Ponzi Earth

[ysabetwordsmith]

Today I found two excellent articles which sum up what we are doing to the Earth:

We're Running Our World Like a Ponzi Scheme!
Our world-wide Ponzi scheme got its start with the industrial revolution in Western Europe, and it was colonialism that provided ever increasing sources for the raw materials and markets that kept this giant Ponzi scheme rolling. It spread to America with the colonial takeover of vast untapped resources and huge tracts of lands previously occupied by Native American hunter-gatherers. As America industrialized, its population grew and its resources were drawn down, the giant Ponzi scheme continued to grow through globalization and it continued to feed its ever growing appetite by drawing down the natural resources in the world's oceans, forests, and more remote areas, and by expanding it markets into the farthest reaches of the globe. We are witness to a five hundred year run on this giant ever-expanding global Ponzi scheme, and unless we change the way we are playing this game, that run is now drawing dangerously close to a natural and catastrophic conclusion.

This demonstrates why the "infinite, unrestricted growth" scenario of pure capitalism is doomed to failure. We should work on creating a more sustainable system while we still have the time and resources to do that. Ponzis are ugly when they implode.

Antarctic Ice Shelf In Peril as Bridge Snaps
The Wilkins Ice Shelf in Antarctica is in the final stages of collapse and scientists are concerned the event shows climate change is happening faster than previously thought.    An ice bridge, up to 40 kilometres long but at its narrowest just 500 metres wide, was thought to be holding the giant shelf to the Antarctic continent, but it recently snapped.    From above, parts of the Wilkins Ice Shelf now look like giant panes of shattered glass.

The reason for extreme concern when major ice masses break is the surface-to-mass ratio. That means a smaller mass of ice melts much faster than a larger mass, because more is exposed to air and water warmer than the ice itself. See for yourself: take two ice cubes, hit one with a hammer, then drop each into a glass of water. Observe how much faster the broken one melts. This is what we are doing to our ice caps: hitting them with a big hot hammer. We really need to stop doing that before we all melt.

Comments

Re: Ponzi schemes

[ysabetwordsmith.livejournal.com]

Yes, I think the size of the financial sector is a problem. They don't create value, just shuffle it around. They don't build things, or grow food, or keep people healthy and heal the sick. They're only useful in a hyperspecialized way in a hyperdeveloped civilization. And if they outweigh the people whose work is indispensable ... something is going to go smash, sooner or later.