Taking a Plunge

The markets are down today. Wow. So is the price of oil. The House has just voted down the BBB, or Big Bailout Bill. Wait, that sounds familiar. BBB? Oh yeah, Better Business Bureau…hmm. Is there an irony here? I’ll just leave that one to real pundits.

So, what shall we make of thse developments in terms of sustainability? Not much, I suggest. The stock market — well who knows what that’s a barometer of these days, except fear. But the price of a barrel of oil? Another story, indeed.

That price goes down these days, according to most observers, because of forecasts of slower economic activity. Less commerce, less need for gasoline. I don’t know if it actually works that way, but that’s what folks are laying out there.

I’m for higher oil prices. Way, way higher. Anything that gets us to use less, and a LOT less. And SOON.

And yes, I’m aware that people with less money truly feel a HUGE pinch as the cost of gasoline and heating oil march upward. But we’re in a race against time for our lives. Our very survival as a species. The more petroleum we consume, the hotter the planet is going to get, and as sea levels continue to rise from melting ice packs, it won’t matter what your income level is. You’ll be too wet to care.

We have less than a decade to turn things around. Get your mind around the longer term markers. We’ve just come through a year with a record for world-wide production of greenhouse gases. This could kill us. You think a plunge in the stock market is bad…?

Ralph

Question: Is it “The Economy” after all?

Answer: Nope, not even close. Another way to put it: Not on your life (literally).

Don’t misunderstand. I do not minimize the confusion, uncertainty, and financial terror the events of the past ten days or so have been generating. I’m as caught up in it, both in terms of the news cycles and the actual effects on my retirement nest egg, as anybody.

But keep this in mind. Someone once said, “Without the ecology, there would be no economy.” In other words, all our economic activity is rooted in the ways we use, shape, and move Earth’s finite resources around. Our economic activity and resultant financial fate is ultimately based on the way we toss around stuff we take out of the ground, the sea, the forests, etc.  We can literally have no economic fortunes without the ecology of relationships among all living and non-living things that make up the our only home, third rock from the sun, the Earth itself.

Keep this in mind, too. If you think the financial markets crisis we’re going through now is bad, what will happen when we use up key natural resources? How can you build a market economy when the stuff you require to make and distribute good (and services) is no more?

Like oil. Which is pretty much everywhere. It’s even in the keyboard I’m using right this minute. And which is predicted to pretty much disappear by the middle of the century.

Is that too far ahead for you to worry about?  Do you have children?  Are you planning any?

We need to deal with these market issue, of course. Seriously, and soon. But there’s this other crisis looming. If you think the current one is big, you ain’t seen nothin’ yet.

There is, of course, LOTS we can do to prevent more bad things. And we’re already doing a lot. Do not be pessimistic. But don’t be complacent either. Let’s get sustainable. Together.

Ralph