THE FUTURE OF MONEY Bernard A. Lietaer - library.uniteddiversity ...

important factor of production is bound to diminish in the same way
that the role of horses in agricultural production was first diminished
and then eliminated by the introduction of tractors." We could let the
horses peacefully die out, but what do we do with people?
The 'money question' here is: How can we provide a living to
additional billions of people when our technologies make jobless
growth a clear possibility?
3. Climate change and biodiversity extinction
Consider the following facts:
. The year 1998 has been declared by the UN Insurance Initiative
(convened by insurance and reinsurance companies from around the
world) as the worst year ever for natural disasters. The year 1999 may
even top that! The frequency of major natural disasters is now treble
what it was in the 1960s. The insurance losses due to storms, hoods,
droughts and fires for 1998 alone are higher than what was paid out
for the entire decade of the 1980s according to Munich Re, the world's
largest reinsurance company. Eighty-five per cent of all insurance
payments worldwide now go towards compensating for natural
disasters. A combination of deforestation and climate change is
blamed for these problems.'" Of course, all this measures only the
minority of the assets in the world, which are actually insured in the
first place. Another measure of Nature's increased violence is that
four times more people now die in natural disasters than in all war
and civil disturbances combined.
· Substantial changes in weather patterns have been observed
everywhere (see sidebar).
· In 1998, the American Museum of Natural History made a survey
among professional biologists (not ecologists), the majority of whom