Save the World with Money - Project World Peace

Save the World with Money?

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Photo Credits:-

Happy Ent
(jetstar101, Pixabay)

Cartoon of the evaluation of the
2015/2016 Paris Agreement on climate change at the Eiffel Tower, Paris
(The Brussels Times, posted 4 April 2019, accessed 10 October 2020; fair use, educational)

Investigation of Climate Change Hysteria at the US Capitol Building (Cagle Cartoons; fair use, educational)

The Wrath of the Ents
(Ted Nasmith, from The Two Towers by JRR Tolkien; fair use, educational)

Large carving of happy ent, adorned with autumnal foliage and gourds

Save the World with Money?

In Money, we briefly looked at whether we can save the world with money.
For decades we have known that this is possible.

We saw that only a tiny fraction of global military spending would suffice:-

"The money required to provide adequate food, water, education, health, and housing for everyone in the world has been estimated to be around $20 billion a year. It is a huge sum of money... about as much as the world spends on arms every two weeks." (Unknown)
30% of world military spending (30% of $810 billion) is all that is needed to solve major global problems. (Share International 2007? document citing www.wagingpeace.org)
In 2012, global military spending was $1.75 trillion (The Guardian, posted 17 April 2013, accessed 5 December 2015).

We saw that corporate tax avoidance is robbing the health and well-being of all:-

In 2017 Apple had $252 billion untaxed cash offshore.
Corporations do not pay their fair share of tax, avoiding $600 billion annually (Britain's Offshore Secrets Exposed, Panorama, 6 November 2017).
All corporations have $2 trillion untaxed cash offshore (BBC1 News 10pm, 6 November 2017).

We can add fossil fuel favouritism, despite this destroying Life:-

Worldwide subsidies to fossil fuels total $1.9tn annually (The Guardian, posted 17 April 2013, accessed 5 December 2015).

So we have more than enough money to save the world.
Yet we are spending all this money on the wrong things.
We are hoarding it and not redistributing it for the well-being of all life.
Why is this?

In my view, it is the refusal of the superrich to allow a Culture of Love. They would rather create a Culture of Power. As a result, there is no political will to save the world:

“Human beings have all the elements necessary for the kingdom of God to come to earth. The only obstacle to this happening is their own unwillingness: they do not want to participate in this work for the good of humanity. They are too preoccupied with their own interests. How can the kingdom of God be realized in such circumstances? If we were all willing to make the few necessary efforts, progress would be very quick. But the crux of the matter is consent. Take someone like Hitler, for example: do you think he had such exceptional qualities? Not at all, but due to the prevailing circumstances, he was able to unite and gain the consent of millions of Germans, and this is why he became so powerful. And if we now gave our consent to the ideas of universal brotherhood, instead of to racism and discrimination, the kingdom of God, the Golden Age, would come.” (O.M. Aïvanhov)

'Greta Thunberg has blasted politicians as hypocrites and international climate summits as empty words and greenwash. Until humanity admits it has failed to tackle the climate crisis and begins treating it as an emergency like the coronavirus pandemic, society will be unable to stop global heating, she said. In an interview with the Guardian, Thunberg said leaders were happy to set targets for decades into the future, but flinched when immediate action to cut emissions was needed.'
(The Guardian, posted and accessed 9 November 2020)

Cartoon of the Eiffel Tower, subtantially flooded by water, politicians heard to be evaluating their 2015/2016 climate change policy efforts

Eiffel Tower cartoon by The Brussels Times

Let us now look at the same question in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic of 2020.
Here is the monetary cost of this pandemic at various dates, and other statistics:-

27 April 2020 = $3 trillion in the USA.
22 October 2020 = $485 billion (£372 billion) in the UK.

7 April 2020 = $4.5 trillion in the World.
15 October 2020 = more than $12 trillion in the World.

These figures even dwarf those of military spending and corporate tax avoidance, etc.
This is even more proof that we save the world with money!!
Here are some related quotes/stats:-

