1. This is an open question to any leader, treasurer or candidate of any political party in
the world.
Our planet is finite, has bounds or limits in regards to the temporal spans of the
human experience, being corroborated by measurements of biocapacity, the ability of
an area to produce resources and absorb waste.
We are currently in ecological overshoot, the amount of resources we consume
annually and the waste we produce is exceeding biocapacity by about fifty percent.
Our ecological footprint is one hundred fifty percent that of the biocapacity of our
planet.
Global consumption patterns which drive the capitalist economic model, the dominant
economy on our planet, generating vast financial wealth to a steadily decreasing
amount of our human population, are destroying planetary ecosystems, impacting
directly on biodiversity.
As a species we have removed half of the forests that once covered our planet and are
currently eliminating about eightteen million acres, an area near the size of Panama,
annually. The key drivers are urbanisation, timber for construction, fuel and
agriculture.
Climate change, pollution, agriculture and expanding industrialisation are producing
extreme levels of water scarcity throughout our planet. Over one billion people lack
access to water, more than two and a half billion people experience water scarcity for
one month of every year.
Overfishing has fully exploited fifty three percent of the world’s fisheries, without
change to practices all stocks of species fished for food are expected to collapse by
2048.
Our continual pumping of carbon into the atmosphere is altering global climatic
patterns, resulting in increased instances of drought and flooding; engendering rapid
glacial melt, sea levels to rise and acidification of the oceans, damaging corals,
shellfish and the web of life.
These symptoms are a result of our consumption trends, which politicians such as
yourselves continue not only to promote but express as being necessary. Following in
the footsteps of people like Victor Lebow, whom so succinctly expressed in 1955:
“Our enormously productive economy demands that we make consumption our way
of life, that we convert the buying and use of goods into rituals, that we seek our
spiritual satisfactions, our ego satisfactions, in consumption. The measure of social
status, of social acceptance, of prestige, is now to be found in our consumptive
patterns. The very meaning and significance of our lives today expressed in
consumptive terms. The greater the pressures upon the individual to conform to safe
and accepted social standards, the more does he tend to express his aspirations and
his individuality in terms of what he wears, drives, eats- his home, his car, his pattern
of food serving, his hobbies.These commodities and services must be offered to the
consumer with a special urgency. We require not only ‘forced draft’ consumption, but
2. ‘expensive’ consumption as well.”
Journal of Retailing – Spring 1955
Your continued denial of reality, or predisposition to pander to the corporate elite,
your reluctance to dare to question the fundamental rules which have governed
society for millennia, is working only to secure the position of the status quo. In light
of our exponentially increasing commercially generated wants and rapidly decreasing
resource availability, this status quo is now posing an existential threat.
This denial of reality has become endemic amongst career politicians and is a
disservice to the clear majority of the voting public, who are continually left in a
position of disadvantage and are the ones picking up the tab whenever there is a crisis
of finance.
People don’t vote for you because they agree with everything you stand for; they vote
for you because with the limited choice offered to them, you represent the option with
which they most closely identify. As such, an election win should not be misconstrued
as a popular mandate for the entirety of party policy. It should be seen for what it is,
an opportunity to represent the people. This means finding out what concerns the
people have and bringing those concerns to bear front and centre in the political arena.
People are drawing the connections between our economies and environmental and
social decline, however of those people, none appear to be politicians. This issue does
not make it into the mainstream media, which helps to entrench the idea that
questioning this aspect of social organisation is beyond the pale.
Our understandings of the natural world have continued to expand over the past sixty
years and can no longer be ignored or eclipsed by something as rudimentary as
financial economics. Our technological advancements are reducing employment
opportunities, widening the gap between the rich and the poor. The ongoing
production of cheap substandard products is creating increasing levels of waste and
driving up the use of our planet’s finite resources.
When ecosystems collapse, when the biosphere is taken beyond its ability to support
complex life, we all suffer.
Understanding this, how will you/your party change the system of economics to come
into line with the carrying capacity of our planet and secure a sustainable future for
generations to come?
Bearing in mind that “sustainable growth”, like “military intelligence”, is an
oxymoron, as once again we are already experiencing ecological overshoot; the last
thing we need is further growth as it would be unsustainable.
Looking forward to you response.
Concerned Citizens of Earth
مفتوح ٌلسؤا هذاإٍسياسي ٍبحز أي عن ومرشح خزانة وأمين زعيم كل لىالعالم في.
محدو كوكبنااإل للتجربة المادي بالمدى يتعلق فيما ٌدقيو أو ٌدحدو له ،الموارد د،نسانيةالقدرة قياسات تؤيدها ٌدحدو
ما منطقة أي قدرة وهي البيولوجيةعلىإالنفايات واستيعاب الموارد نتاج.
4. متزايدة ٍتمستويا يخلق الجودة المنخفضة السلع بإنتاجالمحدودة األرض موارد استنزاف في ويسهم النفايات من.
النظام يبدأ فعندماباال البيئيقدرته الحيوي محيطنا يستنزف وعندما نهيارًاجميع سنعاني فإننا الحياة دعم على.
