Environmental Justice

Contents of this Page: Underlying Causes of Environmental Destruction - A. Deleterious Effects of Interest - B. Poverty - C. Population Matters - D. Prevention of Green Technological Advance - E. Terms of Trade and IMF Conditions for Borrowing - F. Greed - G. Power Must Be Spread - H. Abuse by Corporations - So, Environmental Justice demands

Respect The Earth

Life on earth is a fragile miracle. Its preservation and, wherever possible, reconstruction is not possible without a global and intergenerational perspective – which is what GJM provides.

Environmental destruction has underlying several causes some of which are not always obvious and, even if noticed, are often conveniently ignored.

Underlying Causes of Environmental Destruction

The first such cause is interest whose deleterious effects are as follows.

A. Deleterious Effects of Interest

Exponential growth of compound interest

When money is not, or cannot be, repaid (and, because of predatory lending, that is the situation in many countries today) the total amount owed, at compound interest, increases with ever-increasing acceleration. Assuming no repayments, the amount owed slowly increases before beginning to shoot upwards on its way to infinity. For example, if somebody borrows at 12% to pay for, say, a farm, and is unable to pay back the money then, after 18 years, he has to pay back the equivalent of not one farm or two farms, but eight farms! After 24 years it is sixteen farms.

More money is owed than is available

If $100 is borrowed and $800 is repayable then, on the world scale, there is a continual and frantic effort to find $700 i.e. the difference between $100 and $800. The only way forward is to borrow more money!! Thus there are huge, and unnecessary pressures to increase economic activity merely for the purpose of paying off the interest (as opposed to paying off the original sum).

Transfer of resources from poor to rich

All the time, as a result of the grip that the banking system now has on the world, a massive transfer of resources is going on from the poor to the rich. An example from Germany is illuminating. Between 1950 and 1989 German Gross Domestic Product increased 22 times, while interest paid on the national debt increased 75 times. That is extraordinary remembering that, overall, 80% of the population lose from the effects of interest, 10% neither lose nor gain, and the last 10% most definitely gain.

And borrowing more money generally only worsens the problem. Eventually capital assets tend to end up in the hands of those who lend money.

B. Poverty

A second main cause of environmental destruction is poverty. Poor people, for example, often have little choice but to take the shortest route to satisfying their immediate physical need. Thus if electricity is not available, poor people will cut down the nearest trees to provide fuel for cooking and warmth.

Generally, moreover, where the environment is concerned, poor people do not have much choice about how they earn their living. It is hard enough for the middle classes and the working poor in industrialized countries to face up to the choices between the environment and their livelihood. Still harder is it for those in poorer nations where, in far greater numbers and proportions, people suffer and perish for lack of necessities.

Thus, if there is to be fundamental advance on the green front, not only must poverty be addressed but there must be a method by which ordinary people can be stopped from earning their living in one way and given another, more green way, instead. If there is no other way to earn, destruction happens. The recent history of the Canadian cod fishing industry is an example. The seas off Newfoundland were being over-fished. But because, in order to limit the cod catch, fishermen would have to be deprived of their livelihood, inadequate action was taken. It is now, alas, possible that Canadian cod will never be seen again. Unhappily, this dismal history looks like being repeated in the North Sea.

C. Population Matters

In considering a third main cause of environmental destruction it can be noted that a large population does not, of itself, cause poverty. Rather, poverty causes the large population. Many people believe that the most intransigent problem facing the world is the burgeoning population. In many countries, the population increases while, at the same time, there is a standard of living just above the starvation level; abysmal, if not non-existent, health and education services; and no welfare state. In such situations:–
• families have large numbers of children to ensure that some survive
• children are necessary to provide for the upkeep of the aged
• women have little choice as to whether or not they have children. This is not just a matter of economics but also a reflection of a power balance between the sexes, a balance tilted against women.

However, there is much evidence that population levels stabilize, even decline, where there is:–
• a reasonable standard of living
• an education and health system
• some, if only minimal, empowerment of women.

Thus, in the USA and Europe today many strata of society are generally showing a population decline. Needless to say, Global Justice provides:
• a reasonable standard of living;
• education and health systems; and,
• a considerable empowerment of women.

D. Prevention of Green Technological Advance

Fourthly, environmental destruction will continue while green technological advance is prevented. Windmills and solar energy-generating systems are examples of investment projects that can, and should, be done with interest-free money. However, while, as at present, all such investment has to be made with interest-bearing money, the projects have a borderline viability.

With interest-free money, however, they become economically feasible. Getting such technologies into operation is now environmentally urgent. Indeed, unless it happens within about five years, it may be too late.

There is hope, however, because some mind-bending alternative energy and other technologies are now on the verge of practical possibility. Examples are the Motionless Electromagnetic Generator and various processes for using hydrogen obtained from water. It is utter madness not to give these new technologies a chance to save the planet. The use of interest-free money would be that chance.

