The Internet of Things: A Proto-technate

August 1, 2015 at 3:53 pm (Development, EOS, Future, Strategic Analysis, Technology)
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InternetOfThings

via inoviagroup.se

By Enrique Lescure

Introduction

It becomes increasingly clear that the future we are shaping for tomorrow will be considerably different from today, and that the 21st century can potentially become even more dramatic than the 19th century in terms of techno-social development. While the future is indeed shifting, we can see two competing trends which will shape the future. The first one is the increasing exponential pace of ecological devastation, which threatens to destroy the current biosphere and usher in a new dark age for humanity. The second trend is exponential technological development, in terms of computational capacity, information technology, miniaturization, bio-tech, renewal energy and space research development.

These trends will undoubtly transform not only our civilization, but our planet as well. Therefore, it has never been as important as now that we establish a common ground on which we can shape the future existence of the human species and its interrelationship with the planet. To a large extent, social and technological development is not intentional, but a result of emergent processes – meaning that when a new technology is introduced, it will change the way in which human beings interact with the environment and thus eventually transform society and even – in the far perspective – human culture.

While it is difficult to predict the future, it is far from impossible to see towards where technological development could lead us if taken to its logical conclusion. While some are believing that the history of the human civilization is deterministic and will naturally lead to its end-state – the post-1991 realignment in most cases – that is only appearing to be so. In fact, while emergence strives to flow like mighty currents, we fundamentally do have the power to steer it towards the direction where we can see the optimal goals from the perspective that our civilization has chosen to embrace.

We argue that one of the potential logical conclusions of the implementation and development of the Internet of Things is the establishment of an intelligently managed and integrated infrastructure. Such an infrastructure can be utilized in order to create a near-total overview over the usage of resource flows, energy, trade, production and distribution. Thus, from the emergence of the Internet of Things, a technate can be formed.

TL;DR Summary

  • Integrated computer technology and miniaturization means that applications can interconnect to optimize communication and information to optimize functionality within various fields.
  • This process leads to the formation of intelligent cities, which in their turn will interconnect with one another and form larger and larger networks.
  • Eventually, this could mean the establishment of a global integrated network which allows for a total overview over energy-, infrastructure- and resource management on our planet.
  • This would present a great opportunity to exponentially increase our ability to manage resources sustainably while providing a good quality of life to all human beings, but also increases the risk for totalitarian centralized control.
  • Therefore, it is paramount that we establish a dialogue on whether this transition is desirable, in what way it should be implemented and how we could ensure popular influence over the transition process.
  • Fundamentally, the struggle is about who and how technology should be controlled during the 21st century.

Technological determinism and evolution

via kryptonradio.com

via kryptonradio.com

It is easy to imagine that the world we are living in today is the natural consequence of capitalism, industrialism, the scientific revolution and parliamentary democracy. To some extent, it is also true. For example, the rationalization process that the growth-oriented economy initiates when it transforms eco-systems into mono-cultures is the direction towards which the logical conclusion of Smithian Economics point. However, some characteristics of our current economy are to a large extent dependent on co-incidences.

One example is the ascendancy of the private automobile. Motoring has for three generations been such a natural part of western civilization that most people generally are taking it for granted. In the United States, a large part of the surface territory consists of highways, parking lots and the suburban regions made possible by the culture of motoring. The reliance on combustion engine cars have greatly affected climate change during the 20th and early 21st centuries.

However, neither the culture of motoring or the reliance on fossil-based fuels was a historical inevitability. During the early 20th century, there were cars that were powered from various differing sources, and it was not at all certain that the combustion technology would win the techno-evolutionary competition and become the dominant energy model for transport during that era. It was due to a series of historical accidents and investment patterns that this model won out.

Another example of a historical co-incidence was how the wild horse was hunted to extinction in North America during the older Stone Age, but how a small group survived on the Eurasian landmass and was domesticated. If the horse had gone extinct in Eurasia, or survived in the Americas, history as we would have known it would have been entirely different.

Thus, we need to look at technological development not as deterministic, but as evolutionary. Technology is developed on the basis of what has been tried before and proven to work, and thus constantly improves with baby steps. When new technological areas are discovered, the same process generally applies to them (unless these new technologies are outcompeted by established rivals that achieve the same aim). This also means that we can consciously choose what technological development we want to emphasise, and to a limited extent direct what effects on society this progress will have by consciously adapting our infrastructure to the future we are setting the course for.

On the Internet of Things

Robot Hummingbird

The Internet of Things can be defined in many ways – one of the simplest if to say that it is an observed trend. More and more, the minaturization of applications have allowed for a digitalization of previously non-digital technology. This means that the operational intelligence of everyday household items and infrastructure will increase, and that these items will be able to be a part of a large communications network.Picture-6

If this technology becomes widely available in the market, we can imagine that it would not be unusual to see integrated homes, which reminisces of the kind of computerized homes seen in old sci-fi shows from the 1960’s, where people are operating their home environment through their voice or through small chips placed inside their own bodies.

