But would add that the environment MUST be central to our thinking, or else we are just re-arranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. A few wind turbines here and solar park there, and buying a Chevy volt aren't going to cut it. Even the well intentioned desire to help out someone struggling is window dressing as long as most people (middle class and poor people included) have the "I get mine first" attitude. A financial system based upon the notion of ever expanding growth is an unsustainable dream. What is needed is: A) for people to finally wake up and realize that the dream is just that, and B) the realization and hard decisions need to be made immediately to create a sustainable sphere of existence within a planet of limited capabilities. In short, our Values must change from what we'd Like to have or do, or believe, to what we Must do.
Such a collective cultural shift has never been attempted or accomplished on a global scale through out all mankind's history, but If we don't make these choices, the earth will make them for us. Judging by our history, I'm not optimistic (and glad that I don't have any kids), but if there is any single bright light, its that for the first time in history mankind has the ability to communicate and coordinate globally. Part of the question will be however, will that ability to communicate be tolerated by the PTB, or those that seek to exploit it as well.
As much as I'd love to see us return to a New-deal type of manufacturing society with high middle class wages, one must realize that that system is also based upon endless production and consumption, and therefore unsustainable too. Perhaps the best bet is to try and return to that type of society for the short term (say 20 years), in order to ease the pain of transitioning the global economy to the next and more intelligent level. Clearly Globalism was the wrong turn, its time to back up to the mid 70's and make the right turn this time. The pipe dreams of some, through the exploitation of others, and the phony paperwork and ideologies that legitimatize our present day world are a disaster.
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