هن نفسه يطرح والسؤال:ااالستيعابية القدرة مع يتماشى كي االقتصادي النظام رتغي أن وألحزابكم لكم كيفوكي لكوكبنا
القادمة؟ لألجيالًامستدام ًالمستقب يؤمن
باالع األخذ ومعالتناقضات من نوع إال هو ما "المستدام "التضخم مصطلح أن تبار،"العسكري "الذكاء مصطلح مثل ًاتمام
نشهد أننا فبمااًابيئي ًانهيارًامناقض سيكون ألنه التضخم أو النمو من مزيد هو إليه نحتاج ما آخر فإناالستدامة لمبدأ.
ردكم بانتظار
منزله مصير على القلق األرض شعب.
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Farming can be extremely difficult in the areas that lack humidity and experience high
temperatures and frequent droughts. However, a new innovative greenhouse, which
collects dew and then uses it for irrigation, makes it possible to grow crops even
in the hottest and driest parts of the world. It was designed by Roots Up, a non-
profit organization based in Northern Ethiopia, which aspires to help Ethiopian
farmers in cultivating crops in the unfavorable climatic conditions of the region.
It is worth mentioning that the Root Up greenhouse is a low-tech project, as it is
built with the use of basic materials that can be easily found in the area, such as
bamboo and ropes, and the construction itself is quite simple and does not require any
special skills or tools. The greenhouse consists of polycarbonate pyramidal walls, a
funnel made of bioplastic and a storage cistern.
How does the Roots Up greenhouse work?
In essence, it traps the humidity from the air during the day and converts it into
the water in the evening through the process of condensation. At the daytime, the
hot air is collected in the top part of the structure and at night, when the atmospheric
temperature decreases, the greenhouse top is opened with the help of ropes, letting the
cool air in and thus triggering dew formation in the funnel, which in turn directs the
formed droplets into the storage cistern.
Thus, the system makes it possible to harvest dew that otherwise would simply
evaporate into the air and be gone. Besides, the Roots Up greenhouse can also be used
to collect and store rainwater that otherwise would be absorbed by the ground.
The quantity of produced water depends on the level of humidity in the
atmosphere. Thus, in Gondar, where the humidity can reach 50%, it is possible to
collect 200 l (44 gal) of water per day. At the same time, the harvested water is good
for both irrigation and drinking.
6. to the groundslowlyinsteadof crashingdownlike anythingelsewould,anditcan evensit
on topof a dandelionwithoutcrushingthe seedsof the plant.
"It’s sortof like afeather-- itfloatsdown,andits terminal velocitydependsonthe density,"
saidBill Carter,managerof the architectedmaterialsgroupatHRL. "It takesmore than10
seconds,forinstance,forthe lightestmaterialwe’ve made tofall if youdropitfrom
shoulderheight".
By havingthese nano-tubesinterconnectinsucha way,Microlattice offersanarray of
benefitsfromtraditional solidmetal.Forexample,whenyouwanttomake somethingthat
can absorb impact,Microlattice isdefinitelyagreatmaterial touse for that particularneed.
Withslightlythickerwalls,astifferconstructioncouldbe made,whichstill retainslightness
interms of scale,butmay be more durable thanthe nano-tube version.
The ideabehindMicrolatticeisn’tnew;researchersfromCalTechwere the firsttoannounce
such a structure in2011, althoughback thenitwas still onlyverymucha conceptn,and
Boeingappearstohave finalizedthe processof manufacturingsuchamaterial.
Using sucha lightweightmaterial in airplanescoulddrasticallyimprove fuel economyand
reduce drag on the turbine engines,asaresult,the enginesmaylastlongerandairtravel
companiescouldcharge lessforplane ticketsbecause of the cheaperfuelcosts.
There isstill noideaof whenthe material will be adoptedoncommercial airplanes,
althoughwithBoeingmakinganofficial announcement,itmaybe withinthe decade,give or
take a fewyears.
Microlattice Metalأخفعنصرتمتصنيعهوأكثرهاصالبة
ادعتشركةبوينغBoeingصانعةالطائراتالسفريةأنهالتتوصالختراعالمعدناألخففي،العالموأطلقتالشركة
عليهاسمMicrolatticeأو"ةًبكيشالالدقيقة."
والمعدنعبارةعنهيكلشبكيخفيفًاجدمنالبوليمرالخلويالمفتوحمعمولةعلىشكلأنابيبمعدنيةتناهيةُمفي
غرالص(نانومترية)مصنوعةمنسبيكةالنيكل،والفسفورويشكلالهواءمانسبته55%منهذاالمعدنكماعيتد
الشركة.ويمكنلهذهالمادةالخفيفةأنيكونلهااستخداماتهامةفيمجالتصنيعالطائراتللحدبشكلكبيرمنوزن
الطائرة.
تبلغسماكةاألنابيب055نانومتروقطرها055متر مايكرو.إنهذهالمادةخفيفةللغايةلدرجةأنكإذاأسقطهافإنها
ستطفوعلىاألرضببطءبدالمنأنتتحطمكأيشي،آخرويمكنحتىأنتوضععلىرأسنباتالهندباءدونسحق
جذورهاالرقيقةًاجد.
ويقولبيلكارترBill Carter،مديرمجموعةهندسةالموادفيمختبراتHRL،عنالمادة" :إنهاأشبه،بالريشةفهي
تطفوًاسقوطعلى،األرضوسرعةالسقوطةالنهائيتعتمدعلىالكثافة"ويتابعكارترًالقائ" :تستغرقالمادةاألخفالتي
قمنابصنعهاحوالي05ٍثوانللسقوطعلىاألرضإذاماإسقاطها تممنارتفاعالكتفعلىسبيلالمثال."