The Emperor Has No Clothes A Practical Guide for Environmental and Social Transformation (27 page)

This type of web site would also be useful to
provide information to the political candidates in shaping their
platforms by providing information on the degree of public support
for each of their proposals. A further application of this system
would be to provide a forum for the public to propose new ideas and
discuss their merits and eventually develop consensus. If
sufficient consensus is present the new proposal could be
dispatched to the candidates who may choose to incorporate it in
their platform.

A further way of reducing the influence of
money and help level the playing field in the American political
system would be to limit the length of time political campaigns
could be conducted. For example, if the national presidential and
vice presidential campaign times could be limited to six months,
the candidates would still have plenty of time to visit all of the
states multiple times. Senatorial political campaigns could be
limited to 3 months which would be plenty of time since only one
state needs to be covered. A period of 1 ½ months would be adequate
for representatives. By having specified shorter periods, the costs
for political campaigns would be significantly reduced. Another
measure that could be taken to improve the political system would
be to eliminate private funding of political campaigns. By
switching to public funding each candidate would be allotted the
same amount of funding, thereby producing a more level playing
field. With this system there would be no need for political
candidates to pander for campaign funding in exchange for later
favorable treatment of large donors. Not only would this further
level the playing field but also allow incumbents to spend more of
their time working on legislation and managing the bureaucracy,
what they were elected to do, instead of spending time fund raising
for future elections. Moreover, by having publicly funded campaigns
the politicians would not have the constraints of short planning
time horizons that are now being used to satisfy the desire of
their financial supporters whose goals are to realize quick
profits.

The way voting takes place in the U.S.
Congress and Senate is by 3 methods, voice votes, and roll call.
Voice votes is a show of hands for yea or nay and is made by
estimating the proportions, this type of voting is generally used
to reinstate ongoing programs and for legislation where a large
obvious difference exists for the level of support for the matter
at hand. Roll call, where each senator stands up and says yea or
nay which is simply tallied and this style of voting is seldom
used. Teller votes where the way a particular member of congress or
the senate votes is recorded. This is accomplished electronically
by sliding a plastic identity card into one of three slots
incorporated in the back of their seats that indicate yea, nay, or
abstain. By switching to exclusive use of teller votes it would be
possible to identify how an office holder actually voted, and how
much of the legislation was actually voted on. This would provide
the electorate a definitive means of determining what an elected
official actually did. A further improvement would be a reduction
of the number and size of omnibus bills. These types bills are
undesirable because they are a vehicle used to incorporate a lot of
pork for log rolling. Implementation of these measures would
greatly increase the transparency of a politicians activities.

All of these suggestions would go a long way
towards improving how the American political system performs.
Unfortunately it will not completely eliminate the role money plays
in our political process. There would still be lobbying [106] and
the revolving door where government officials alternate between
high paying positions in big businesses and influential positions
in government. Even with these improvements the powerful well
funded interests will continue to have a great deal of influence on
the political process. Their capacity to provide their well
developed PR and other capabilities to directly and indirectly
shape public and office holders perspectives to their advantage
(remember UFCO) will still be present.

106 Lobbying does produce useful input to
elected officials for shaping policy, however, greater transparency
would improve the activities of politicians. The proposed website
could be a useful tool to provide this type of transparency.

Let's consider what effects a switch to a
networked segmented society would have on the short comings that
are present in our current political system. In the early
developmental stages when individual segments and small incipient
networks exist, the amount of political influence could be
effective at the local level and through lobbying. Local political
influence would develop as a result of the formation of clusters of
segments. Clusters are small groups of segments living in close
proximity to each other would also have the advantages of allowing
the presence of organic professional services, educational
facilities for children, and the economic advantages already
described.

If segmented networks becomes the predominant
type of social organization then the elected officials would also
be members of egalitarian communities. By being a member of a
segment a politician would not have the means for accruing direct
personal gain since what ever material or wealth they would acquire
would just go into their communitie's fund. Thus, the mechanism of
producing biased legislation would be virtually eliminated. Of
course a politician would be able to accrue some gain by enhancing
the segment he/she lives in. It is extremely doubtful that this
would work though, since these types of activities would be
impossible to conceal from the other members of the segment. Also
each segment would be a participant in a number of interlocking
networks where information, personnel and regular exchange would be
taking place. By having this type of networked exchange
inter-segment transparency is created. With this type of
transparency corruption would be impossible to conceal from the
other segments of the network for any significant length of time.
The network(s) that an individual segment belongs to are also in
possession of a significant lever to insure upright behavior. This
source of discipline would occur automatically since an individual
segment is dependent upon the rest of the network to supply things
that can not be produced on site. The other segments could simply
exclude the malefactor from participation in the network(s). This
type of shunning would produce progressively greater hardship upon
the isolated segment to abandon unsound practices. Of course the
prevailing state and federal legal system would also be available
to offer remedies for undesirable activities.

My assessment of the current situation is
that there is much to be optimistic about. The awareness and desire
to address the problems discussed in this book is growing rapidly
in American society and throughout the world. It is my hope that
some or all of the ideas presented may be implemented in the form
presented in this book or improved upon by others. At a minimum
this book should at least provide a basis for discussion about
shaping a new and hopefully better society, while remediating the
serious environmental challenges existing throughout the world.
When viewed from a wider perspective it is obvious that the current
economic system and the culture that supports it are obsolete and
dysfunctional. All that is required to make the transition already
exists. It is as simple as making up our mind to change and then
carrying out the program. One should not look upon this with
trepidation or fear, after all we are in charge and can make this
opportunity bear splendid fruit and have fun doing it!

