Humans Should Set Aside 51% Of The World To Survive

Fighting the massive biodiversity extinction

Tom

15 Dec 2022 — 4 min read

Nature

Humans Should Set Aside 51% Of The World To Survive

I just read the other day that UN Biodiversity Conference is happening in Montreal, Canada. One hundred nations are hammering out the details to set aside 30% of the world to protect biodiversity. That includes parts of the ocean, grasslands, forests, and other ecosystems.

My first reaction was: YES, finally!” Then I came to my senses and thought, why only 30%? Why not 51%? Hell, why not 75%?

Oh yes, I know why. We’re looking at this from the human lens. We need jobs and resources! This planet is all about us! The fish, turtles, and birds better remember that! Fuck those freeloaders!

We’ll still trawl the oceans and decimate fish populations. We’ll still chop down trees and use chemicals for our lawns, and we’ll still be adding to the world’s population like horny teenagers without condoms.

While this sounds like a great idea on paper, it’s going to go nowhere, just like the Paris Accord. Some countries will attempt to do this but it’ll take all 195 countries, not 100 to set aside ecosystems. It’ll take every single country with the political will to force corporations to act in the best interests of the environment first and shareholders second.

But there is debate over how much land and sea to include, and some scientists fear the targets may be diluted. — via BBC

What are the odds of that happening? Very slim to none. I know us, we can’t think beyond money, jobs, houses, and entertainment.

The political and economic structures of the world won’t allow for 30% of the world to be set aside for protection. They want it all because the masses of fools (us humans) are deluded into wanting jobs and money to buy crap. The entire system is built on a perma-growth mindset that needs more and more resources to feed the machine.

This is why people like Elon Musk call for a birth rate increase, he wants more consumers to keep the Fugazi going. More bodies and blood to grease the giant machine they created.

Is that all we are in this fucking world? Consumers? How sad.

“Protecting our land and seas also allows degraded ecosystems to recover, to start functioning in a way that is beneficial to society,” he (Prof Mark Emmerson of Queens University) says. Maintaining and restoring healthy wetlands and forests — that lock away greenhouse gas emissions — can help humanity deal with the other major global challenge of climate change. — via BBC

I propose we change the narrative by playing their game. In fact, it’s already happening but we haven’t seen the end game yet. The massive inflation and terrible life prospects for Millennials and Generation Z people have started to make political and economical waves. I say we make those waves into Tsunamis.

My proposal is this: create a de-growth system. If your family can show that you aren’t consuming as much as the average family you get a ton of governmental breaks. If you rip out your lawn and plant native species of plants, then you get 10 points.

If you cancel your Amazon account, you get 100 points. If you work from home instead of commuting, you get 15 points. If you get a vasectomy, you get 10,000 points. If you own a house smaller than the average size in your town, you get 500 points.

Once you reach some arbitrary point value — say 10,000 per year — you’ll get cool stuff and tax breaks. You could get free healthcare and free healthy food. Give up your guns and you and your kids get free college tuition for life!

These ideas don’t have to extend to the individual, if your town sets aside 30% or more of green space then every resident gets something in return.

How will we pay for all this? Simple, a minimum 80% corporate tax unless your corporation can show that it’s using renewable resources, focusing on the ecosystem and community-holder wealth first and shareholder wealth second.

Make it in their best interest to be better than their competitors by forcing them to do the right thing for our planet. Then watch them fight it out to the top.

I’ve written about this before and hate sounding all doom and gloomy, but it’s hard to dismantle a perma-growth system. I, too, am used to all the creature comforts it brings but I fully believe that we can create a de-growth system and make it profitable.

We just need to re-evaluate what profit means to us. If we stop thinking of profit as bits of paper with funny faces on them and instead think of profit as preserving forests and oceans, then we’re on the right track.

If we start thinking of ecosystem and community wealth instead of individual shareholder wealth, then we’re really getting somewhere.

It’s better to accumulate a treasure of biodiversity and life than it is to acquire money. You can leave a better world behind when you die instead of clutching paper or Bitcoins in your cold dead hands.

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