate.

 

Theses:

The environmental problems are a challenge for humanity

Global warming is now even being noted by Donald Trump. It does not matter if it is a consequence of human interference with the environment, or if it is a natural variation between ice ages and heat spells. It is important that the effects such as extreme weather conditions cause considerable damage. It is a task of all humanity to counteract this development, e.g. with courageous measures to reduce greenhouse gases. At the same time, protective measures (better coastal protection, storm-proof buildings) must be taken to control the consequences.


The world is overpopulated

By 1800 about 1 billion people lived on our planet, 1927 2 billion, 1959 3 billion, 1974 4 billion, 1987 5 billion, 1999 6 billion, 2011 7 billion and 2023 it will be 8 billion. (https://www.dsw.org/bevoelkerungswachstum_historische_entwicklung/). The state of the 70s could probably cope with our planet long term. Population growth has occurred mainly in Asia, Africa and Latin America and has hampered economic development there. It is currently not apparent that these countries can adequately supply their growing population in the long term.

Climate change and overpopulation are triggering poverty migration to Europe and North America. The population in these countries sees their prosperity threatened. However, migration also aggravates the problems of developing countries, as more well-educated young people will leave the country needed for the development of these countries. The reception of refugees can only be a temporary measure with the aim of a later return.

 
The goal of eliminating causes of flight appears as an empty phrase. Since the end of the 1950s, the industrialized countries have provided development aid to the developing countries, and the causes of flight could nevertheless arise. But with more money for old recipes you will not be able to solve the problems.

 

Capitalism needs growth and thus exacerbates environmental problems

Economic growth is the driving force of the capitalist economic system. Without growth, economies are in crisis. On the quality of life of the population it does not matter for this purely statistical size. Natural disasters increase growth because the damage has to be eliminated and businesses get orders. The economy is statistically richer, but people are poorer by the damage.

 
Economic growth means more goods production and more resource consumption. Goods are sold to consumers they do not really need. They have to break down quickly so that new goods can be sold again. Increased consumption of scarce raw materials and increasing environmental impact are the consequences. This logic is sick, and it plunges the planet into the abyss in the long run.

 

In medicine, uncontrolled growth of body cells is called cancer. The organism dies and then the cancer cells die too. Human race is the cancer of our planet. But we have the opportunity to recognize this situation and to draw the consequences from it. Mankind must stop population growth and economic growth so that cancer does not spread. For that it needs a different economic system!

 

Real socialism until about 1990 was not a viable alternative

Between 1917 and 1991, real socialism was driven by the competition of systems. It was necessary to prove the economic capacity against capitalism. Although the planned economy theoretically gave the opportunity to organize environmentally friendly production, the environmental problems in the socialist countries were more serious than in capitalism. Private consumption was lower, but this was an expression of a simple shortage.

 
In addition, the expected collapse of capitalism failed to materialize. The construction of socialism with the perspective of a transition to communism proved tedious. Under democratic conditions, the voters had given up this course. In order to make the long way from capitalism to socialism to communism, undemocratic structures were needed. The final sentence of the second section of the Communist Manifesto (In place of the old bourgeois society with its classes and class antagonisms enters an association in which the free development of each is the condition for the free development of all) was forgotten as a goal; the countries of real socialism moved away from this goal instead of approaching it.

 

Capitalist globalization leads to a reduction of democracy

However, structural democratic deficits also exist in capitalism. Democracy is best organized in small units, but the economy is organized globally. Smaller states are helplessly exposed to the world market. Even larger states avoid conflicts with their large companies, such as the German automotive industry. The insolvency of a major bank can trigger a global economic crisis. Therefore, the states are repeatedly forced to save their banks with taxpayers' money. Despite this courteous treatment, many large companies evade taxation by using tax havens.

 
Economic power is not subject to democratic control. Even the mass of shareholders is often powerless, and real economic power is exercised only by the employed executives of the big corporations, and a few major shareholders. The income of the boards of large companies is in no relation to the wages of their workers and employees.

 
Under these conditions, citizens in democratic states can elect their parliaments and governments, but they cannot exercise power directly or indirectly. The claim of the constitution, all power is based on people, no longer corresponds to reality.

