Bonjour à tous!
I work on the same idea. I would like to introduce you one vision about how to tackle these interrelated Social-Economic-Political-Environmental problems, and to hear your opinion regarding its feasibility.
Basics:
1. We experience very heavy economic crisis affecting many types of business and millions of people.
2. Many scientists conclude that the economic consequences from the worsening environmental situation resulting from climate change will be even heavier. For instance: the financial loses from just one hurricane are measured in hundreds of billions of dollars.
3. Energy issue and its multiple aspects "weigh" more and more: growing needs, prices, abundance, political independence, degree of pollution, etc.
We are almost 7 billion (mankind will pass this threshold at 2012), and except the 2 billion people that struggle every day for basics like water and food, the most of the rest try to live the movie version of the American way of life. Moreover we need 2 more planets like Earth to feed our consumer needs (greed?).
The challenges (to manage and to provide job and food security for so many people, and to handle with the consequences of their consumption) are enormous.
Unprecedented situation requires unprecedented steps. In this relation, I would like to ask you kindly to consider the possibilities described in Desert Ice Project - http://www.deserticeproject.com
There you will find a description of the project aimed to fight global warming (and related desertification / drought, food and water shortage, poverty, unemployment, illiteracy, illegal immigration, terror, violence and conflicts, etc.) by global, complex measures - global initiative / network of local focused solutions to specific regions.
If the situation is so bad and even going worse, we must not exclude any alternative.
The emphasis is on the belief that basically we can react to this knot of problems in two key ways:
1. By intensive greening (more trees and leafs - more absorbed CO2, preserved moisture/WATER, more stable soil, more jobs, more own produced FOOD by the locals, more income and profits, more stable economies and improved living conditions for more people, reduced migration, improved security, etc.). This step alone won't help, because industrial pollution will go on.
2. By sophisticated filtering and energy efficient systems radically reducing heat-trapping gases that flow in the atmosphere – all shaped in one international system of standards, which does not allow one to take unfair advantage compared to the others. Only limiting our greenhouse emissions (CCS techniques alone) won't help, because desertification, drought, water/food shortage and following social problems will continue. So, there must be applied both methods.
This is a large economic initiative that will mobilize many sectors of business - engineering, construction, banking, security, education, agriculture, science, etc. DIP includes large infrastructure projects, that will attract large contractors, and long chain of subcontractors; taking credits; reconsidering ideas that were underestimated so far. For instance: directing resources to "green" production, let say solar panels will open a lots of new jobs in this sector, and this will lower the prices, which will make these panels more accessible by more people. And then the government may oblige business and households for their massive usage - for every car / building roof, for every cell phone and laptop, etc.
Unlike the geo-engineering projects this operation is the most natural one. It only reverses the "negative geo-engineering" that we already did to some places in our planet - deforestation, pollution, too much land used for grazing, etc. Many of its stages are applied already in different parts of the world. They just need to be connected in one system.
Many requirements set by environmentalists seem to be too expensive from the economists' point of view. And the opposite - what industry and business want is often unacceptable by the green. This project tries to find the crossing point between, and it should be assessed by both sides.
Every problem is an opportunity in disguise. This is a chance for us, not just for solving the current triple E3 (Environment-Energy-Economy) crisis, but to put international relations / co-operation into a new level.
I hope that this might be interesting for you from your perspective, and that the proposed measures could initiate a serious discussion at future climate/economic summits.
Thank you for your time.
Looking forwards to hearing from you.
Sincerely,
Ivaylo Avramov
Sofia
Bulgaria
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