Erin Remblance’s Post

Art is such a powerful medium, and a hugely effective way to communicate a message. This 3D street art by Eduardo Relero at Puerta del Sol, Madrid, Spain is an example of such a work of art, bringing some of the horrors of Apple's supply chain to the place of purchase. I hope it makes many people think. How much technology do we really need? How often does that technology need to be purchased new vs repaired or reconfigured? Why are we purchasing these items and at who's cost (the monetary cost being the least of my concerns)? ********* If you are interested in learning about how we can use our skills towards creating a new culture, the internal manifestations of the dominant economic system, social tipping points, language, worldview and much more, come and join Kasper Benjamin Reimer Bjørkskov, Ryan (Ra) James, myself and over 240 other courageous people as we seek to engineer and accelerate the social tipping point where the politically impossible becomes the politically inevitable. We are now taking enrolments for the third cohort of PROJECT TIPPING POINT beginning on the 23rd May, 2024. Applications are open until 18th May. Sign up here: https://lnkd.in/eXy-AP-c Use code LAUNCH65 for a 65% discount, there are just 5 coupons for this discount % left. #projecttippingpoint Image sourced from: https://lnkd.in/eTs36iWN

Superb Richard Muscat, well done 👏👏👏👏 “The rising tide the political parties bank on is economic growth, as measured by GDP. But since when, exactly, is GDP a good — and exclusive — measure of human and ecological wellbeing? GDP measures fiscal value, not intrinsic value, without differentiating between that which is constructive and that which is destructive. To quote Kennedy, GDP measures everything monetary and excludes “everything that makes life worth living”. How does that play out? If public transport is underfunded and car sales increase, creating traffic jams and wasted fuel, GDP goes up. If the workforce works longer hours and second jobs to meet rent, childcare, and mortgage demands, GDP goes up. When they experience stress, malnutrition, and burnout, spending money on alcohol, therapists, and weight loss pills, GDP goes up. Conversely, anything without a monetary value is distasteful to GDP. Rest, repair, reuse, care, family time, community, conservation, art, activism, cycling, and restoration are of no use. What use, asks GDP, is a beach if we get ‘nothing’ out of it? Nevertheless, GDP is used as the only proxy for human and ecological wellbeing when it is more truthfully a measure of the wellbeing of capitalism and the privileged. Therefore, because of this blinkered tunnel vision, national policies remain focused on creating endless growth without pause for breath or reflection. Instead of recognising our collective grief for what it is and finding genuine solutions, we manically build more hotels, incentivise increasingly corrupt industries like gambling, and widen roads to make space for more cars. This head-in-the-sand stance was seen nowhere more clearly than in Prime Minister Robert Abela’s vicious smackdown of the young people who dared to say that maybe, just maybe, an ever-increasing frenzy of growth is not the answer. Just as deafening was Bernard Grech’s and the PN’s silence. This betrays a staggering ignorance on two levels. The first is that in their position, Abela and Grech have the responsibility to be well-informed on developments in economics, sociology, and wellbeing. The response that degrowth is a “loser’s mentality” is the reaction of someone caught on the back foot. If degrowth is about ‘losing’ anything, it is about losing inequality and discrimination and gaining equity and respect for workers, carers, ecology, and young people’s futures. The second is that from their lofty position, they betray their wilful ignorance and disdain for the emotional and ecological grief Malta is increasingly experiencing. This is unsustainable.”

Remember that a budget surplus is the government taxing more than it spends ie taking money from the private sector leaving us poorer. Remember also that the Australian govt doesn’t need to tax to spend, being the currency issuer it can simply spend. Watch Finding The Money to learn more: https://lnkd.in/g9MNCSGZ Or read The Deficit Myth by Stephanie Kelton, or watching this 14 min presentation by Stephanie: https://lnkd.in/g3wb97Te #auspolbudget

