WHY WOMEN MUST STEP UP TO LEAD THE WORLD NOW.

 

silhouette-of-woman-holding-globe

What would life on Earth be like if women were in charge? Bucky’s wisdom about the overall superiority of the feminine gender to provide enlightened global leadership was published by McCall’s Magazine in a 1968 article, entitled “Why Women Will Rule the World”. 

Bucky said that if woman can find the courage and power to insist on a government focused on nurturance, replacing our obsession with weaponry with that off “livingry”, we can help all countries around the world get onto a sustainable course that aims to make the world work for 100% of humanity.

This is not about politics, Bucky says. This is about real life on planet earth. With all due respect to today’s male paradigm leaders, focused on competition and aggression against one another, we know you have tried, but in light of abysmal recent events and a decided lack in any progress on peace and justice issues, isn’t it time to give women a shot?

A world led by women, Bucky said, would toss out outdated notions of scarcity which dominate the male paradigm. Abundant technology and knowledge has brought humanity to the point where we need not be “us versus them”, but contrarily, must insist that it is all about “US”.  All of us connected.  At-one-ment.  Atonement.  One United Spaceship Planet Earth.

Women, and people who think like women, bring so much to the table: compassion, cooperative spirit and community, and in doing so can create a new and superior kind of leadership. This leadership paradigm is not exclusively female, yet is clearly based on a feminine model and should be accepted as such.

The first (and huge) step in which women must lead is to wean the world off fossil fuels. Most of the oil in the ground needs to stay there. They are our reserves for the future, our “energy savings account” as Bucky put it, and burning them is like burning up the house to keep the family warm. Not worth it.

By switching to “readily tappable cosmic energies of sun, wind and wave power” we can create true economic freedom for all people. Clean energy would allow us to work less and thrive more in a healthier environment.  We could stay closer to home, and live more creative, artistic and sustainable lives if we didn’t have to labor daily for our energy supply.  And that would give us time to rule the world, just like Bucky said we would, while our husbands tinkered with their scientific inventions and other intellectual pursuits in their home offices and backyard.

Women must find the courage to speak truth to power NOW. Wield your mighty keyboard. Share this message.  Future generations are depending on us. Start by reading Bucky’s article below for more details about how cool life could be with women in charge. As Bucky said, If we simply commit ourselves to making this happen, we are almost there.

Here’s a link to the full McCall’s article by Buckminster Fuller, courtesy of Brent Reitzel at Southern Illinois Univeristy in Carbondale, Illinois, where Bucky served as a professor for many years in the mid twentieth century.

Dealing with carbon is moral imperative of war

 

How do we save our beautiful planet from the rogue fossil fuel industry?  Scientists say it's the moral imperative of war.
How do we save our beautiful planet from the rogue fossil fuel industry? Scientists call for a revolution against those who refuse to address the carbon problem, calling it the moral imperative of war.

UN Panel’s latest report shows the need for Congress to put aside differences and move toward a solution. Common ground can be found in a carbon tax that gives revenue back to the people. (The following report is from the Citizen’s Climate Lobby.)

With the world’s leading experts giving their most dire warning yet on the impact of climate change, it’s time for the United States to move at wartime speed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, starting with a revenue-neutral carbon tax. The latest report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change could not be clearer or more emphatic: Our world is already seeing the disastrous effects of climate change, and things will get much, much worse in years to come if we do not swiftly reduce the greenhouse gas emissions that are literally our goose.

From The New York Times:“The report… concluded that ice caps are melting, sea ice in the Arctic is collapsing, water supplies are coming under stress, heat waves and heavy rains are intensifying, coral reefs are dying, and fish and many other creatures are migrating toward the poles or in some cases going extinct.

“The oceans are rising at a pace that threatens coastal communities and are becoming more acidic as they absorb some of the carbon dioxide given off by cars and power plants, which is killing some creatures or stunting their growth, the report found.

“Organic matter frozen in Arctic soils since before civilization began is now melting, allowing it to decay into greenhouse gases that will cause further warming, the scientists said.