Let us think further. These systems can make homes inter-communicate, allowing for example a more optimal energy distribution between houses within the same neighbourhood, or why not integrated fire warning systems, that would alert the nearby homes of a fire in an application? Or what about integrated waste management systems and automated aquaponics production systems within every habitat, as envisioned by Alexander Bascom?

Eventually, there will be smart cities where all of the infrastructure consist of fully integrated systems, that can monitor energy and resource usage, set up alternative plans for resource usage or assist in the making of such plans, and also to some extent self-manage.

This interconnectedness will grow out from the cities, connecting through power grids, roads and railways, and eventually entire states and continents will be interconnected. This will inevitably – if taken to its logical conclusion – make the existing economical, social and political power arrangements outdated and lead to a complete transformation of not only the human civilization, but of the very concept of civilization itself.

Eventually, what will emerge will be a planet united through a network which allows for the transparent overview and the centralized, de-centralized or integrated management of energy and resources. In short, humanity will be within the reach of establishing if not The Singularity, so at least a Singleton.

The risks of neo-totalitarianism

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While there are many causes to celebrate aspects of the ascent of the Internet of Things, there are also profound risks that need to be analyzed and put into context. The foremost of these risks is the issue of power. Already today, we are seeing tendencies towards a greater and greater concentration of wealth and power in supranational financial institutions and in multi-national corporate entities.

If such structures are given control over the Internet of Things, we would most likely see a very predatory process, the reduction of popular sovereignty and the increase of surveillance and centralization. What could become a system that can help save the biosphere and empower humanity, can under the wrong conditions instead become a virtually un-overthrowable neo-totalitarian Brave New World scenario.

Therefore, the role of the Earth Organisation of Sustainability – and similar organisations aiming for a socially, economically and ecologically sustainable world – should be to increase the availability of this knowledge, but also of the applications and the ability to construct the applications themselves, to the general public and to local communities, within the context of a consciously evolving proto-technate.

What is a proto-technate?

Smart-Cities-1

A proto-technate (a term defined by dr. Andrew Wallace), is a consciously evolving infrastructure management system, which includes and empowers all participants through transparency, de-centralization and constant availability for education. The system is evolving by learning from its previous mistakes, and the goal is increased sustainability, as explained in The Three Criteria.

This means that the control of the Internet of Things within the context of a proto-technate would be given not to corporations, governments or supranational institutions, but to local, voluntary groups that would utilize these technologies to manage their own local environment and the sustainability of their neighbourhoods. This would also allow for a more diverse array of solutions adapted to the local and regional needs of communities and individuals.

In the city of Umea, we in the new EOS Board are aiming to establish an intellectual and practical centre for the development and utilization of technologies to be adapted for the transition towards a sustainable society. The first step would be the establishment of an eco-lab in Umea, through which many local groups – as well as the public – can become connected and learn how to make their imprint in the process of developing and implementing techniques.

Ultimately, if we have a vision of how the world should look like in 100 years, we must work locally and together with individuals and communities to make this a reality. Our main goal in this respect should be to help ensure that the control of the knowledge and the new technologies is in the hands of the people and that it is used in a context of forming a sustainable civilization.

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Aqua

July 2, 2015 at 8:01 pm (Agriculture, Development, Ecology, Infrastructure, Science, Sustainability, Transition)
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watercluster.org

watercluster.org

By Enrique Lescure             

Introduction

karencarr.com

karencarr.com

The craddle of life on Earth can be said to be found in the blue. For many hundreds of millions of years, the ascending continents of the young planet were as dead and barren as the wastelands of Mars, while the oceans and lakes were teeming with life. Water was the solvent in which the first life-bearing cells emerged during the chaotic epochs after the birth of the Moon.

From a world fraught with volcanic eruptions, a poisonous atmosphere and constant meteor storms, Earth has evolved into a planet able to create complex and beautiful life-forms, forming an ever-changing and ever-evolving biosphere.

Much of the freshwater reservoirs have accumulated during millennia and are ensuring that the plants have enough nourishment to produce and renew soil and to establish the foundations for complex ecosystems to exist within.

Today however, we have destroyed or are on the verge of destroying a third of the world’s freshwater reservoirs. Many regions of the world, such as the Middle East and South America, are already experiencing social upheaval in relation to water depletion. China and India, the two most populous nations on Earth, are also experiencing water depletion on a massive scale.

This presents two kinds of challenges, one which is really long-term and the other which is relatively short-term. The first challenge relates to the fact that in the long-term, depleted freshwater reservoirs create a drier climate, meaning that fewer trees can grow, which leads to soil erosion. 5000 years ago, the Middle East and the Southern Balkans were largely forested regions, which gradually became more and more arid due to massive irrigation projects by city-states and hydraulic empires (aided by climate change).