I will close this section with the poem - I'm
Nobody! Who are You? written by Emily Dickinson:

I'm Nobody! Who are you?

Are you – Nobody – too?

Then there's a pair of us!

Don't tell! They'd advertise – you know!

How dreary – to be – Somebody!

How public – like a frog -

To tell one's name – the livelong June -

To an admiring Bog!

~~~~~~~~~~

Gold dust is a wonderful thing to have,

but when it gets in the eyes it causes
blindness.

Chinese Proverb

If consideration is given to the technologies
and agricultural techniques presented in this book it is obvious
that it is entirely feasible to change to a sustainable pollution
free society. The technologies and agricultural methods are
available for use right now, adequate for the task, and can be
accomplished at a realistic price. In fact the numbers presented
herein exceeded a 100% annual reduction in greenhouse gas output.
It is important to attain the 100% greenhouse reduction level as
quickly as possible to stabilize climatic forcing. However, the
impression that I gained while researching climatological
information for this book is that a desirable level of atmospheric
carbon dioxide is in the range of 315 – 325 parts per million. This
means that we need to actually go beyond a 100% greenhouse gas
reduction and start removing these substances from the atmosphere.
This will probably take a significant length of time since vast
quantities of these gasses are being stored in the oceans. This too
should also be achievable if we change to a social system that is
based upon conservation of resources instead of consumption. If we
can manage to transition to this type of society a large proportion
of the current resource usage and its accompanying pollution could
easily be eliminated. At the present time 20% of the energy used
and huge quantities of materials are consumed in the US by the
manufacturing sector. Moving to a conservation type of economic
system would greatly diminish the consumption from manufacturing as
well as the use of transportation, producing further direct and
indirect reductions.

The major sources of pollution in the oceans
come from the air and agricultural sources from runoff. By
eliminating the use of coal and switching to the agricultural
methods suggested earlier in this book most of the sources of
oceanic pollution would be eliminated greatly enhancing the
potential of marine recovery. Termination of these two sources of
pollution also has the huge benefit of stopping most of the
production of methane which is a strong greenhouse gas and only
remains in the atmosphere for 12 years. This would act as a fast
check on global warming while the slower acting measures take
effect.

The segmented network type of social system
has a number of additional advantages over the current system. It
is a non-hierarchical type of system that allows the rapid
transmission of information directly to the appropriate
individuals. These individuals could formulate appropriate
responses and quickly marshal resources to deal with problems. The
current system we have is comprised of bureaucracies that are
geared to deal with routine predictable types of problems. Their
capability to quickly respond to novel situations is poor. For
example, the small scale near shore fishermen recognized that the
size of the fish they were catching and the amount landed was
diminishing. They correctly surmised that this was an indication
that there were problems developing within the fishery. They tried
to gain the attention of the authorities that there were problems
in the fishery. The government ignored these warnings and did not
take any action for a considerable time allowing the situation to
continue to deteriorate.

Perhaps we can take a lesson from this about
how to improve the management of the fisheries. One of the most
significant contributors to the collapse of the fisheries is that
we continue to allow too much fishing effort. Much of this
overcapacity is incorporated in the large industrial ocean going
fishing ships that can go anywhere in the world, clean out a
fishery, and then move on to a new one. If the use of these types
of vessels were abandoned and only small shorter range boats were
used it would eliminate the destructive hit and run tactics that
these large factory ships employ. Another approach would be to
grant long term exclusive fishing rights for a particular area to a
local segmented network or co-op (no foreign vessels allowed to
fish). All fishing vessels could be required to have an electronic
transponder to make it easy to track them to prevent encroaching
and poaching. This would be an improved management approach because
it would be in a network's interest to maintain the area they
control in good sustainable condition.

What are a few simple things that we could do
to improve the maritime environmental situation? If you are going
to eat fish consider choosing farmed fresh water vegetarian fish
such as tilapia. If you wish to eat ocean fish try to choose
species that are not depleted and fished in a sustainable way.
Information on which kinds of fish that meet these criteria can be
obtained from the Marine Stewardship Council which is a
certification organization for sustainable practices. The Monterrey
Bay Aquarium provides information on the status of individual types
of fish and their websites are listed below. Support regulatory
measures that reduce fishing effort, expand marine sanctuaries and
that reduce destructive practices to marine habitat. If you can,
add your vegetable and fruit kitchen waste to a compost pile. Most
of this type of “waste” now goes into landfills. By putting these
materials in landfills large quantities of valuable soil nutrients
are removed from the soil nutrient cycle. Moreover, by burying
kitchen scraps in landfills they also produce methane which
contributes to global warming. Join a group that is working on some
aspect of this that you are interested in, or create your own
organization; organize, organize, organize, network, network,
network. The important thing is to invest some time in moving
things ahead. All we really need to do is take that first step, and
then another; the path will open before us. It is like building the
Golden Gate Bridge,it was done by each person one rivet at a time.
That bridge would not exist if the work done by even one person was
missing.