Earthly Wisdom – Page 4

Protected: Bucky’s Message to Humanity

We are being fossil fooled.

If the world has a chance of limiting temperature rise to 2C, which has been determined to be crucial to our survival on Earth, 60 to 80 percent of current fossil fuel reserves must stay in the ground.

The reverse is happening. We are subsidizing the scraping of every last vein on Earth. Ours and our government’s addiction to big oil have been happy bedfellows with the fools who put their own private financial interests ahead of humanity’s survival.

We simply must break the chains of this enslavement or risk ecosystem collapse.

Worldwide, governments are still subsidizing fossil fuel development to the tune of $500 billion annually, according to conservative estimates. What will it take to phase out exploration subsidies, and then all fossil-fuel subsidies, while while we also transfer these critical public resources to low-carbon development and universal clean energy?

How do we stop this idiotic, fossil fuelish destruction of our planet?

It begins with the courage to speak up.

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“A problem clearly stated is a problem solved.”

Buckminster Fuller said it best. If you can clearly define the problem, it is well on its way to a solution. Apply this to our dysfunctional government in America today. How do we arrive at a clear statement of the problem in light of the devastating mid-term elections, where a inexplicably destructive right wing gained full control of the US Congress?

Here is one attempt:

The takeover of our Democracy is now complete. A primary goal of this takeover is to perpetuate continued denial about the most urgent matter humans will ever face: climate change. This is to ensure continued profits for the fossil fuel industry, and makes it clear that the accelerating destruction of Earth is motivated by simple materialistic greed. Is America about to hit bottom?

Why is accurately stating the problem so important? Here’s what Bucky said (from the book Fuller’s Earth, by Richard J. Brenneman):

“The first and most important thing in solving a problem is to state what the problem is, very clearly, concisely, and incisively. State what the problem really is. I can’t stress how important this is: a problem stated is a problem solved. So many people misstate the problem to fool themselves or others. But if a problem is properly stated, if its relatedness is clearly defined, the answer will become apparent.”

Okay, your turn. How would you sum up the problem with America today? Thank you in advance for your thoughts, and for sharing Buckyworld.

Climate deniers must be denied.

We live in a time when scientists and people who respect science are so troubled by climate change that there is a whole new category of psychology being created to deal with it. A story from Grist gets into this in some detail.

Catastrophic environmental events brought on by climate change will take a heavy toll on the human psyche, and just the emotional stress of knowing can be devastating. Looking to Bucky’s wisdom for some new light to share on this problem, here’s what I found, all from the forward of his seminal 1981 book, Critical Path:

_ We are being denied. “Government and business are doing nothing to facilitate the necessary transition to clean, renewable energy.”

_ The technology exists. “Earthians are now able to live entirely within its cosmic-energy income (sun, wind, geo, etc.) instead of spending its energy savings account, fossil fuels. That we fail at making this transition is a folly no less illogical than burning up our house to keep the family warm.”

_ We must force the issue. “Only when the leaders of the world’s great power structures are convinced they are in danger of being destroyed do the adequate funds become available for new technologies.”

_ Everything is on the line. “The legacy of humanity is being held in probate by general ignorance, fear, selfishness and by bureaucratically maintained incumbent power structures.”

_ We must each speak up now. “Humans are helplessly inarticulate in the face of this crisis. They know their political representation to be corrupt, and this is devastating, but none-the-less they must find the right words, and the courage to use them.”

And finally, these words from Bucky which seem forever engraved in my mind, are what get out of bed to face the darkness:

“On personal integrity hangs humanity’s fate.”

As Bucky put it: “This is a race between a better-informed, hopeful inspired young world versus a running-scared, misinformedly brain-conditioned older world.”

Only the individual has the freedom to do what no government or corporate entity can. Speak up. Let every elected representative and candidate know that if they deny science, they too will be denied.

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One Connected Crisis: Energy, Climate, Food, Terrorism, Finance

This creative and even funny documentary shows how all our current crises -- energy, climate, food, terrorism, finance -- are intertwined. — This creative and even funny documentary shows how all our current crises — energy, climate, food, terrorism, finance — are intertwined. It’s about an hour long, and well worth every minute.

The movie explains how the doctrine of unlimited growth is a failed doctrine, but that our natural tendency is to try to shore up and fix what's broken instead of finding new and necessary solutions. — The movie shows how the doctrine of unlimited growth is a failed doctrine, yet our natural tendency is to try to shore up and fix what’s broken, instead of finding new and necessary solutions.