The same process is repeating today in Brazil, the United States, India, China and Central Europe.

The second challenge is how billions of people in the future should be provided with water for drinking, for hygiene, for cooking and for other activities, while eco-systems should be taken cared of to ensure long-term survivability. This will be one of the most important issues for the Earth Organisation for Sustainability in the future.

Our challenge, as always, is how to be able to weigh the needs of today with what the environment needs in order to stabilise, and how to ensure that communities can participate in this process.

Short Notes (TL;DR)

There is not one singular solution to the challenge of freshwater depletion – rather there must be a transition process which is on-going and is coordinated between five distinct areas. The areas in this regard are all equally important, though emphasis has to be put on different areas depending on the local and regional pecularities of distinct regions of our planet.

~ Short-term solutions, policy-based and social. Rationing, water salvaging, public education regarding water treatment and stimulation of local projects.

~ Medium-term solutions, infrastructure projects, construction of artificial aquifiers, aqueducts and water salvaging plants. Migrations and redistribution of population.

~ Long-term solutions, the creation and re-terraformation of depleted regions by the (re)construction of destroyed eco-systems or new eco-systems. Monitoring of the process.

~ Research, time investments into technologies that can make desalinization more cost-effective, new technologies for recycling and upcycling water quality, reducing the need for water in home appliances and in infrastructure overall.

~ Ensuring the dignity of communities and a fair distribution, namely that the affected populations themselves are having democratic influence in the process of how their transition process should be managed and how much they want to participate in that management.

The future – short-term solutions

Mars base by Douglas Shrock 1

humanmars.net

We have largely been treating water as if it was air – as if we could use as much as possible of the groundwater and then… well, not having to think about the management. Sure, in most developed nations, there is water management, which works more or less well (the Nordic countries are generally very high up on that scale, with drinkable tap water and very large and unspoiled reserves of ground water, with hundreds of thousands of lakes).

In the future, there is a profound risk that we – at least in some regions – would have to treat water in a way similar to how we would endure on a Mars base, namely by careful management and a circular hydraulic economy, where water is moved from household appliances and infrastructure to large aquaponics facilities, where rainwater is gathered, filtered and cleaned and utilised within the habitat, with zero to little usage of aquifiers. In fact, we should move towards minimising our usage of groundwater, instead focusing on water recycling, rainwater usage, water from rivers (though we should be careful with river water as well and have systems that can replenish the water to the rivers from the base). 20131003142909-NEW.Aquaponics-IconUrine may have to be filtered and turned into drinkable water again.

In terms of personal usage, this would probably entail local water regulations where people are given either a water quota for a community tank, or their own individual tanks where they could use water. A lot of the functions that today are individually allocated might have to become communal, like washing clothes, bathrooms, kitchens and so on. When two or more distinct communities are sharing the same source for their water, there needs to be a form of common management or at least transparency and concord between these two communities, thence holons should be formed for these tasks.

Ensuring human survival – Medium-term solutions

Brazil_Variability_11_04_14

In particular cases, there might be needs to transport water from either deep aquifiers (like the Sahara aquifier) or from regions with abundant water reserves to regions where water shortage threatens the survival of hundreds of millions, and can cause the collapse of over-stressed communities. This can be achieved through the construction of closed aqueducts or water pipelines, and must be managed both by a convent of representatives of the affected communities, and a technical authority managing the infrastructure of such projects. In some cases, the Earth itself may have to be transformed to construct fresh-water lakes with adjacent forest eco-systems to form the basis of medium-term water sustainability in the social term.

Or, we might even need to consider large-scale migrations, for example from the United States into Canada, from China into Siberia and from the Mediterranean countries into north-eastern Europe, in order to alleviate the resource stress on China and the US by distributing the population more evenly, as the polar regions become more habitable due to climate change while the temperate regions become less able to provide for their population. This would also reduce the need to transport water from the north to the south, by instead making it possible for people to migrate from the south to the north.

Another project worth considering is to create closed-loop rivers in Sahara and then form communities around them, where people from Africa and parts of the Middle East (and even from flooded Islands like the Maldives) can settle, in oasis city states built alongst a string of pearls in the vast Saharan desert.

Lastly, the final two areas for human resettlement are Antarctica and the Oceans, and both represent technological challenges in terms of how to attain enough water to supply significant populations.

Ensuring the well-being of the Biosphere – Long-term solutions

encuentura.wordpress.com

encuentura.wordpress.com

When we in the EOS are talking about long-term solutions, we mean long-term, in terms of 10.000-50.000 years. This means partially that humans would have to live in different forms of communities. Mega-cities housing tens of millions of people should not be subsidized as an ideal form of life, which they are in today’s exponential growth-oriented model. Neither would a massive, evened-out distribution of the population be a good solution, since it would wipe out forests and eco-systems. The ideal would be concentrated inter-linked communities ranging in the thousands, though there would be no forced population redistribution.

