A better world is possible - Global Commons Institute

Copyright Bruce Nixon 2010. All rights reserved. This electronic copy is provided free for personal, non-commercial use only.
www.brucenixon.com
focus becomes investment in sustainability, quality of life improvement, replacement and repair. Banks
need to gradually raise the percentage of money required to be kept in reserve, as in former times.
Require banks to get their income as intermediaries and from service charges.
Sustainability Provide financial incentives for retrofitting homes and other buildings and research on
alternative energies; institute Cap and Trade – see next section below.
Economy of maintenance and repair Making short-lived disposable goods is no longer economic as raw
materials become more expensive and we pay for environmental costs. Develop new models of
ownership such as leasing. Switch to a policy of products are built to last. There is more maintenance
and repair instead of production and rapid obsolescence through excessive innovation.
New work patterns Without rapid growth there may be more part time employment. More local work is
likely which feeds money into local economies and may be less subject to the insecurity resulting from
global ownership and sourcing for lowest labour cost. More people will work as co-owners instead of
workers.
Reform free trade. Support the abandonment of excessive free trade, with foreign or transnational
corporations ignoring social and environmental costs and abusing their power. Countries should have
freedom to decide how their economies operate and how much they engage in international trade as
opposed to becoming more self-sufficient; development of regional trade areas.
Measures of national welfare Develop measures of happiness and sustainable development to replace
GDP. GDP, really Gross National Cost, as the single measure of progress, includes many externalised
costs that are avoidable such as disposing of waste, cleaning up pollution, the cost of accidents and
disease, the cost of crime, the many other indicators of social distress and malfunction.
GDP grossly undervalues key resources. Herman Daly pointed out in 1968 that minerals production
represented only 1.7 % of GNP and total fossil fuels 2.0 %. This is a further illustration of how the most
important resources are underpriced and how both price and GDP grossly distort the value placed on
such resources. Often they are heavily subsidised, as in the case of oil, which encourages their
unsustainable and wasteful use.
The poorest countries are often those with the richest mineral and other natural resources. But the
population gain little benefit. These “commons” are in effect “stolen” by rich countries and corrupt
rulers. These peoples should fully benefit from and have far more control over their resources, which
should also be regarded as “global commons”.
Ultimately the world population has to stabilise and reduce. When women are given choice and good
education they tend to have fewer children. As poverty and violence are addressed, migration will
reduce.
Some of these solutions are elaborated later in this and succeeding chapters.
Part 2 - Stabilising and reversing global warming.
To reverse the rise in carbon emissions and stabilise global warming requires action at a global level.
Progress cannot be achieved by a national government alone. This means setting an overall limit to
emissions now to halt the inexorable rise; setting a clear timetable for rapid reduction; determining how
these cuts are to be equitably allocated globally and then allocating rights for future emissions, again in as
equitable a way as possible.
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