It shows how many of our most pressing problems are actually created by the very policies established to solve them, and that the roots of these problems run deep.

There's massive systemic dysfunction, such as the way we hire, direct and pay terrorists to help us acquire access to resources (oil) in difficult areas, and then later try to distance ourselves from them. — There’s massive systemic dysfunction, such as the way we hire, direct and pay terrorists to help us acquire access to resources (oil) in difficult areas, and then later try to distance ourselves from them. The system systematically produces more and more terrorism.

The tendency toward militarization is caused by the fact that we ask military people to solve our problems.

Policies like cap and trade on carbon credits have created a world in which corporations can simply buy permission to pollute and destroy the planet.

This allows even the worst polluters, motivated only by their own profits, to not only undermine the system, but be able to brag as if they are actually helping.

At the same time, the news that almost all of our most brilliant scientists have come to agree that we simply must reduce our carbon output, is largely ignored, such as James Hansen or NASA has been, since he first called our attention to this clear and present danger in 1988. — At the same time, the news that almost all of our most brilliant scientists agree we must reduce our carbon output is largely ignored, as was James Hansen of NASA, who first raised awareness of this clear and present danger in 1988.

Hansen said we must keep carbon levels below 350 parts per million. (We are now well over 400, some say as high as 445) — Hansen said we must keep carbon levels below 350 parts per million.

We are now well over 400 parts per million, some say as high as 445, and well on our way to unsustainably higher temperatures on our planet.

Because business people are specialized in their fields, most cannot see how interrelated issues are. Instead they (we) are walking in lock step to support a system that is clearly failing our society. — Since business people are specialized in their fields, most of them cannot see how interrelated all of these issues are. Instead they (we) are walking in lock step to support a system that is clearly failing our society.

The multiple converging crises, which are all escalating, are resulting in mass militarization of our communities, and — The multiple converging crises, which are all escalating, are resulting in mass militarization of our communities.

... increasingly draconian treatment of our own citizens. — To keep this broken system in control, we are seeing increasingly draconian treatment of our own citizens, and a loss in personal freedoms and previously guaranteed rights.

At the core of all of these problems is the false belief that we can solve our problems through more growth; and that consuming more and better things will make us happy and successful. — At the core of these interrelated problems is the false belief that we can solve our problems through more growth; and that consuming more things will make us happy and successful.

It suggests that we have passed "peak oil" and soon will face the same inevitable decline of our food production system, unless we take control locally to produce food and get control of the system by encouraging more clean energy development and less trigger happy war efforts. — It suggests that we have passed “peak oil” and soon will face the same inevitable decline of our food production system, unless we take control locally to produce food and unless we incentivize clean energy development and demand participation in fewer wars, which cannot be won any longer, since all they do is grow more and more enemies.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMgOTQ7D_lk

The time has come…

All of nature — including humanity — can thrive.

What Bucky knew back in 1972.

We won’t be burning up our fossil fuels and saying to the next generation, “How are you going to get on?”

Here’s a vision of the coming century, in Bucky’s own words, from an interview with him in the February, 1972 issue of Playboy Magazine:

“We are coming into a new phase of man’s being successful on board his planet, performing his function in a bigger way than the old up-and-down infinite plane world with heaven above and hell below, the earth sandwiched in between. In this new phase, We won’t be burning up our fossil fuels and saying to the next generation, “How are you going to get on?”

Bucky Playboy Interview, 1972 “The changes that are taking place are still unfamiliar to everybody, even to those who expect change. If you start plotting the changes that are occurring, the most difficult to plot is the change in attitude, the change of awareness. But I’ve been around long enough to really see these changes and I tell you the acceleration is terrific. I see this world of man coming on rapidly.

“In the traditional view of the world, there was never enough to go around and somebody had to go down, in order for everyone to eat, but that’s not the case any longer. I’m absolutely convinced of it it’s only ignorance that makes it continue to appear so. Even when I was a kid we had complete comprehensive illiteracy. Man was still very ignorant and his ignorance led to fear for his own skin. You have to remember that, early in the history of man, life was so bad that they couldn’t even think of anything good about it. Therefore they said the whole thing was just a trial for another life in some other magical place….now we know there is an abundance of energy and everything we need available to us right here.

“… Whether or not man thrives is a matter of our living up to our final test, and weaning ourselves off fossil fuels. … Our awareness of our powers to evolve consciously and create a better world is growing, and the future of mankind is very bright, as long as we have the courage to step up to the challenges of the 20th century.”