The first thing that needs to be done is to ensure that our biological waste is used to renew soil cultures, or to build new soil cultures where old ones have been depleted. This means that we should not put our waste in the oceans or in lakes, but instead use human manure as a valuable resource to be utilized as a part of recreating and strengthening soil quality. What we term as waste from mines can also be valuable, since rock often contains important resources that increases the nutrition levels.

We need to ensure to reduce soil erosion, both by the construction of terraces and especially by the growing of plants, allowing eco-systems to take hold. We need to move away from mono-cultures and grow food more vertically and within the confinements of urban centres. Of course, it is not possible to remove all mono-cultures, but we need to reduce the amount significantly over a long span of time.

If we cannot reestablish eco-systems that have been lost, we must see whether we can build new eco-systems to compensate for the lost ones, and if these new eco-systems would have a positive impact on the Earth’s biosphere.

And – a lot of this means that we have to create more preserves where human-oriented activities are minimised, and that we let these preserves be untouched for hundreds of generations, that said – until a new equilibrium is established.

Applying and multiplying knowledge – Research

panacea-bocaf.org

panacea-bocaf.org

There is much valuable research done today within the space industry, regarding the effective usage of water in order to create self-containing artificial eco-systems and provide food on space stations or on Mars bases. This technology can also be applied on the Earth in order to salvage resources and increase our resilience. However, the technology needs to become more energy efficient and as ecological as possible without compromising the values behind. The things envisioned to be used one day on Mars should also be utilised in villages in Morocco, Honduras or Kerala, and thus the knowledge must spread horizontally in an exponential manner (there can EOS be of immeasurable help, by providing educational programmes aimed towards local communities).

Desalinization should also be investigated, and an emphasis should be put on making the process cleaner, more effective and cheaper in terms of resources and construction. Especially within small-scale appliances, a focus should be made, so that every home in a community can contribute to the process of turning saline water into freshwater.

A third area is in terms of the development of household machines that use less water, either by design features or by the usage of more advanced technology, for example smaller treatment plants and the integration of treatment plant infrastructure into the modular features of future homes. To this we can also add technologies that can treat infected water and clean it.

Lastly, we should not omit to mention the integrated features of intelligent cities, which can be used to predict the usage of water over long-term and come with proposals over how water management should be carried out.

Including the communities – the social aspect

socialearth.org

socialearth.org

An integral part of what we in EOS are striving to create, is that people locally and regionally should be able to exert influence over their own destinies. This does not only mean to guarantee the protection of individual rights – both through a Constitution and through giving individuals the means to defend their autonomy – but also the protection of the rights of communities. An important aspect of this is that communities should bear the responsibility of the natural resources within their area – including water.

This can be problematic though, because the irresponsible usage of natural resources is a great part of what is wrecking our biosphere right now and causing the Sixth Mass Extinction. Therefore, there is a balance between the democratic autonomy of a community and their right to exert the main part of the influence on how natural resources should be used locally, and the rights of the Biosphere to exist and prosper.

There is no fixed answer on how to resolve this potential conflict, but every local area is unique. What is important however is to identify needs, to establish a dialogue with the local community, to create management plans together with representatives of the local community, both political leaders, traditional leaders, economic actors, representatives of the civil society and the general public, and to include them in the process where holons are established to oversee aspects and manage aspects of the hydraulic infrastructure. The grade and depth of the management and the collaboration will vary between regions and areas.

This also includes the right for the local area or region to withdraw from the cooperation or renegotiate. However, what we need to establish is a consensus and an awareness of how water usage affects the environment and how a changed environment will affect the future of local communities. Thus, EOS needs to act primarily as an educational organisation, while we need to incorporate the knowledge and wisdom of local communities and understand that situations need to be addressed with a sensitivity to the values and norms – in order to be able to canalise the force of the community towards the gathering of new knowledge that can be utilised to improve water management.

Summary

scientificamerican1109-80-I1

Some new age spiritualists are claiming that we will soon enter the age of Aquarius, or that we have already. Aquarius as a symbolic figure is a human being that pours water – enlightenment – over humanity. It can be seen as an appropriate metaphor in one way, because if the knowledge of how much we have damaged our water reservoirs was better known, there would be a greater movement towards solving these problems.

Some aspects of the article you have read may seem rather radical. The problem however is that the more we are stressing and depleting the reservoirs of water and soil needed to sustain a complex land-based supra-civilization as present-day humanity, the more radical the solutions would eventually have to be.

The important thing to remember is that interventions must happen with the permission and active participation of local communities, and that they should interfere as much as necessary but not more into the livelihood of the people. Interventions can be intrusive, so therefore the most essential part of any transition is that the population is made aware of the nature of the situation, that the population is prepared for when interventions would happen and how far they will go, and that the public can affect the process and partake in it.