A few years ago I came to understand the insanity of infinite economic growth on a finite planet, and how there are a pluriverse of alternatives to this dominant economic model that would enable us to live back within the planetary boundaries, (in fact there is a whole book about them, titled Pluriverse: A Post-Development Dictionary, I'll add a link to download the PDF for free in the comments). My preference is the scholarship behind degrowth, but honestly, it doesn't matter which one it is. If the proposal puts us back within the planetary boundaries in the shortest amount of time possible, while improving social wellbeing and global justice it's a winner. Now I've turned my attention to how we make this happen, because as nice as it is to learn about all of these economic alternatives, it's all for naught if we can't make these visions of the future reality. Where I am at is that the key issue is Power. Who has it, what they do with it, and who they are serving. Currently the people are in power are doing things that support a growth economy which essentially exists to make the rich richer. It's not a design flaw, it's the system working as intended. The people influencing those in power are those who benefit from this system and the legal structures that support them (corporations). There are a couple of things I'm constantly keeping in mind: - The Overton Window (image below) is the range of topics considered politically palatable for a candidate to run for office on. This window moves in line with grassroots movements to make various policies more mainstream. Until a critical mass of people understand that more economic growth is a terrible idea, and that it makes no sense to focus on abstract, human-constructs like GDP, money and share prices and ignore the things that actually matter, like the ability of the planet to sustain life, we won't get a politics of sustainability. - We can move this 'Overton Window' pretty quickly, by focusing on social tipping points, where we reach a critical mass which quickly becomes the new status quo. - Any successful movement can't ignore the people in power and just 'hope' this system will die on its own and something new can emerge. We need to actively take back power and use the institutions that currently exist to reduce our ecological harm, improve wellbeing and global justice. This requires us to organise, organise, organise. It is some of the most critical work of our time. If bringing about an economy in support of life, rather than an extinction event, is of interest to you too come and join Kasper Benjamin Reimer Bjørkskov, Ryan (Ra) James, myself and over 240 other like-hearted people who want to be a part of engineering and accelerating the social tipping point in favour of life on Earth: https://lnkd.in/gxATiDtJ. The next session begins 23rd May, use code 'LAUNCH65' for a 65% discount. #projecttippingpoint

The ‘Zillion Year Town’ is a thought provoking look at what a sustainable town (& housing) could look like: “… cities and suburbs are: UN-sustainable UN-resilient, and eventually many of them will be UN-der water So we will have to relocate many people over the coming decades and centuries. To have any chance of doing so in a controlled and totally sustainable way, we must start soon. So, where to move and how to live? New cities and suburbs on higher ground? No! That just repeats today's errors. The tree change? The five acre lot, grow vegetables, raise chickens? That's a retreat to a peasant economy, devoid of industrial products, schooling or hospitals. No! We are a gregarious species that thrives by living communally, specialising, then trading our skills and wares with each other. I suggest we need to consider living in medium-sized towns (perhaps 15,000 residents); towns that are sustainably constructed and operated, and adjacent to sufficient land to satisfy most residents' needs for food, soft fibres and timber, with at the outermost a generous allocation for wilderness. Those outer areas from adjacent towns should eventually form a transcontinental wildlife corridor. And the locations would be sufficiently elevated to survive an eventual 70M sea level rise. Town size is important. Too small makes it difficult to afford key social infrastructure. Too big, and the inefficiencies of cities return. On average, a population of fifteen thousand would include about twenty six hundred students from kindergarten through high school. That's an intake of two hundred a year, a good level for excellence in schooling. Also, 2013 Australian figures suggest the town could support about 60 doctors, and perhaps as many as 300 other medical staff, giving excellence in health. Today, dwelling occupancy averages two and half people each, so there might be some six thousand residences of various sizes and types. Let's allocate about a thousand square metres per residence (including street space, parks, shops, offices and light industry). It's neither generous nor exiguous. Thus the size of The Town, excluding the surrounding lands, could be as little as six square kilometres. Suitably laid out, there could be no more than two kilometres in the town from any house to the shops, offices and factories. It is realistic to run such a town with no cars. People walk, cycle, skate, and scoot. The disabled could use small electric vehicles, or ride in a covered tricycle rickshaw. Roads would be half the normal suburban size - perhaps five metres wide - and would be marked with lanes for walkers and riders. Heavier vehicle visits would be rare….” Let me know what you think in the comments. It’s definitely utopian, but I’m cool with setting the bar high. To hear the full audio or read the full transcript go to this link: https://lnkd.in/g7JGDRKe