An interesting article.

Under capitalism, consumption of products is a requirement for its success.

Capitalism uses tactics to promote endless consumption
-planned obsolescence
-scarcity model
-destruction of unsold product
-etc https://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2019-07-25/population-growth-world-overshoot-day/11320990

Earth is abundant. There are so many natural, renewable resources. Enough that every human on Earth could live a life free from needless toil.

The capitalists don't want us to know that. So, they trick us into constant consumption.

They use fear, psychological manipulation, and abusive control schemes (like religion) to keep us ignorant of the truth.

They tell us life is a zero-sum game. That for one of us to gain something, another has to lose. I get +1, you get -1, the sum total being 0.

But let me tell you, the zero-sum game is full of shit.

It costs me nothing to be kind, but that kindness can increase the resources of another.

I can say, "I love your hat" and the person in the hat may feel love, increasing their general well-being.

The Earth, in her abundance, is not zero-sum.

If I take from the earth to grow food, I can consume what I need, and return what I don't.

The return helps rebuild and regenerate the natural resources in the soil.

Sustainability is one thing, but it is simply a continuance.

Regeneration is another, and it speaks on a system where the output is greater than the input.

On Earth, this is possible because of the Sun. Virtually every scrap of energy we have originates from the sun.

Them there nasty coal-fired power plants? Solar powered, they're just using million-year-old solar power.

But it is unnecessary for us to extract and burn this stored energy. It is a crutch that modern civilization has propped itself up on.

The extraction and consumption of non-renewable resources is what has enabled humanity to propel itself forward into the modern era.

But it came at a cost, a serious cost. As per the original linked article, we consume more per year than the Earth can replenish.

This would be like having a bottle of water that refills itself by a finite amount every day.

On the first day, you drink 2/3rds of it, and 1/3rd is replenished. The next day, you drink 2/3rds again, emptying it. It refills by 1/3rd. Now you only have 1/3rd to drink.

This is what we're doing to the Earth.

By consuming non-renewable resources, we deplete the overall energy stores of the Earth, and eventually, we will run out.

Which means there will be a lot of thirsty people.

If we extrapolate from here, and apply it to wealth inequality, we'd see a small minority of people (the rich) screwing over the majority (the rest of us) so that they can continue the status quo.

The most vulnerable of us are hit first, and hit the hardest.

The rich steal resources from the rest of us. They live in relative comfort, while we're lucky to scrape by.

Sometimes the rich hand out scraps, but these originated from us. They expect us to take it and be grateful.

They want us to say, "thank you for stealing my resources, using them, and returning scraps so I can barely survive."

They keep us here as a labour pool. The rich don't work. They just exploit the poor, stealing the fruits of their labours and calling it their own.

Let's get back to the Abundance of Earth.

Regeneration is possible, even with our current global population.

Humans will have to consume less, or at least be more efficient at meeting their needs.

You don't necessarily need to reduce what you eat, but make different decisions.

For example, that beef burger you may have enjoyed recently has one of the highest resource footprint of anything you could eat.

Switch to chicken or fish, and your footprint has reduced drastically.

You still ate a meal, restoring your energy, but your impact is reduced.

The beef industry is one of the largest pollutants and causes tremendous environmental damage.

There are ancient forests being burned down (not even used as a resource, just straight up burned) to clear land for pasture.

They destroy an incredible environmental resource. Forests provide a lot of global benefits. They're the Earth's lungs, taking in carbon dioxide and releasing oxygen.

Forests store carbon (guess where coal came from)

Forests are incredibly bio-diverse. It's not just trees, but also microbes, fungus, fauna, and flora.

All these elements work together to maintain and sustain the life of the forest.

In a zero-sum world, forests wouldn't grow and continue to expand.

But because we co-exist with a giant nuclear fusion ball in the sky, forests continually capture and store this energy.

When a tree dies, it falls and feeds the following generations. Which thrive, and continue to expand. Death, decay and rebirth through microbial action.

Biodiversity is integral to resilience.

When disease attacks a healthy forest, it is stopped in its tracks by biodiversity.

Monoculture (one single organism) is a vector for disease. If every tree in the forest was the same, and a pest attacks that species, they all die.

Resilience is integral to sustainability.

If a complex ecosystem is resilient, it resists entropy. Which opens up the future.

A sustainable system is resilient by nature.

Sustainability is the first step towards regeneration.

If a system can sustain as is indefinitely, what can we do to increase the overall output?

By returning surplus. Instead of sending everything to the bin, how can we use these resources?

Human civilization is fucked. If we continue down this path of unsustainable growth, we will eventually reach a point where we can no longer pretend.

And people will die.

A lot of people.

Probably all of us. The rich included.

we are all in this together.

Together we are diverse. Together we are resilient.

It will take massive concerted effort to reverse the mistakes of the past.

It will take cooperation and collaboration.

It will take responsibility. On a personal level, and a global level.

Abundance for all is not a pipe-dream. We can begin today, so our great^5-grandchildren (that's seven generations) have a world to inherit.

As we're going I doubt we'll make it that far.