ADVERTISING
Most advertising is done to make customers buy products and services. Very little advertising is used to inform people about things that are important, but more usually to misinform the public in ways that are all about more sales and profits for the advertisers. This is important because the consumption driven economic model is unsustainable with more and more degradation of natural capital. Advertising is also used more and more to influence elections, and is doing serious damage to the democratic process.
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Open L0700-SS-ADVERTISING
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AGRICULTURE
Improvement in agricultural productivity ... the agricultural revolution ... predated the industrial revolution and made the industrial revolution possible. For most of history people were constained by available food, and this started to change with the agricultural revolution. Modern agriculture has become very 'productive' in terms of food produced per hectare, but it is becoming less and less clear that modern agriculture is actually sustainable.
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Open L0700-SS-AGRICULTURE
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AGRICULTURE / CROPS
Agriculture / Farming is one of the very large users of land, water and a major cause of degraded natural systems and source of pollution
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Open L0700-SS-Agriculture-Crop-Farming
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AGRICULTURE / LIVESTOCK
Agriculture / Farming is one of the very large users of land, water and a major cause of degraded natural systems and source of pollution
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Open L0700-SS-Agriculture-Dairy-Farming
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ARMS TRAFFICKING
If there is profit to be made, there will be people who will do it. This is one of the issues that is central to the dysfunction of the modern global socio-enviro-economic system that has alevated profit and money wealth as the dominant proxy for success. Making money doing good is fine ... but making money on top of evil is not!
TPB Note: In 2000 I was attempting to address the question of community poverty on top of immense natural wealth ... and in Liberia the use of diamonds that were being trafficked out of the country in order to pay for guns, bullets and pay for soldiers under the Charles Taylor regime. Fortunately I escaped with my life, but it was far too close for comfort!
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Open L0700-SS-ARMS-TRAFFICKING
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BUILDING-MATERIALS
BUILDING MATERIALS flow into CONSTRUCTION. They have one sort of impact on the environment during their production, and another sort of impact on the environment during rheir life, which may be many years or decades.
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Open L0700-SS-BUILDING-MATERIALS
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BUSINESS-ORGANIZATIONS
Business organizations have been one of the most important drivers of socio-economic progress over the last 200 years. They have responded to profit motivation but not so much to the issue of the associated environmental degradation. Business organizations more than any other segment of the socio-enviro-economic system must change to make the world a better place.
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Open L0700-SS-BUSINESS-ORGANIZATIONS
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CLIMATE
The risks associated with climate change are being ignored by too many important decision makers in part because they are not being accounted for in an effective way.
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Open L0700-SS-CLIMATE
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CLIMATE-CHANGE-GHG
Though there is more understanding now than in, say 2010, of the vital importance of GHG in the atmosphere in relation to climate instability, the scale of the risk is still not fully appreciated.
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Open L0700-SS-CLIMATE-CHANGE-GHG
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CONSTRAINTS
Good ideas are often stopped by constraints. Remove constraints and amazing results can be achieved. Quite small constraints can mean failure of otherwise good projects.
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Open L0700-SS-CONSTRAINTS
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DRUG TRAFFICKING
If there is profit to be made, there will be people who will do it. This is one of the issues that is central to the dysfunction of the modern global socio-enviro-economic system that has alevated profit and money wealth as the dominant proxy for success. Making money doing good is fine ... but making money on top of evil is not!
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Open L0700-SS-DRUG-TRAFFICKING
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HEAVY INDUSTRY
Heavy industry has enabled materialism and a higher quality of life, but has also been a massive polluter of the environment consumer of natural capital in many different forms
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Open L0700-SS-Heavy-Industry
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HUMAN TRAFFICKING
If there is profit to be made, there will be people who will do it. This is one of the issues that is central to the dysfunction of the modern global socio-enviro-economic system that has alevated profit and money wealth as the dominant proxy for success. Making money doing good is fine ... but making money on top of evil is not!
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Open L0700-SS-HUMAN-TRAFFICKING
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KNOWLEDGE
Knowledge has been a major driver of progress in all of history, but especially in the last 200 years. There is more knowledge now than ever before about the big things like the universe and the tiny things that are important in the functioning of life itself. All of this is amazing. The challenge is to use it in the best possible way and for the right reasons.
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Open L0700-SS-KNOWLEDGE
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LABOR / JOBS / EMPLOYMENT / INCOME
Without labor, a company is constrained ... but less now than at any time in history. The basic needs of everyone on the planet can probably be produced with just 20% of the world's working age population. That means 80% of workers are not required for the production of basic needs. There is need for a complete rethink on how people get income and what people do during their most productive years. This should be to make the very best of their God given gifts in order to give the most value add for society as a whole.
