Burgess COMMENTARY

Peter Burgess

Tristam Sculthorpe ... CEO at Enersphere Inc.

Merv, you are totally correct, and I am. I don't believe that we will end up like Hawking predicts. I am actively working in creating alternatives for consumers and citizens as others are. He's something interesting from today: http://m.dailykos.com/story/2014/01/22/1271695/-Now-that-you-know-85-people-own-more-than-half-the-world-here-s-what-to-do-about-it?detail=email

And here's my suggestions from walden3.inc:

Here’s some ways that individual governments could plan for a sustainable future:

1. 1. Designate fossil fuels as planetary resources and restrict their use to those uses where no other available raw material source will satisfy the need.
2. 2. Hold owners and extractors criminally responsible when they contaminate a water table or watershed with any inorganic or synthetic substance.
3. 3. Halt all subsidies of any kind, from every level of government worldwide, for the exploitation, processing, production, transportation, distribution and retailing of fossil fuels. (Fossil fuel subsidies around the world added up to about $500 billion in 2011… 5 times the amount of subsidies given to renewable energy!) then apply those funds directly to the development, construction, generation and distribution of renewable energy.
4. 4. Prohibit the manufacture, distribution and sale of non-recyclable, non-biodegradable containers, packing and shipping materials.
5. 5. Require the carbon footprint of every retail item to be placed prominently on the product.

1. 1. Stop global production of armaments.
2. 2. Immediately increase the price of all fossil fuels to include the price we're going to have to pay for the consequent climate change. What we need is oil at about $500/barrel. (Then useless lights would be turned out at night, people would get serious about increasing the energy efficiency of their houses, renewable energy would become economical, cars would get much lighter and more fuel efficient.) The oil producing countries could make the same amount of money 5 times longer while selling at a rate 20% of what they sell today. This is important for them because they will have to make significant changes to their infrastructure and technology when hit by the probable climate change. Fossil fuels are a precious resource should last the human race a thousand years or more. We have to get ourselves under control emissions-wise before we make the planet virtually uninhabitable.
3. 3. Create a global pension plan to be available to any woman on the planet who can be certified as having only one child. (I have been told that in poorer countries children are regarded as insurance for when you become to old as to be unable to fend for yourself or obtain basic food and shelter).

1. 1. Use methods certified to reduce/minimize water consumption.
2. 2. Prohibit the use of energy for lighting other than that necessary for productive work activity.
3. 3. Prohibit the husbandry of animals for food. An exception to this would be the processing and sale of meat from animals used as a semi-sustainable resource such as a source of fiber (ie wool) or protein (ie milk, butter, cheese or eggs).
4. 4. Use only renewable and bio-fuels.
5. 5. Source all community sustainability resources locally.
6. 6. Provide member security of person, sustenance and shelter.