beautiful country, beautiful world
Wake up, Pittsburgh; the world needs us.
We in this city have a job to do, and if we don't do it it won't get done.
We have so many advantages; think how unique we are. Many places have educated residents, familiar with the latest technologies. Many have citizens ready and able to work. Many are relatively stable environmentally. Many have research facilities to come up with products for the market. Many locations on the planet have citizens who want to earn a living working for the common good - true productivity. And many communities in the world have the wherewithal to invest in some kind of a planned future - rather than being forced to do whatever is necessary to get by from day to day. But how many places do you know of that have all of these advantages?
To assure ourselves a peaceful, comfortable future, let's assess what we can do to make the world more peaceful and sustainable.
Yes, the world is dangerous. The changing climate is causing droughts, flooding, sea level rise, damaging wind, and power outages. And we do have enemies everywhere, including in the United States.
We each are enemies of ourselves to a certain extent also. We're not innocent children any more. We each have taken our turn at being our own unique mix of rotten - greedy, thoughtless, violent, underhanded, unfair, dirty, uncaring. And we each have played our part in making the world the difficult place it is. We can blame others, but the finger returns to us as part of the mess all humanity is in. The great chain of cause and effect connects everyone - from the first human beings to those born just a minute ago. We have done the most wonderful and the most terrible things to each other. We need to forgive each other and ourselves, and get on with leading productive lives. And we need each other, not just for a functioning world economy but for an ecosystem that is stable and can sustainably provide us with good food, clean water and air. That takes community. So, let's just drop the false veil of pretending we're better or worse than any other country or people. Only by being awake can we see what the world needs so that we can produce for it.
The planet needs biodiversity. One study recently concluded that climate change alone will result in the loss of one quarter of the Earth's species by the middle of this century. We Pittsburghers can produce microbes, plants, and animals to replenish the loss of valuable - endangered and locally extinct - species. It would take a whole article just to name them. For production here, to provide people all over the world with to re-establish biodiversity in faltering ecosystems, some of my favorites: microbes to break down pollutants (a huge category, with many varieties being discovered and engineered); earthworms; heirloom food and herb plant varieties.
As a community investment we can make money servicing the earthwide need to transition from fossil fuels. We can put people to work with: increasing efficiency of energy production, distribution, and use; solar; geothermal; distributed micropower; wind; and biofuels. My personal interest is with those renewable fuels that are able to be made with the help of microbes. We can profit not just by making the equipment for ourselves, but by the applied research to design for manufacture, and the expertise to put them to work all over the world.
Surfing the crescendo of change that is enveloping us - rather than being drowned by it - requires thinking outside all the boxes. Because of the refusal of the American citizenry to swallow unthinkingly whatever we are told by some elite, we have a functioning democracy and a justified reputation for creative invention. Let's put it to work.
We in this city have a job to do, and if we don't do it it won't get done.
We have so many advantages; think how unique we are. Many places have educated residents, familiar with the latest technologies. Many have citizens ready and able to work. Many are relatively stable environmentally. Many have research facilities to come up with products for the market. Many locations on the planet have citizens who want to earn a living working for the common good - true productivity. And many communities in the world have the wherewithal to invest in some kind of a planned future - rather than being forced to do whatever is necessary to get by from day to day. But how many places do you know of that have all of these advantages?
To assure ourselves a peaceful, comfortable future, let's assess what we can do to make the world more peaceful and sustainable.
Yes, the world is dangerous. The changing climate is causing droughts, flooding, sea level rise, damaging wind, and power outages. And we do have enemies everywhere, including in the United States.
We each are enemies of ourselves to a certain extent also. We're not innocent children any more. We each have taken our turn at being our own unique mix of rotten - greedy, thoughtless, violent, underhanded, unfair, dirty, uncaring. And we each have played our part in making the world the difficult place it is. We can blame others, but the finger returns to us as part of the mess all humanity is in. The great chain of cause and effect connects everyone - from the first human beings to those born just a minute ago. We have done the most wonderful and the most terrible things to each other. We need to forgive each other and ourselves, and get on with leading productive lives. And we need each other, not just for a functioning world economy but for an ecosystem that is stable and can sustainably provide us with good food, clean water and air. That takes community. So, let's just drop the false veil of pretending we're better or worse than any other country or people. Only by being awake can we see what the world needs so that we can produce for it.
The planet needs biodiversity. One study recently concluded that climate change alone will result in the loss of one quarter of the Earth's species by the middle of this century. We Pittsburghers can produce microbes, plants, and animals to replenish the loss of valuable - endangered and locally extinct - species. It would take a whole article just to name them. For production here, to provide people all over the world with to re-establish biodiversity in faltering ecosystems, some of my favorites: microbes to break down pollutants (a huge category, with many varieties being discovered and engineered); earthworms; heirloom food and herb plant varieties.
As a community investment we can make money servicing the earthwide need to transition from fossil fuels. We can put people to work with: increasing efficiency of energy production, distribution, and use; solar; geothermal; distributed micropower; wind; and biofuels. My personal interest is with those renewable fuels that are able to be made with the help of microbes. We can profit not just by making the equipment for ourselves, but by the applied research to design for manufacture, and the expertise to put them to work all over the world.
Surfing the crescendo of change that is enveloping us - rather than being drowned by it - requires thinking outside all the boxes. Because of the refusal of the American citizenry to swallow unthinkingly whatever we are told by some elite, we have a functioning democracy and a justified reputation for creative invention. Let's put it to work.
posted by St. Jim the Composter at 10:05 AM
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