350 for the Economy

Hello folks, so here’s how we need to tell politicians, businesspeople, and the American public about Change.

350 does primarily refer to the environment. It’s what prevents a 2 degree rise and the majority of bad effects worldwide. But what’s more important is that it refers to an inspiration to the economy. Get to 350, for the economy. The struggle is be a productive force, like going to the moon, or development and change. Here’s the breakdown of how jobs work:
Jobs in the clean energy economy were distributed among the following sectors in 2008:
–– Conservation and pollution mitigation: 65.0 percent
–– Environmentally friendly production: 7.0 percent
–– Training and support: 6.8 percent
–– Energy efficiency: 9.5 percent
–– Clean energy: 11.6 percent

Worldwide, it’s largely up to America’s economy to make these things. Most are process innovations and services assistance. But the clean energy sector? Fire up the steel mills, get drafters going to work, and the construction crew of new young people with “only” college degrees. These people are going to require jobs. Hundreds of thousands of them. Enough to Repower America with new work.

View and share a fantastic factsheet from the Energy Hub Project: here (.pdf)

Group-led versus revolutionary change.

This post is terribly overdue. Following up on my series of articles about change and how to interact it, I’m here highlighting a theoretical conflict that goes back to the cold war (which, unfortunately, defined a LOT of how people who are older than 35 see the world). I point out that the conflict doesn’t really need to exist any more, and rather everyone doing their own part is okay.

Related posts:

Change to the masses

Social systems are very interesting to me.

When we look at society, ecosystems, or our planet on a systems scale, it appears to be resilient, stable. In general, large systems are averse to change, and we’re happy to assume things to be constant. But every so often, catastrophic transformations take place in a very quick time period. Ecosystem collapse builds on itself, and suddenly total species live in a world completely foreign to them. Coral reefs may be going through a mass extinction from climate change within the next few months, as algae are suddenly multiplying thousandfold in the warmer water. If these “rainforests of the ocean” are coming to terms with large tipping points in their lives, what does that mean for the human environment 4 degrees warmer?

I believe that social systems are the same way. If you consider it, the bloom of algae happens once conditions exist for them to prosper. It’s not complex, it’s really simple. The old status quo (old-world economic systems) rely on the same nutrients (resource surplus) being there, and cannot backtrack nor adjust to new realities. The discipline now faces hard issues like backwards-incorporating ecological realities, social equality, or generational risk. While the bottom-liners turn a blind eye, these are the issues we must deal with! And that means the rules of the game have to change. Cultures don’t cut back on their own: As in the barrier reef, new conditions bring organisms to either adapt to the new conditions and multiply, or die with this global crisis, and good riddance. *Obama’s election means that overall this evolution will be positive.*

Socio-economic change: each person responding to new opportunities in a predictable way brings about systemic, evolutionary-level change.

Now I’m not saying that losing a reef is a good thing, it’s actually quite terrible to see things go and hurts a lot of people. But the example can be a good model for the one thing that can spread like bacteria: human word-of-mouth. Once a new reality emerges, there’s surprisingly little holding the former winners in place. What does this mean? Now will be the time when people question the validity of long-standing military-industrial-government rule, and now we finally have choice in what lives and dies. Even a small preference, shared over dinner/conversation/the web can become a huge impact. During a recession, climate meltdown, internet revolution and world political change following Obama’s inauguration, my bet is on the peasants to make out alive. The silent masses will have a say in the new world order.

For small farmers, why submit to the hierarchy traditionally imposed on you if you can become a natural farmer and change your family, your country and homeland? The answer is often that they haven’t had the choice. If a few leading industries can now make it possible for everyone to be a part of a new worldview, the system will follow. Enough people on the supply side freeing their houses can create a new (free) equilibrium that is more peaceful, sustainable and just.

Change to the masses: it’s coming in more ways than you think.

-Eddie Miller
https://eddiemill.wordpress.com/
http://freedomnexus.zapto.org/

A Day in the Life

Saturday, 10/6/2008!

A day worth getting out of bed for:

First, the Greenpeace Project Hot Seat rally and march: Greenpeace rocks
Had a good turnout. Over one hundred people met at Quincy Market in downtown Boston for a large rally, speakers and music, followed by a march chanting down Devonshire St, through Downtown Crossing, and up to the State House. They had a large postcard message to deliver, all around the UN climate negotiations that day. (The picture is a link if you’re interested in the outcomes!)

UN Climate Negotiations towards Copenhagen 2010

The Spirit of Renaissance and the Current Global Crisis! Conference at Bentley.
The Boston Pledge put it on.
In turbulent times, new ideas produce revolutionary change. This conference was all about what the next round of people’s movement will be guided by, as compared to the Renaissance thinking in medieval times. Amaryta Sen was there, the world’s favorite development economist from Harvard. Snuck in for the workshops!

Imokalee Farmworker’s movement: rally and discussion.
Then took the T back in to the city to catch this gem. Imokalee is the international organization that works in US and Latin America for tomato picker wage and human rights. Conditions are pretty bad (check their flickr slideshow) and sometimes literally form slave rings where pickers cannot leave the premises. So they’re fighting. Targeting large buyers of tomatoes on three premises:
1) 1 penny/pound extra to directly benefit pickers of tomatoes. This is insignificant for restaurants but represents a 60% wage increase for these workers.
2) Code of conduct zero tolerance policy: no slave rings tolerated.
3) Agreement monitored and enforced by representatives in the coalition.

The campaign has recently been very successful. Through boycott they convinced Taco Bell to sign on, then McDonalds, Burger King, and just last week Subway who is the largest fast food buyer. Now they’re targeting Valu-foods (Shaw’s, Stop-and-shop)… interested in being involved for fair food? http://www.ciw-online.org/tools.html

Immortal Technique.
Was playing at the Middle East. As one of my all-time favorite hip-hop artists, I jumped at the opportunity to see him live. There were three of us, went pretty early to get a good spot. This is a good story:

The first acts were pretty awkward, local rap artists who really just had the materials for mixing and some kinda thug connections. Meh. I really just wanted a drink… so decided to take things into my own hands. I was in the bathroom when I realized that the X mark was coming off under water and soap, and with a little work… got it off. It wasn’t until I was walking out that I noticed the staffer watching for just that. I was escorted roughly out of the building, with O’s on my hand and told not to come back. Fuck.

Sarah and Jane come out, and there’s a touch of bitterness in their shouts. You what?
Plan: wash off the O’s, change clothes (I was layered), and walk back in for Immortal Technique.
This involved walking around Central Square for a while, finding the materials and buying a new magic marker. After some work, we managed a pretty good replica, but there was no way the stamp was coming back on. I left the circle on instead. Let’s do this…

The three of us walk back in as planned, and stop. I’m called back to the front…
Terrified, I think I’m about to get beat. It’s the same guy that kicked me out earlier and told me not to come back. He makes me show my hands, and then– get this– RESTAMPS my hand over the O. I just got back in. SOOOO WIN!

Immortal technique was awesome. Never fails to inspire the revolutionary in me. I actually got his signature on a book I’m reading: Nicaragua: What difference could a revolution make?. The night ended well (even though the last bus totally blew us off), up till almost 5:00 at my place talking.

Story of the night..
Solid Saturday! Total time at home between events the whole day: 8 minutes. Onward to finals!

-Eddie Miller
A Global Organic Mindset: https://eddiemill.wordpress.com/

Listening to hip-hop: buy. K’naan a new face to hip-hop.