[P2P-F] The End of Evolution?

Mon Aug 20 11:09:27 CEST 2018

Although Michel was asked, I thought the question needed several
responses. Here's mine:

I remember from memory a poem which said, "Rage, rage against the dying of
the light!" Or a common quote from war movies, "we will die fighting!" A
cause is never lost until it is actually lost. It is not very useful to go
around those fighting the dying of the light, saying "it will soon be
dark!" Or as one local organization here puts it, "Better to light a
candle than to curse the darkness".

Those you cited are just predictions about the future. For example, I've
just been reading the book The Chilling Stars, which argues that a greater
driver of climate change is the intensity of cosmic rays that penetrate
our atmosphere. The more cosmic rays, the greater cloud formation, the
cooler the climate and vice versa. I don't know how accurate the theory is
(the correlations with cosmic ray bombardment look much better over
geological times than with CO2), but it gives me reason to continue
believing that not all is lost. When I was in high school (around 50 yrs
ago), I read Scientific American regularly, and everyone was talking of
the next ice age. Was the science completely wrong 50 years ago?

I campaign for renewable energy not only to stop global warming (this is a
very disempowering issue from my perspective). I do so because RE causes
less local pollution, less disruption of local communities (we promote
microrenewables), lower project risks because expansion can be in smaller
increments,is more decentralized, etc. Whenever one RE facility is
installed, we can see the results immediately. Very empowering.

My focus on local impacts is similar to Michel's comment on "minimizing
footprint". I would focus more on retaining as much as possible
"ecological services" and give a lower priority on the services of
civilization though. After all, what does Homo really need to survive? Not
much, yes? Food, shelter, clothing, and a way to communicate with other
communities and with the next generation (i.e., pencil and paper at least,
small-scale printing preferably and electronic communications at best). We
should also preserve as much of the libraries and the tools that we have,
especially if the power tools and machines can be converted away from
fossil fuels. Finally, the accoutrements of civilization.

My local work among environmental and agriculture groups tell me that we
can retain ecological services (and better under conditions of "degrowth
and decentralization").

My current work on renewable energy tells me we can power future
activities without fossil fuels, especially we try to make the transition
as soon and as fast as possible.

I find P2P Foundation and Michel's work an immense source of inspiration.

Bottom line: fight on, not all is lost.

Greetings,

Roberto Verzola

> Dear George,
>
> you ask me 'what my take' is on the text by Rajani,
>
> it is first of al, that, 1) 'this could happen' , there are signs in that
> direction
>
> but 2), that we have to try to avoid or at best minimize, the worst
> outlooks, which are also politically demobilizing
>
>
> so 3) what if we propose smart mutualization to radically bring the
> footprint of humanity down, while maximizing the retention of
> civilizational services
>
> 4) crucial to that will be the invention of generative finance, i.e.
> rewarding regenerative activities rather than extractive ones, I'm working
> on this via:
> https://docs.google.com/document/d/1hGzAAv9RRiVP3N7yhCDNPUMTYRbW-bQXJT6D3urVy34/edit#heading=h.wdsr38sud382
>
> I actually believe the contours of the solution have emerged,
>
> Michel
>
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