"If the [UK] government can suddenly decide to spend another £100bn on containing Covid-19, it shows that state failures to address our climate and ecological emergencies have nothing to do with a lack of money and everything to do with a lack of will." (George Monbiot, 10 September 2020 tweet)
"The worldwide response to Covid-19 has demonstrated that there can be collective global action if the threat is big enough, and that humans are capable of changing our lives and lifestyles quickly, when the moment demands it." (Katharine Viner, The Guardian, posted and accessed 5 October 2020)
"This [Climate & Ecological Emergency] is a crisis completely based on scientific consensus, but they try to focus on something else. It’s as if there was a fire and the alarm starts and they try to argue about the fire alarm instead of the actual fire... We are stuck in a loop where everyone just blames each other, and as long as we keep on doing that we won’t be able to achieve anything." (Greta Thunberg, The Guardian, posted and accessed 11 October 2020)
We only need about $1.4 trillion per year of green investment from 2020 to 2024 to keep global warming to only 1.5 °C (see Marina Andrijevic and Dr Joeri Rogelj, CarbonBrief, posted 15 October 2020, accessed 16 October 2020)
"If a government needs to act, and Covid has shown this, my God can a government act. All of a sudden, no regulation, no amount of money is a problem. When we need to act, we can." (John Sauven, executive director of Greenpeace UK, cited at The Guardian, posted and accessed 12 October 2020)
Governments like the UK can never “max out” their credit card because they can always create new money to help fund public spending. This is not the time for austerity. Interest rates are so low, so borrow and really support public services and a green recovery. Remember that the UK public actually owns this money! (Adapted from Positive Money, 27 November 2020 tweet)

Yet we still have no political will to enact the needed changes.

Cartoon of the US Capitol almost covered with water, yet the politicians are still heard to be debating climate change hysteria

US Capitol cartoon by Cagle Cartoons

We urgently need to transform or oust current political systems and install those that serve Earth and its creatures. So-called 'democracy' is a sham. The people are not being served. Organisations are trying so hard to change the system like Burning Pink. The Green Party (England & Wales) and Extinction Rebellion consider Citizens Assemblies as essential.
But the global elite are heavily entrenched and many in the Rich World are still too comfy.

For me, it seems that only the wrath of Nature will be enough to topple the current entrenched political systems.
Just as the Ents routed Saruman in the Lord of the Rings. They were slow to act, but when they did, it was decisive.
In our world, Nature's wrath has been slowly but surely - and entirely - aroused by human ignorance and arrogance and greed.
It is manifesting in the form of the current Climate & Ecological Emergency.
We must continue our activism but it seems only Nature's wrath is enough to dislodge the superrich elite from their apparently unassailable dark towers - and secure victory!

The Wrath of the Ents by Ted Nasmith

Finally, I'd just like to add that we must beware of reducing everything to numbers, stats and amounts of money. There is a real danger of missing the human side to our crisis (e.g. here). We can lose empathy and compassion, when of course the purpose of this article is to evoke the Love that resides in all of us...

Resources

The Story of Broke (The Story of Stuff Project, 2011).
Redirect military expenditure to ensure a sustainable future (Kumi Naidoo, The Guardian, 2013).
Protecting 30% of planet could bolster economy, study says (The Guardian, 8 July 2020) [only requires $140bn (£110bn) yearly till 2030].
Cost of preventing next pandemic 'equal to just 2% of Covid-19 economic damage' (The Guardian, 23 July 2020).
How philanthropy benefits the super-rich (The Guardian, 8 September 2020) [A lot of elite philanthropy is about elite causes. Rather than making the world a better place, it largely reinforces the world as it is. Philanthropy very often favours the rich – and no one holds philanthropists to account for it].
The countries painting their pandemic recoveries green (Axios, 19 September 2020) [Green investments account for only 1% of the overall $12 trillion currently pledged by major economies recovering from pandemic-induced recessions].
World's richest 1% cause double CO2 emissions of poorest 50%, says Oxfam (The Guardian, 21 September 2020).
Climate Week: World split on urgency of tackling rising temperatures, poll suggests (BBC, 21 September 2020) [Poor World wants action, Rich World not really].
Revealed: Covid recovery plans threaten global climate hopes (The Guardian, 9 November 2020) [countries pouring money into fossil fuels to fight recession].
If you think Covid is bad, wait until you hear about the climate crisis (First Dog on the Moon, The Guardian, 9 November 2020) [Insightful cartoon].
UN issues $100m emergency funding and calls for global effort to avert famine (The Guardian, 18 November 2020) [They only need $20 billion this year. This is tiny next to the sums in PWP's article. What will we do, world? And the $200bn of Bezos?...].
World is ‘doubling down’ on fossil fuels despite climate crisis – UN report (The Guardian, 2 December 2020).

Also see:-

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