Water must be managed in an ecological manner, but it must ultimately also be managed by the people.

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Happy 46th Earth Day

April 22, 2015 at 12:22 pm (Green Free Will, Movements that make a difference, Science)
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nature-balances-herself

By Enrique Lescure

Introduction

For 46 consecutive years, we have celebrated Earth Day, and yet the status of this planet is worsening. On the sixth Earth Day, in April 1975, we were in the process of the first overshoot of our global footprints. Since then, we have used up a larger and larger share of the Earth’s diminishing reserves, crowding out eco-systems to replace them with linear activities.

We have all the opportunities in the world to change the course, and a lot of things are undoubtly done. What is happening now however is that improvements are local and implemented within either regions (by political demand) or within companies (due to genuine convictions and green marketing), but in the same time, things like fracking and tar sands are exploding on the market, the cattle industry and meat production beats all-time records, and the main concern for decision-makers within both the western sphere and the BRICS sphere is how to maximise economic growth.

What forces are genuinely interested in saving this must plead, beg, work hard for little to no economic gain and almost apologise for struggling to save the lives of all of us, while those who are more responsible for the current state of our world would never have to worry about being homeless, about having to move around or whether they would have to buy food or medicines.

This post is devoted to those heroes of our time.

The tale of Alexander and Ann-Sofie

Alexander Bascom and Ann-Sofie Svensson. Alex and Ann-SofieA young couple in Umea, Sweden, who are passionate about innovation and aquaponics, they founded Green Free Will back in 2012, and sought resources to realize their dream of constructing automated biodomes which would transform our entire relationship with food. Their tale is one of love, struggle, many setbacks and triumphes.

Entering a collaboration with the Earth Organisation for Sustainability, Green Free Will was awarded an agricultural development grant from the European Union, which however took a long while before it arrived due to the bureaucratic structure of the application. When it finally arrived, we were all overjoyed, and so the construction could commence during the late summer of 2014.

Today, I feel privileged to announce that the last part of the grant was recently transferred to EOS, and is now transferred to Green Free Will, so they can do the last work on the dome before the next phase of the project begins. It fills me with happiness that Green Free Will’s project will receive a much needed morale booster.

Alexander’s and Ann-Sofie’s story is awesome, though not unique. Everywhere throughout the world, there are idealists struggling both to make their household economics hold together, and to initiate revolutionary innovative projects that will change the way we look at the world. This vanguard of the garages is a bright hope for humanity during Earth’s darkest hour in 65 million years.

One of the purposes of the EOS is to cooperate with and help people who burn for projects to realize them. As a small organisation, we sadly do not have unlimited resources. By helping us, you will help people like Alex and Ann-Sofie and organisations like Green Free Will to network and expand.

Ultimately, what we all are struggling for is the very foundation for our existence. In this matter, you are either for life or for death.

So thank you Alex and Ann-sofie, Richard, Jonathan, Stefan, Maria and the others! You are making the world a better place!

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Moo! Exponential growth, outspacing, food and livestock.

January 8, 2015 at 9:28 pm (Agriculture, Alternative Socio-economic systems, EOS, Science, The Monetary System, The war against the Earth)
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earth-images-from-space-at-night-7

 by Enrique Lescure

An issue of waste. An issue of space.

Oftenmost when mainstream organisations are dealing with environmental concerns, they are focusing their attention on one particular issue close to the heart of that very organisation. It could be conservation, energy, emissions or rainforests. However, despite their best efforts to counter the trend, the usage of the planet’s biosphere has increased for every passing year – as evidenced by the Earth Overshoot Day that for every year is moving backwards throughout the weeks and months.

Some people believe that the current system in itself is fundamentally good, though they also believe that it has caused some problems. They do however believe that these problems can be managed within the exponential growth system, and that the problems themselves are mainly caused by insufficient technology.

sunpower_main

Wind, solar, geothermal will put an end to oil dependency, and we will continue to have the current socio-economic system, and growth will continue so everyone will continue to have it much better in the future as GDP per capita will increase (now we for a moment ignore that real wages amongst the US middle and working classes have not increased since the late 1970’s). That is the mantra of the mainstream.

The way of the EOS is not to say no to optimism, but to say no to illusions. This is why we must poke a hole in this illusion.

Exponential growth on a confined space such as a planet will not – under any circumstances involving real biospheres – ever be able to sustain itself for eternity. Either it will be stopped by a stagnation of demand (as happened during the 1920’s), or by the very limits of the planet itself.

Proponents of the system then claim that when resources turn too expensive, humanity will – through the creative processes of capitalism – automatically find alternatives that are both cheaper and cleaner and offer a higher standard of life to the consumers and better profits to businesses.

The issue of space

amazon-deforestation

Of course, they have it partially right. The world is not a zero sum game, and it is possible to find more efficient ways of doing things through technology. But technology in itself is most often not a problem. What is problematic, however, is the idea that the Earth is just a sum of resources, which has been the basis of Economics since the 18th century.

