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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)

Shareholders!
(The New Yorker Magazine; fair use, educational)

"Most of the media..." George Monbiot quote (Design: Sophie Gabrielle; fair use, educational)

Profitable Destruction
(PlanetCents; fair use, educational)

Dinosaur Economy
(unknown source; 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 annual 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. In 2020, it was nearly $2 trillion
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)
  • ...the sums lost to exchequers around the world from profit-shifting have risen as high as $427bn (£311bn) annually. (The Guardian, posted 8, accessed 9 April 2021)
We can add nature exploitation and fossil fuel favouritism, despite this destroying Life:-
  • Worldwide subsidies to fossil fuels (annually): in 2013 = $1.9 trillion; in 2017 = $5.2 trillion.
  • Worldwide subsidies to activities that damage nature = at least $4-6tn [£2.9-4.4tn] annually (The Guardian, posted/accessed 2 February 2021).
So we have more than enough money to save the world.
We are just 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/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 (The Brussels Timesfair use, educational)

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 VinerThe Guardian, posted/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/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/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)
  • The global economy is already big enough to meet the basic needs of the entire planet. We don't need growth – we need fair distribution. (XR Money Rebellion, 22 December 2021 tweet)
  • "If you can mobilise $26tn [in response to Covid-19], it beggars belief that you can’t mobilise $100bn [for climate finance]. That’s what’s causing a huge trust deficit." (Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, WTO head, cited at The Guardian, posted/accessed 24 December 2021)
  • To preserve life on the planet, cost is irrelevant. We didn’t decide to fight WWII because the financial cost was less than the benefits. We fought for our freedom and survival. (Herb Simmens, adapted 25 January 2022 tweet)
  • “Rich countries are committing arson on a planetary scale and refusing to stop pouring more oil and gas on the fire they started. But when faced with the bill for the damage they have caused they claim to have empty pockets. It’s a deadly response shaped by a colonial mentality that for 500 years inflicted injustice and inequity, with the lives of those with black or brown skins in poorer countries deemed less valuable to those of western citizens.” (Asad Rehman, War on Want director, quoted in The Guardian, posted and accessed 7 June 2022)
  • If you don’t think our society can afford to respond rapidly to the climate & ecological emergency remember we spend $1,800,000,000,000 every year subsidizing industries which are rendering our planet uninhabitable. (Climate Dad, 11 July 2022 tweet) [That's $1.8 trillion]
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 (Cagle Cartoons; fair use, educational)

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, showing ents attacking the Tower of Saruman
The Wrath of the Ents by Ted Nasmith (fair use, educational)

Finally, I'd just like to add two warnings:-
  1. 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...
  2. The longer we do nothing, the less useful money becomes in saving the world. The Climate and Ecological Emergency will ensure this. As the Cree Indian prophecy makes clear, we cannot eat money. Beware!
A black and white cartoon of a father with a few children. They are seated on the ground around a fire, on a desolate plain without any signs of life. Behind them is a wrecked city. He wears a tattered suit. He says, "Yes, the planet got destroyed, but for a beautiful moment in time we created a lot of value for shareholders."
(The New Yorker Magazine; fair use, educational)

Resources

A graphic combining a long quote by George Monbiot with a background image. The image is a close-up of the top of a suit and tie; there is also a smoking skull. The quote is about how vested interests are unwilling to save the world as it would be very disadvantageous to them.
(Design by Sophie Gabrielle; fair use, educational)
A cartoon. A small scientist is in front of a board which says, 'Research concludes: We are destroying the Earth!!' He points to the message. Meanwhile two large businessmen stand with briefcases; they look on and say, "Yes but it turns out that it is very profitable!!"
(PlanetCents; fair use, educational)

Videos
A cartoon of a T-Rex watching an asteroid about to hit Earth. He shouts out to nearby dinosaurs, "''Oh shit! The economy!!"
(Unknown source; fair use, educational)

Also see:-

Money articles


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Page last updated: 8 July 2024.