“And the worst is yet to come, the scientists said in the second of three reports that are expected to carry considerable weight next year as nations try to agree on a new global climate treaty. In particular, the report emphasized that the world’s food supply is at considerable risk — a threat that could have serious consequences for the poorest nations.”

“Nobody on this planet is going to be untouched by the impacts of climate change,” Rajendra K. Pachauri, chairman of the intergovernmental panel, said at a news conference releasing the IPCC report.

Despite our enourmous political differences, America’s history shows we are capable of coming together and achieving remarkable things when faced with great threats and challenges. Such was the case in stopping global tyranny during World War II and again with the Moon landing, events that firmly established the U.S. as the world’s leader. Today we face a threat greater than the fascism of the 20th Century and a challenge more daunting than putting a man on the Moon. We have the capacity to overcome the self-inflicted wounds of climate change and avoid a catastrophic future, but only if this crisis is met with similar urgency and effort. Such urgency and effort requires that Republicans and Democrats in Congress set aside their differences for the good of our nation and our world, but that is yet to happen. Perhaps this is because the two sides have yet to find common ground on effective solutions. With Congress at an impasse, President Obama has taken the initiative by directing the Environmental Protection Agency to develop regulations that will reduce greenhouse gas emissions from new and existing power plants. Republicans, who oppose further regulations and view new EPA rules as an expansion of government, are pushing back hard on the President’s effort.

Rather than attacking the EPA for doing what Congress has failed to do, opponents of regulation should embrace a market-based solution favored by a number of prominent conservatives: Put a tax on carbon and give the revenue back to the people.

Conservative economists, from Romney advisor Greg Mankiw to Reagan Secretary of State George Shultz, argue that the free market normally gravitates to things that are good for our society. There are times, however, when the price of something does not reflect its damage, the cost of which is borne by society. Such is the case with fossil fuels, whose price does not reflect the health, security and environmental costs that arise from their use. If we fix this price distortion – through a steadily-increasing tax – the market will gravitate toward cleaner energy and energy efficiency without the need for regulations or subsidies.

Detractors who argue against a carbon tax say it will kill jobs, drag down the economy and burden families with higher energy bills. But a well-designed carbon tax that recycles revenue back to households and into the economy would protect families from rising costs and actually add jobs. A recent study by Regional Economic Models, Inc. found that a carbon tax in California, even at very high levels, would increase GDP and add hundreds of thousands of jobs, provided the revenue is returned to the public, either as tax cuts or direct payments.

The other main argument against a carbon tax – that it will put American businesses at a disadvantage with foreign competitors – can be easily dismissed by placing border tariffs on imports from nations that do not have an equivalent price on carbon. Such tariffs would provide the incentive for other nations to adopt similar policies, making the revenue-neutral carbon tax a solution that is global in scope.

The health, food, security and economic costs of climate change – both now and in the future – far outweigh the costs of transitioning to a society that emits less and less greenhouse gases.

From the IPCC report:

“Throughout the 21st century, climate-change impacts are projected to slow down economic growth, make poverty reduction more difficult, further erode food security, and prolong existing and create new poverty traps, the latter particularly in urban areas and emerging hotspots of hunger.”

A carbon tax with revenue refunded to households can speed the crucial transition to a low-carbon society AND have a positive impact on our economy. It’s time for lawmakers in Congress to exhibit the kind of cooperation shown in previous times of great adversity by embracing this sensible solution.

The hippies were right!

http://www.boreme.com/posting.php?id=32340

The best summary of the hippie days I have yet to come across. Love this video. The best six minutes you will spend all day.

The Second American Revolution

A story of what could be, inspired by Buckminster Fuller.

“Middle Americans held their own economy hostage, then came together and created a clean energy world. It was brilliant!”

large-antique-brown-duracord-rope-hammock-xx2035 – America’s second revolution was painful, but worth it. It began about twenty years ago, in 2015, with a series of events that today’s historians  call The Middle American Movement (MAM), which is also a play on the fact that this was a movement led mostly by women; females of all ages, nationalities, and political leanings came together and led with common sense, compassion and a global sense of community.