What they tend to ignore however, is the issue of ecology. The biosphere consists of tens of thousands of complex eco-systems, consisting of millions of animal-, plant- and fungi species. These eco-systems are more or less stable webs of life that interacts through interdependent relationships.

What tends to be forgotten is that we do not only take things from nature. We are also transforming nature, by turning areas into production zones for food and raw materials. One last point before we move along, is that proponents of the current system often refer to the Coase theorem, an economic theorem formulated by Ronald Coase, who basically sums up that the environment first deteriorates during early stages of economic growth, to recover later because the public has increased their income so much that they demand a better public environment (it can also be summed up as that well-defined property rights can regulate any problems). In short, to heal you first have to wreck.

These proponents often cite the well-known facts that Europe and North America today have more forests than they had a 100 years ago, to show that this law holds and that it is general. Given that, how then come that even if we use up less of our forests in the developed world today, our global footprints are increasing?

Simple.

We are simply shifting more of the logging to the developing world, especially the rainforests of Africa, South America and South-east Asia – some of the most biologically diverse places on Earth.

Linear resource flows

Mouldy_Clementine

A mere 200 years ago, most economies were local village and town economies where most things utilised by humans within a confined area also were produced within that area. Today, even relatively simple items such as drawing pins are often consisting of substances that are extracted wherever it is cheapest and most effective to do so from a profit perspective.

Modern mega-cities are existing because they extract their resources from the entire Earth. The organic direction that this endeavour takes is characterised by what I call linear extraction systems. Such systems are characterised by the reformation of space into monocultural production zones, which de-facto are an industrialisation of nature. Such production zones are necessitating the destruction of the natural eco-systems previously located within the very same space.

In short, you must wreck to make.

Of course, all types of human activity will affect the environment, but the current system in employment in itself is based around production models that seek rationalisation above everything else. What means with rationalisation is the transformation of space and resources to best suit the profit demands of the market.

The effects of this can be seen throughout the world.

monoculture lawn

Moo!

If we for a moment place ourselves outside of Earth and outside of time, we can see that while there has been human cultures and tribes that have been carnivorous, most humans prior to the modern age lived on a largely vegetabilic diet – out of pure necessity. Meat requires animals to be grown up, and animals eat food.

However, with rising living standards, first in the west and later in the non-western world, new technologies and the rise of an increasingly urban middle class has led to a rise in meat consumption. Moreover, meat – at least for the generations who first had access to refrigerators – symbolised an increased social status and prosperity.

thumbnail_chicken

Apart from refrigerator technology and increasing abilities to preserve and transport meat, the 20th century has also seen the birth of a meat industry, which often is completely inhumane, dependent on steroid feeding animals and denying them the opportunity to pursue their natural behaviour. However, this industry is also contributing immensely to the destruction of the planet.rexfeatures_1141708a

A large part of the meat industry is consisting of cattle and sheep, two hoofed animal species with similar digestive systems. This digestive system is very good at producing methane emissions, which contributes immensely to climate change. Methane for the record is a more potent gas than carbon dioxide.

Moreover, cattle demands much nutrients to grow, as well as much water. This means that  the world’s 1,5 billion cattle is a high resource cost in terms of both space and actual emissions. Around a third of the world’s land surface is needed to feed the current population of cattle and sheep. Moreover, this has a direct impact on soil erosion and freshwater depletion. To not speak of greenhouse gas emissions. It is measured by a recent report by World Watch that this industry alone stands for 51% of the total emissions, meaning that it is the major contributor.

The solution

The film Cowspiracy recommends everyone to become vegetarians/vegans, which would solve the demand issue. The problem with that solution however is that it would not account for the lands already being damaged by the demands of the meat industry, and that it doesn’t take into account that not all people have the opportunity to arrange their consumption after environmental/vegan demands (even though that could change if more people became vegans since that would make vegan food commercially viable).

What we have seen is that we have an economic system which unintentionally punishes good behaviour and rewards bad behaviour in terms of sustainability.

The solution must then be to form a better form of market which would better reflect the needs for a holistic approach to the planet, especially where the cost of products would be measured against their ecological impact. The EOS has proposed such a model, called Energy Accounting. Under such a model, the cost of obtaining food would resemble the ecological impact of that particular food production model, which would pennalise for example the consumption of beef, as well as production that is not ecological.

What needs to be done globally however, is that we need a global accessment on how to minimise the amount of space we use to produce food on, so to give these areas back to the eco-systems which need to fill them so this planet should have a functioning biosphere.

This would require a mobilization of forces on all levels, from grassroots to global associations, in order to consciously steer our civilization towards food sustainability. EOS has worked on this together with Green Free Will on a local basis in northern Sweden, through the Umea Biodome Project. However, we need such initiatives in every city in every country on Earth.