 

About 12,000 years ago, the biological evolution of man ended and became an evolution of societies

According to Karl Marx, the history of the previous society was a history of class struggle. The reality was more complex. About 12,000 years ago, when people began to turn from hunters and gatherers to farmers and ranchers, they also created more complex societies than the former family organizations. They began with a later increasingly refined division of labor. It never ruled democratic conditions. In nature, the law of the strongest applies and in the new societies hierarchies were formed. Unlike in nature, however, the power struggles could no longer be carried out by force. Even weak members could find a useful job instead of being eaten by predators. Instead of power struggles within the clans, the villages began to raid and rob other villages. Societies had to grow up to conquer themselves instead of being conquered. Thus, the societies that were able to organize as large crowds as possible inwardly non-violently and outwardly defensively survived. The law of the fittest as the law of the jungle was transferred to the rivalry of the societies.

 
For the non-violence inside, the natural fight of the male for the females, which was previously the prerequisite of the natural release of the strongest genes, had to be stopped. With a successful raid on another village, the men were killed in the fight or after and not only robbed the cattle, but also enslaved the women. Now even weak men, who would otherwise have had no success in women, could be supplied with enslaved women and thus secured their loyalty to the leaders. The oppression of women became a prerequisite for a viable society.

 
Class struggles set in when societies could no longer meet their members' claims. In good times, the oppressed classes are prepared to accept their oppression when their living conditions as a low-grade member of a successful society are still better than as a free individual outside of this society. Class struggles can only arise if this condition is no longer fulfilled and an additional suffering pressure arises. Despite the regular recurrence of such situations, revolutions are an exception and not the norm.

 
Of the political upheavals, the technical revolutions are to be distinguished. Social conditions can become inappropriate and old social formations are driven out of the way of evolution by new, more successful societies. Thus, feudalism was an effective organization for agrarian society, but industrialization undermined the rule of the nobility and slowly forced democracy. Marx's expectation that the increasing concentration of the economy will force socialism has not been fulfilled.

 
It is possible, but not at all certain, that the pressure of climate change and the requirements of a sustainable economy will force a departure from the capitalist economic order with the need for constant growth and the consequent increase in environmental degradation. The sooner this replacement takes place, the easier it is to preserve the natural foundations of life. After the emergence of a revolutionary situation it would be too late!

 
Democratic conditions help prevent revolutions. Although there are hierarchies in nature everywhere, in our complex societies hierarchies can no longer be fought by force. Also, the lineage of noble families is no longer the derivation of a leadership role, since the broad mass of the people is well trained and thus almost anyone can be qualified for a leadership role. A lineage of long-established or immigrant families can only convey a higher position in society for a maximum of two generations.

 
Against the general principle of equality and the legitimacy of political leadership through elections, there are no good arguments to justify a permanent abolition of democracy. After the experience of the last 12,000 years, democracy is not a matter of course. They will be questioned again if they are unable to solve the existential problems of this planet. Saving the world through dictators would be better than their democratically legitimized demise!

 

Humans are animals

However, human nature gives cause for pessimism. In the last 12,000 years, people have learned a lot, but they could not shed the nature of a mammal. It is not unfamiliar to animals (for example grasshoppers) to eat one area bald and then to look for a new feeding place. The realization that nature must be preserved springs from the mind and contradicts the instincts that one must eat oneself before others eat. Sustainability is unnatural. Capitalism, on the other hand, cultivates man's natural egoism. The answer of nature, however, would be that human beings die out after the destruction of their livelihoods and probably also the other mammals, and that e.g. from insects in many millions of years again develop new diverse life forms.

 
It corresponds to the instincts of a mammal that it must defend its territory from invading conspecifics. Xenophobia is thus a natural behavior. It is a realization of the mind that an international exchange can bring benefits to all involved. But who immigrants e.g. experienced as additional competitors in a tight housing market, this realization cannot understand.

 
Because of the instinctive behavior of humans, there is no factual reason to feel superior to other animals. It should be noted, however, that other animals also distinguish between conspecifics and prey animals, predators and predators, and behave unfriendly towards them in case of doubt. With its sometimes ruthless behavior towards other species, humans behave no better, but not worse than other animals. The effects of his behavior are only much more serious.

 
Humans are therefore a normal animal from the family of monkeys, only much more capable of learning. It is the exciting question of whether man's capacity for learning is sufficient to prevent the destruction of his livelihood, or whether human societies behave like normal monkey herds.

 

Vision of a global ecological socialism

If you want to convince people of the need for a dramatic change of course, then you must first formulate the goal that should be addressed with the changed course. This goal is to be referred to in these theses strikingly as global ecological socialism. No elaborate draft constitution can be presented. However, it can formulate the essential requirements that a sustainable economic system must fulfill.


Cover demand, but do not wake it up

The purpose of every economic activity must be sufficient supply of the population. An oversupply of superfluous goods must be avoided. The problem is how to define the adequate supply so as not to be perceived as a shortage management. Advertising and other activities designed to increase demand would have to be stopped without suppressing factual information about products. New products would have to be developed with the aim of replacing inferior products.

At the same time, the appropriate cooperation of all able-bodied members of society must be organized, whereby impairments of ability to work can be taken into account with the assignment of special tasks. This activation task requires a reward for good performance and punishment for poor performance. If this task is to be taken over by the labor market and wage levels, social benefits would be disruptive. Particularly good performances should not only be rewarded with sufficient, but must be rewarded with a luxurious supply. The activation task should therefore no longer (predominantly) be effected with the wage amount, but other mechanisms would have to be used.

 

Lower costs instead of increasing sales

In ecological socialism must not be produced uneconomic. Even social motives must not lead to goods being produced uneconomically. The (improvement of) economic efficiency in business administration is defined as

 
rated output    or       
yield

valued input               costs

 
and must be achieved as a rule on the denominator of the fraction. Increased output of individual factories can only make sense if, after reaching a sufficient level of care, other factories provide less or stop their operations.

 

Global networking of local spaces

The economy is primarily organized locally. It is a waste of resources to transport southern milk to the north and northern milk to the south. At the same time, however, economically reasonable farm sizes must be achieved, so that the local spaces also have to be defined more broadly depending on the product, up to an international exchange of goods. Especially the international exchange has to be organized in a balanced way. Foreign trade surpluses and deficits should be avoided. The global financial markets in their current form would be superfluous.

 
Better qualities or lower costs of other providers should lead to the poorer providers learning from the good examples and then also be able to work better. The competition has to become a solidary one, which then has to be measured by other factors than by profits.

 

Health care instead of high-tech medicine

Medicine is a big business, with high costs often no life saved, but only the dying and thus the suffering is prolonged. It is a priority to eliminate the causes of illness and not treat symptoms without regard to the costs. Illness and death must be accepted as part of life. An old age in health is a blessing, but with sickness and long-term care it is a torment. Euthanasia must not be a taboo topic.


Democratically organize technical progress

The prospect of profit from the sale of new products is also a driver of technological progress. Development resources are also used when developing products that do not meet the needs of consumers. But no company will publicly discuss its product ideas before launching the new product to protect against competition.

 
In an ecological socialist society, consumers could become mere target groups and independent actors. Product ideas can be published and commented on by consumers. They would formulate their requirements for the intended product and thus give the developers important information as to whether a development up to market introduction would be sensible and what should be considered in the development process. Conversely, even consumer-free statements by consumers in which areas they want better products with new applications, can give the developers suggestions.

 
However, copyright would have to be fundamentally revised.

 

Organize international compensation

If the industrialized countries abandon their oversupply and only provide their population with sufficient supplies, capacity would be reduced and the population would work less. Non-material values could gain value.

 
Overproduction from Europe and North America would only flow to developing countries to the extent that they could exchange their goods. The debt of developing countries should be ended. It is also unreasonable for a more productive population in Europe and North America, which is still adequately cared for, to supply the other countries with their production.

In this situation, however, capital that is no longer generating sufficient profits in the Ecological-Socialist countries would be able to be invested in developing countries. However, it would require reliable framework conditions and then want to exercise governmental authority. In return, these countries would be modernized and developed with the capital invested. It is not to be expected that the new rulers or their puppet governments will establish democratic conditions; rule of law and a fight against corruption would be expected from them but out of self-interest. If the economic conditions improved, then the citizens of these countries could accept the new ruling class. Capital may be capable of learning enough to voluntarily comply with minimum social and environmental standards in its new territory for the long-term security of its power.

 
Because these new rulers would have no interest in an unproductive mass of people who would still have to be fed, a great deal would be done for family planning. In a one-child policy based on the Chinese model, however, one generation would have to bear very high burdens for the care of their parent generation. This would be possible if this younger generation had higher incomes after the onset of economic development, and if the needs of the parent generation were still marked by past poverty. Halving the world population would not be achievable on this path either.

 

Less is more!

The preceding theses can be summarized with the phrase "less is more". With the pursuit of material wealth, people are not happy. The consequences of this endeavor make them partially unhappy. With less consumption, thus less work and therefore more time for other people, people would rather be happy. If they also live in a healthier environment and slow down climate change, that would be a significant improvement on current trends.

 

 

 

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