There was wide sweeping social and political upheaval, which resulted in the successful transference away from fossil fuels and the long-awaited creation of a clean energy world. Bucky started calling for this in the early 1940’s, just as World War II was starting.

A clean energy world held magic for humanity.  Because carbon levels dropped and everything green flourished, United Spaceship Planet Earth became a healthier and more relaxed place. We gave up the specious notion that everyone had to “earn a living”, and came to understand that we could thrive if we only paid a little more attention to nature, and her needs.  This was another part of the new feminine paradigm of leadership that came to pass in the early 2020s.

The opening of the Second American Revolution is traced to a small neighborhood’s show of solidarity for a popular Midwestern family. The family was losing their home. Armed guards showed up at the door one unusually warm evening in early summer. The family had posted on Facebook and Twitter that they were not going to answer the door, that they would rather die than be forced out of their home of 20 years, and would kill themselves if guards forced their way in.

When bank guards arrived, friends and neighbors were waiting, many of them also armed. After a long standoff on a warm summer evening which eventually involved a group of neighbors showing up with fresh margaritas and grilled burritos.  Faced with the burritos, the guards, who were also marginalized middle Americans, sympathized with the family, relaxed and enjoyed dinner and a margarita and they all went home to think things over.

Not a single shot was ever fired. There was a celebration in the street that warm night and the next, and became the “not-a-shot” heard round the world.

Americans everywhere, all recruited through the new digital democracy of social media, took to the streets to protect their neighbors like it was their job.

The line “we’d rather die than lose our home” ended up symbolizing much more than a fight against the banks. It was also overthrowing corporate rule of the American government, focused on big oil’s environmental degradation and our complicit government. People knew development of solar, wind and other technologies was being sabotaged by the fossil fuel industry. They struck in protest.

The very idea of  “home” grew to be about planet Earth itself. Herself.  A highly educated generation of humanity rose to a more highly evolved conscience, through which they placed Earth’s needs first.

In this simple peaceful revolution, Middle Americans learned how to create a new and sustainable world. We traded for things, shopped at second hand stores, stayed close to home and learned how to grow our own food, create our own energy, and share our resources.  In cities, neighbors come together to build high rise greenhouses, and even floating community gardens. Cooperative farms popped up all over the country. Seeds became more valuable than money for awhile, especially ones that were clean and not genetically modified. (People finally figured out it was not such a good idea to eat grains that were engineered to blow up inside an insect’s stomach.)

Wind, solar, geothermal and wireless electromagnetic energy are now everywhere.  The fossil fuel reserves are in safely in the ground, our nature’s saving account, in case of planetary emergency, just where Buckminster Fuller always said we should put them.

The whole world has been intentionally greened up like a Chia Pet. Lush green carbon sinks installed in all the big cities help immensely. Even China is all greened up these days. Huge storms, droughts and rising oceans are still happening, but the carbon numbers are dropping and things are starting to settle down. as we drop to a record low 250 ppm. Oil spills and water contamination from fracking are gone for good. The world is a much healthier place now that women’s ideas about governance and nurturance are now in place.

The most remarkable result of this revolution is how many people never had to go back to their meaningless jobs. Our high unemployment rate is now something we brag about – 38% and climbing, and soon, no one will have to “work” unless they really want to, otherwise it is no longer necessary to “earn a living”  since energy is now free, and we have learned how to sustain ourselves even without money.

Creating a good life and raising happy families is what humans were always meant to do. In the new world, we all pitch in to educate our children through cooperative schools. We can turn out creative thinkers, not just non-thinking robots like we used to do.

Now people have more time to read and write and think, and there’s a renaissance of thought underway, a homespun enlightenment of mind and spirit.

Thank Nature we woke up in time! Oh, that was the other big change: Religion evolved when it dawned on humanity that God is Nature and Nature is God. In every area of life, once we learned to play by Nature’s rules, everything fell in place and Nature supported us.

“In Nature we Trust!” was the proclamation that officially acknowledged the revolutionary Middle American Movement. That’s exactly how it’s written on the new one dollar bill. