Sustainability, collectiveness, and long term thinking

Sustainability, collectiveness, and long term thinking will be the progressive paradigms and socio-economic engines that will lead us through the next 50 years. The past 50 years of America’s narcissism, rugged selfish individualism, social apathy, and excessive material consumption have led us through a period of relative economic prosperity and reckless disregard for the stewardship of the earth’s bountiful resources and sustainability of a healthy environment. Any political mutterings or movement away from this attitude of consumption and conservation has been demonized by selfish special interests and myopic thinkers as foolish “Bleeding Heart Liberal Enviro Greenie Tree Huggers” who don’t care about jobs or the short term increase in costs for addressing the important issues of sustainability. The chickens are finally coming home to roost in a major way from the eggs that were hatched by the incestuous partnership of government and major corporations, The Military Industrial Complex, and greedy Wall Street bankers. The seminal contribution to this deteriorating equation is an ignorant electorate that has time to watch a vapid soap opera, but lacks the time or passion to open a book, get involved in the workings of government, or truly questions authority. Our short term thinking is pervasive from the highest corporate and government levels down to the average consumer who goes into denial about the long term effects of a variable interest mortgage or the total cost of credit card borrowing. We have become oblivious to the long term effects and political “Blowback” from our continued global abusive military world presence and our attempt at imperialistic global domination and control. We are subordinate to many other developed countries in health care, education, sustainability, quality of life issues, and our empathy for our working class. We have let the propaganda of the corporate elite talk us into accepting the Reagan/Freidman myths of “Trickle Down Economics” and that low taxes for the rich create jobs. Well, part of the equation is true; the rich partly through their tax savings have invested in low paying jobs, but not so much at home, but in Latin America, India and China, thereby exacerbating joblessness in the U.S. Another myth bolstered by Pentagon propaganda and the False Flag 9/11 incident is that we are in such a state of threatened security that we need to spend more than half our federal budget on defense and its support services. These are all diversions of financial and intellectual capital that take our collective eyes off the important big ball; that being what is best for the long term health and prosperity of the American people as a whole, not the top one percent. America is no longer the open frontier of geographic isolation, rugged individualism, and every man for himself. We must all band together as a collective world without regard to separation by religion, ethnicity, nationality or economic status; after all stripped naked and bleeding we are all the same. With requisite sustainability policies there are enough resources for all assuming moderation and an abundant universe. Why does anyone need a hundred room mansion or a personal yacht the size of an ocean liner? Warren Buffett lives comfortably in a regular size home that he has owned for decades. Do we need to drive Hummers and oversized fuel guzzling pickup trucks? A New York mega millionaire real estate developer by the name of Durst, who makes money building “Green” buildings is OK driving a fuel efficient hybrid Toyota Prius. A survey was taken of what group of people are best tippers and most generous in helping others relative to their incomes; it was not the wealthy, it was your average working class American. Donald Trump was chastised for not tipping his cab driver. Trump said, “Why should I tip the cab driver who had the privilege of driving me in his cab”. I am not saying that everyone who is wealthy is a stingy tipper. There are wealthy people who have a sense of empathy and generosity. My point is that someone such as Trump can publicly feel comfortable making such an egotistical statement in a society that covets wealth and materialism to the point of excess without fear or shame of major judgment. Just think of all the water that could be saved, air and noise polluting lawn mowers that could be eliminated be replacing lawns with drought resistant plants or a healthy vegetable garden. We bought our house almost four years ago and the first thing we did was to remove the water dependant lawns in the front and back yards and replace them with drought resistant plants that require little water or physical maintenance, and fruit trees and vegetables. So what does this accomplish? It reduces our water, gardening and produce costs. In addition, the gas that is required to power the trucks that would have delivered that produce to Safeway is eliminated and the electricity that pumps the water is minimized using a drip irrigation system. We have the joy of food independence and the improved health benefits of eating non GMO and insecticide laden produce that is eaten the day it is picked, or dried without preservatives for future consumption. In the US when a typical building has been designed many developer/owners only looks at the first few years costs. In Europe and Japan developers look at the total costs and benefits relating to both building and operating the building over a 50 year lifespan. I believe the difference in philosophies stems primarily from a cultural attitude of short term thinking in the US, versus looking at the long term effects and the bigger picture in other countries. This myopic attitude in the US also sets a strong tone for a lack of long term planning and policies in many of our government agencies. For example there are some strong critics of our mayor’s long term wider vision of instituting sustainability programs in local policy. Granted a few sustainability projects due to a lack of proper and thoughtful due diligence may result in a dollar chasing a dime. I believe that these critics of the mayor lack a sense of vision and understanding of the positive domino effect that sustainability projects have on the private sector. The cities of Berkeley and Davis have been cutting edge leaders and who are very proactive in their goals and execution for instituting sustainability programs. As a result these cities have a relatively strong economic base, with many local developers following suit with privately financed “Green” projects. Sustainability must be both economically and environmentally viable, but must also be trendy and in vogue so that society as a whole will embrace this most important emerging paradigm with priority, gusto, and longevity. The cost of solar panels continues to decrease, while the cost of non-sustainable electricity production has been increasing approximately six percent yearly in the last few years. We also need to factor in the long term health effects and medical costs of dealing with health degradation due to the burning of fossil fuels. The demonstrable effects of green house gases on our atmosphere are all ready proving to be a threat to stabile climate conditions and our environment. Should we wait until the greater damage is done, or should we get ahead of the curve and invest now for beneficial sustainability outcomes in the future? Europe and Japan are way ahead of us in their planning and execution of sustainability programs. Before we get ourselves tweaked about the City of Benicia purchasing $30,000 worth of bicycle racks, that possibly were not a priority and that hurt no one, lets rain in big time on the massive multi-billion dollar wastefulness that continually goes on in the Pentagon and also results in massive deficits, death and destruction, and new enemies every day, worldwide.