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LOGISTICS
Logistics have become an important part of the modern global economic system, combining huge improvements in the efficiency of the physical components of the system ... ports, cranes, ships, aircraft ... and the information technology that has made it possible to manage the system in a reliable manner.
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Open L0700-SS-LOGISTICS
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MANAGEMENT
Management is about making decisions to 'move the needle' to get better results. There is very powerful management for profit performance in corporate buisiness, but in almost every other aspect of the socio-enviro-economic system, there is an almost total absence of management. This needs to change so that all aspects of the system perform better with social performance and environmental performance managed as effectively as profit performance has been in the past.
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Open L0700-SS-MANAGEMENT
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MEDIA / JOURNALISM
Free and open journalism is an important component of a successful society ... recognized, for example in the First Amendment to the US Constitution. When good journalism disappears, society suffers. Where any particular segment of society controls the press and access to meaningful information whether it is business or politicians, the public at large pay the price. Social media and technology have challenged long established norms and many unintended and undesirable consequences are becoming increasingly apparent.
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Open L0700-SS-MEDIA-JOURNALISM
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MILITARY-INDUSTRIAL-COMPLEX
It is difficult to manage large scale complex projects. and this is characteristic of almost all military procurement. It should come as no surprise that major contractors to the Pentagon have become very poowerful and profitable. It is unlcear whether or not this has been in the public interest, though it has been good for senior executives and stockholders.
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Open L0700-SS-MILITARISM
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MILITARY
The military are widely respected, but expecting that the military will solve complex social problems and deep historic causes of conflict is totally misplaced. The reality of conflict and volence is relatively simple ... the way that these conflicts can be resolved is enormously complex, and not best done in the face of miliary might. Rather it must be done by people with vast experience of complex diplomacy.
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Open L0700-SS-MILITARISM
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MINING
Mining is the first link in many supply chains. Large scale mining has huge environmental consequences, not to mention in many case, major social disruption
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Open L0700-SS-MINING
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MONEY
Money has become the essential lubricant of the modern socio-enviro-economic system ... but at the same time it has become a dangerous constraint on getting done what needs to be done.
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Open L0700-SS-MONEY
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PEOPLE
People are the most important part of the world we live in. Their happiness should be the main goal of all economic activity, and this should be done with the minimum of damage to natural capitlal.
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Open L0700-SS-PEOPLE
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PHARMACEUTICALS
The technology is impressive, but the industry is being driven far too much by profit maximization and stockholder benefit than for the best outcomes for people needing medication. This is a very sad state of affairs that must be addressed as a high priority. Good pain killers have morphed into opioid addiction and a tragic health crisis with in excess of 40,000 opioid related deaths in the USA in 2017
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Open L0700-SS-PHARMACEUTICALS
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PRODUCTS
PRODUCTS ... goods and services ... are essential to support quality of life. However, more and more products do not produce better and better quality of life. There is a point when enough is enough. Production of products is different. More and more production and sales usually means more amd more profit ... and as long as profit is the dominant, essentially the only metric of corporate performance, then there will be excessive production of products.
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Open L0700-SS-PRODUCTS
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PROFITS
Profits are the dominant goal and essential metric in corporate business. This was not always the case (for example, see the origins of companies like Unilever) but has been the driving force in recent times. It is fundamentally wrong that profits are computed using a simplistic GAAP formula, when the real added value of business performance shoudl also be taking into account the imppact the business is having on society and the environment ... impacts that are always ignored under GAAP accounting rules.
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Open L0700-SS-PROFITS
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REAL ESTATE
Real estate has been the basis for a lot of wealth accumulation, but it is also an industry that has promulgated over the years a lot of anti-social but profitable behavior. This includes 'red lining' in collaboration with mortgage benkers and a massive amount of undue influence in politics to support real-estate investment.
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Open L0700-SS-REAL-ESTATE
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SEWER
There was a time when London was one of the most unhealthy places on planet earth. This was resolved in Victorian times by building a sewer infrastructure to ensure that no sewage every got into the city's drinking water. Care was taken to ensure that storm water did not overload the sewers. The main elements of this old system still serve London today.
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Open L0700-SS-SEWER
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TRADE
Economic theory is clear. Trade adds value. Without trade or exchange, there will be shortage or surplus that does not move giving rise to value destruction. There can be, however, significant disruption with trade, and one group getting more benefit than the other group.
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Open L0700-SS-TRADE
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WAGES
Maybe the most important part of the socio-enviro-economic system is the 'wage' component. Everyone needs access to money in order to purchase basic needs, and then more to have a decent quality of life. Money may come from inherited wealth, but mostly money comes from income / wages associated with employment. The availability of employment is a complex issue, and what has happened in the past gives little guidance to what needs to happen in the future.
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Open L0700-SS-WAGES
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