It is a matter of the survival of the human civilization after all.

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Artificial Islands as a solution to outcrowding

September 30, 2014 at 4:14 pm (Alternative Socio-economic systems, Culture, EOS, Green Free Will, Projects, The war against the Earth)
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The Pacific Ocean is covering very much of the planet

By Enrique Lescure

Introduction

Recently, studies have shown that wildlife populations have declined enormously in the world, by one third if we look at land-based species, and with over two thirds if we take a closer peek on marine life. A large part of this – especially regarding the valuable oceanic ecosystems – can be explained with direct exploitation (like overfishing or poaching). However, another explanation could be that we as a species are “out-crowding” other species, not by covering all of the planet with urban areas (though this kind of expansion also is problematic), but especially through the amount of space needed to produce food currently.

An issue of space

Monoculturalism

Food. Alongside water one of the two essentials to sustain the human body and thereby the human civilization. Today, food production is increasingly transforming the face of the planet, especially regarding the usage of space. Corn, wheat, rice, nuts, tea, coffee – but also food components like palm oil are produced on a large scale, transforming entire regions into monocultural landscapes, perfectly assimilated to maximise the space for useful economic growth.

Of course, synthetic fertilizers and pesticides are frequently used. While mining as an activity often is more directly harmful to the local environment, monocultures are a direct killer of biological diversity and leads to species more and more being crowded together in isolated patches of wilderness. This leads to problem such as more frequent starvation, inbreeding, cannibalism and external stress to animal species, and they respond by dwindling in numbers, thus furthering the process of environmental degradation.

Mass deaths are natural occurrences in nature, but what we must realise is that this mass death is caused by the activities of our civilization.

Don’t we have a shortage of food?

If you would like to contend with me that we today face a shortage of food, I can respond by saying that there is a consensus that we today are producing more food than the current amount of people on Earth can consume. That we still have widespread poverty and starvation in parts of the world such as Subsaharan Africa and India can not be attributed to any planetary scarcity of food.

Using space more wisely

shogun

As a planetary civilization, approaching the level where we can create a Type 1, we should definetly be using space in a wiser way. During the 17th century, Japan was steadily approaching an ecological crisis created by the overusage of the limited woodland reserves on the Japanese archipelago. To solve these issues, the Tokugawa Shôgunate imposed a series of measures (some which would be considered draconian by today’s standards) which averted the crisis and prevented starvation.

Europe approached a similar situation during the same period, and solved it by colonialism and proto-industrialization, while Japan solved their renaissance-era ecological crisis through using space more wisely. Today, with the Earth rapidly approaching a mass extinction, we cannot solve this crisis by large-scale colonialism (Mars will not be terraformed for many millennia).

With using space more wisely, I am referring to the cessation of the construction of suburban housing areas, so typical for the late-modern west, and instead construction more habitats vertically and more based around tenements, and possibly even arcologies (single buildings that can house several tens of thousands of people comfortably).

Arcology-1

Such arcologies can, as illustrated by this image, contain their own ecosystems and farms, which could sustain at least a part of the demands of the citizens of the structure. The arcology would be a minor city in its own right, with its own hospitals, education systems, recreation spots and sporting facilities.

Since the amount of suburban areas (at least in the US) starts to be visible from space, it would be a good transition project to build human habitats on more limited space. This however will not wholly address the issue of food production, since urban farming cannot under any circumstances sustain the entire needs of the planet.

More vegetarianism, less meat

Cows

The nutrition we get from eating meat is “immensely wasteful” and contributes greatly to the addition of greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere. Moreover, the meat industry is treating intelligent beings in ways which would evoke nightmares if they were conducted on human beings. Meat consumption is largely on the increase in the growing economies of the east, mostly because meat has traditionally been seen as an “upper class” luxury. Meat also contributes to heart diseases. While EOS under no circumstances advocates the ban of eating meat, we would suggest the creation of a way to estimate the cost of goods which take into account their long-term effects.

Seasteding

Lilypad, design by Vincent Callebaut

Lilypad, design by Vincent Callebaut

A more efficient way to utilise space on Earth and allow areas and regions to be freed up for a return to a more wild state, would be to increasingly move human activity out into the great blue. The Pacific Ocean is covering very much of the planetary surface, and an increasing transfer of human activity there could serve to free up space. The Pacific region, as well as other oceans, can be used for both human habitation and food production.

It would also expand our knowledge of space settlement and of creating new cultures which would be more resilient. Seasteding could in an organised way become the great new frontier and a way to put pressure off the continents. However, there needs to be a coordinated effort to not deplete the fragile ecosystems of the oceans, or add to the pollution.

What are your ideas?

What ideas do you have? If you are interested in this, I recommend that you check into our website, or join our facebook group. Also, like our facebook page, we have soon entered 500 likes. We hope to see your contributions to the work we are doing.