Unfortunately, at present, vested interests and fossilised mindsets have induced a deep paralysis. Green technological advance is essential but while all such investment has to be made with interest-bearing money, the chances of it being viable are small.

E. Terms of Trade and IMF Conditions for Borrowing

A fifth main cause of environmental destruction is the poverty and distress arising from the disastrous imposition of unsuitable terms for borrowing. A recent World Development Report recounts the reasons behind Malawi’s food crisis. Briefly, the problem is not harvest failure. Rather it is inappropriate conditions for borrowing imposed by the IMF and World Bank. In particular, these conditions, rather like water privatisation, do not take account of poor people’s inability to pay more for food. Malawi’s international indebtedness, moreover, is such that a potentially prosperous country is being environmentally wasted.

Furthermore, the terms of international trade are often biased against the agricultural production of poor countries.

Debt Cancellation

The case for cancelling the debt of these countries is strong because, unless the debt is cancelled, they will never get out of debt (indeed, it will increase) and so, in effect, will be milch cows for evermore. Putting countries into never-ending debt is a sure formula for creating never-ending hatred.

F. Greed

Lastly, environmental destruction is caused by large-scale over-consumption.

At the moment, unfree finance capitalism has, at its core, a demand for the endless repayment of interest. That demand necessarily causes an endless expansion because of the need to repay borrowed money. While the money supply is almost wholly dependent upon bank-created money issued with a requirement for the payment of interest, a frenetic over-consumption is certain.

Therefore when conventional economics views humans as being endlessly greedy (as it does view them) it is only giving expression to what is required by the conventional economic system.

Apart from the present finance system, moreover, endless greed is also stimulated by a lethal combination of insecure social status and the insecurity which comes from poverty or, at the very least, a perception of insecurity.

Therefore the elimination of greed requires:

Only then can it reasonably be expected that the forces which today tend towards endless greed will at the very least be mitigated.

G. Power Must Be Spread

Justice and sustainability of human life on the planet cannot be achieved with a concentration of power that corrupts people and their environment. An ecologically rich division of power is required to provide checks, balances and interdependency to provide a rational basis for trust and cooperation to sustain humanity as part of Gaia.

To achieve a widespread division of power democracy needs to be re-defined to eliminate it operating through command and control bureaucracies. Democracy has been hollowed out through the public sector being captured by the command and control bureaucracies of corporations that allows them to minimise their political accountability.

Political democracy cannot be achieved without economic democracy. Even the most advanced economies no longer have a meaningful form of economic or political democracy. Corporations are beginning to rule the world. They are more and more becoming accountable only to investment managers who by law are not allowed to take action on only social or political grounds. Even on financial considerations, investment managers are not motivated to make corporations accountable as they depend upon them to earn their living! Justice is denied because bureaucrats in the public or private sectors can avoid political accountability. Social accountability is denied, as citizens cannot afford to take court action against power bureaucracies.

Justice depends upon enriching democracy to give citizens rather than institutions control of society. This can be achieved by adopting ecological forms of ownership, control and money. See Complementary, Community and Ecological Currencies. This would create interdependency between the social and natural environment to build "Ecological Republics" based on the bio system of each locality. Dr Shann Turnbull has made a proposal as follows: —

H. Abuse by Corporations

Companies (UK) or corporations (US) were originally allowed into existence with privileges because they could give benefit to society. Today, however, the right to create a corporation is increasingly treated as a right by people intent on abusing the privileges, indeed, intent on abusing society e.g. tobacco corporations. Worse, the individuals involved in many corporations are able to shift the costs of damage they cause onto the public sector. Corporations located in tax-avoidance countries are particularly prone to this. Global Justice would review the role of corporations.

Stewardship

The word “stewardship” well summarizes what is needed. All humans alive are, or should be, stewards aiming to hand on to succeeding generations a world in good shape. Stewardship means:–

The Global Justice Movement gives a lead in stewardship because it:–

Best of all, the GJM promotes a positive attitude away from self and towards others. Without that attitude there is little hope that people will co-operate sufficiently to make an impact on environmental problems.

It has been well said that:—
“the question of rights within a global system revolves around the right to livelihood for the human and other species. Livelihood is not ultimately about money or having a job. It is about the right to share in the bounty and beauty of the planet, within sustainable limits – not because the right has been given by someone else, but as a consequence of being alive.”

The five Justices combine in livelihood.

Remember – the world has the technology and productive resources to eliminate misery, poverty and injustice and save the planet (particularly if the Motionless Electromagnetic Generator and other new alternative energy sources become commercially viable).

N.B. Over time, in the Global Justice economy, interest-free money will come to replace interest-bearing money and not be in addition to it. Since it is replacing, it cannot be inflationary.