If this was all known way back when, how did we ever get so waylaid on the path to a clean energy world? If there ever was a war that humanity must win, it is to declare our freedom from fossil fuels. Clean energy is now entirely feasible. It is inexcusable that we are still providing billions of dollars to subsidize fossil fuel producers, instead of holding them accountable for their damage to the planet and its people.

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THINGS WE KNEW IN 1970

From Bucky’s Desk: A Livingry Services Industry

Screen Shot 2014-06-24 at 4.25.32 PM On Buckminster Fuller’s last day on Spaceship Earth, July 1, 1983, he tidied his always cluttered desk and left the office to visit his dying wife at Pacific Palisades Hospital. There, while holding her hand, he had a massive heart attack and died. On his desk, next to a neatly stacked manuscript for a book called called Cosmography, and a fourteen page typewritten document entitled “World Livingry Service Industry”.

This was Bucky’s plan, which he had written about in several of his books, to transform “weaponry into livingry.” It calls for each of us to demand that we convert our energies spent warring into those which would support life, instead of death. Bucky’s Livingry Services Industry would convert our military bases into life and health support facilities, all over the world, providing clean water, food, whatever is needed to help sustain life.

Here’s an overview and summary of this document, mostly in Bucky’s words:

“I was convinced in 1927 that humanity’s most fundamental survival problems could never be solved by politics. That was the year when a human first flew alone across an ocean in one day. It was obviously the beginning of the swift integration of all humanity . . . It was obvious that this integration would require enormous amounts of energy and that fossil fuels were exhaustible. It was also obvious that a minority of selfish humans would organize themselves to exploit the many transitional dilemmas.”

To overcome this multi-pronged problem, Bucky called for the development of “human-circumstance-advantaging-technology” and for this technology to be distributed to the world. This would lead to a higher standard of living for all humanity. “It can be a standard of living more advanced, pleasing and inspiring than any ever experienced or dreamed by anyone is all history.”

Bucky called for “a complete family of inter-complementary life-supporting and enhancing artifacts to be designed and built using our best technologies – the same resources currently used in the development of weapons and war technologies.”

This, he said, “Would make it eminently feasible and practicable to provide a sustainably high standard of living for all humanity.”

How do we make this happen? It won’t be easy, because we cannot rely on capitalism to do what’s right. “Great private enterprises are capital gambles whose “ships must come in” within a reasonable short time of their backers will go bankrupt,” Bucky wrote, in sentences often crossed out and rewritten. “Enterprise is too narrowly focused and shortsighted – too narrowly focused on moneymaking to be concerned with its side effects…

“As a U.S. Navy officer in World War I, I saw there was nothing to stop me from thinking comprehensively about our total planet Earth… Nor was there anything to stop me from thinking realistically about how to operate this magnificent Spaceship Earth on a sustained basis for all passengers on board.”

“Through foresight and design, it is possible to phase out all further use of fossil fuels and atomic energy, which comprise nature’s cosmic energy savings account.

“An advanced standard of living could be entirely sustained by our daily income of Sun energy. In 1982 the total energy consumed daily by all humanity amounts to less that 1/500,000ths of 1 percent of our planet’s daily Sun energy income.”

The document lists several of Bucky’s inventions, or artifacts, as examples of ideas worthy of further exploration as livingry.

1. The Dymaxion House

2. Tensegrity

3. The Dymaxion Bathroom

4. Synergetics

5. Dymaxion World Map

6. World Game

7. Trends and Transformations Charts

8. The Dymaxion Omnitransport (travels on land, air and water)

9. Geodesic Dome

10. Octet Truss

11. The Fog Gun

12. Compact, odorless toilet equipment

13. Floating breakwater (also harvests wave energy)

14. Water wavepower machine

15. Integrated world-around energy grid

16. Windmill systems

17. Floating Cities

“Having committed ourselves to solving humanity’s problems with artifacts designed to work within nature’s design science principals … we can get Spaceship Earth operating omnicooperatively on behalf of us all,” Bucky wrote.

To Bucky, it was conclusively possible, and not even that difficult to accomplish, if only we would actually try.

“All the evolutionary events requisite to the Livingry Industry have now taken place or are about to take place in the very near future,” Bucky said. “If the political systems do not eliminate humanity with their weapons, the half-century-gestating, World-around Livingry Service Industry will be born.”

Bucky wrote these ideas over thirty five years ago. He would no doubt be disappointed at where we are today, but Bucky had great faith in humanity. He believed we were capable of miraculous accomplishments; that we would achieve an “emergence through emergency”.

So don’t give up. Lean into a world that works for everyone. Share Buckyworld.