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Biodome Fundraiser

September 19, 2014 at 11:18 pm (Activities, EOS, General News, Green Free Will, Greens, Movements that make a difference)
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Green Free Will at work!

Introduction

The Biodome Project progress can be followed on http://enggreenfreewill.wordpress.com. The construction team are doing an awesome work. However, one of the problems we have encountered with the LEADER support grant we’ve received has been that we have encountered demands on additions and elaborations to the reports we send in to explain how we’ve used the part of the grant we received first. The result is that our payments are delayed by constant demands on more and more specifications.

If we do not receive our next payment, we can have trouble finishing the project as it stands, and we are risking to be liable of the grant. This is not how it should go, because we have all struggled very hard with this project, a project that is non-commercial and aims to create a better world.

The Biodome in Lögdea (on Swedish)

The goal is to build an automated experimental biodome with an aquaponics system, connected to a computer system that can alter conditions inside the dome after the changing needs of the ecosystems inside said dome.

What do we need?

We would need 60.000 Swedish Crowns to complete this stage of the biodome and pay our costs. That is 9000 USD and around 6500 Euro.

We have already received 1000 SEK during the early stages of this fundraising, and that money would go to compensate some of the practivists of Green Free Will for their gas costs driving to the site for voluntary work. Needless to say, that is a small fraction of our costs.

Re-funding

If we receive our next part-payment from the County Board of Vesterbotten, we can refund your donations as “private expenses”, so you can get your money back. Note that we are not sure when the next part-payment will arrive, or if it will arrive, given the experiences taught us by the process until now.

That is why we are asking for a donation and not for a loan.

How do I pay?

You can donate a sum of money through Paypal or to our official bank account.

Our official Paypal adress is: andrew.wallace[at]technate.eu

Our bank account number is: 8420-2 903 584 947-1 (Swedbank)

The future needs your help!

Enrique Lescure, Sequence Director of Relations, EOS

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The Biodome Project 2014

January 24, 2014 at 4:54 pm (EOS, Green Free Will, Greens, Movements that make a difference)
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dsc02411One of the greatest challenges of the future, in a world affected by peak oil, damaged soil and climate change, is how to ensure our food. We stand before the greatest challenge that humanity has ever encountered. There are 7 billion people on the planet, and many of them are today dependent on an agricultural sector which is dependent on fertilizers based on chemicals and fossil resources.

There are, however, alternatives. Organic farming for example.

But for organic farming to become an alternative to the prevailing paradigm of large, monocultural fields, it needs to become less labour-intensive and be able to feed billions of people. That is why I found the ideas of Alexander Bascom and Green Free Will so intriguing when I first heard about them.

The idea is to contain a self-regulating aquaponics system within an automated geodesic dome. This system will simulate an eco-system, with an artificial river floor world, filled with small aquatic animals, and a plant bed where vegetables, fruits and beans are grown. There will be a computerised regulation system inside the dome which would adjust to a number of variables – climate conditions, atmosphere, bacteria levels, nitrate levels and water levels, and change the conditions of the dome to keep a dynamic equilibrium. This choice represents the reality, where vegetables and fruits together stand for around 80% of the human calory intake, whereas aquatic food stands for 20% of the proteine intake for most people. Since soil will not be used, and the plants will be fertilized by organic manure produced by the aquatic eco-system, the internal eco-system will be sustainable, and will only require a minimum of external nutritional in-take (mostly iron).

EOS has joined its forces together with Green Free Will, to make sure that this project is realised.

Our aim is to raise a small, experimental prototype dome, made of plastic composites and located in Lögdeå, near Umeå.

And we have received a grant which is covering a part of the cost. The grant is delivered by URnära, a LEADER project which helps with agricultural development in northern Sweden. The grant is covering the construction materials for the dome and the initial wages for the two project leaders, Alexander Bascom and myself. However, a condition for the grant is co-financing from other entities – from individuals and from associations and companies. Also, the grant does not cover the foundation digging, the aquaponics system nor the computer hardware and software.

The grant is on 34.035 Euro (300.000 SEK), while the total cost of the project is 177.011 Euro (1.560.000 SEK). We have a deadline until the 30th of June 2014 to have the Dome up.

You have an opportunity to help with achieving food sustainability, combine innovative new systems to make high-tech organic farming. The aim of this project is not to make a profit-driven enterprise, but to help individuals, communities and peoples achieve sustainable farming. Imagine roof-tops, private and public gardens and communities centered around dome-farming. Imagine a future where people once again can grow clean, unpolluted food in a sustainable way any time they want during the year, no matter where they live. This project has prospects from everything from ordinary gardening, to humanitarian aid, to space exploration.

Our paypal address is biodome2014@gmail.com

Contact person is Dr Andrew Alexander Wallace, Spanngränd 13, 906-28 UMEA, SWEDEN.

CURRENT NEEDS: 300.000 SEK/1.560.000 SEK

 

 

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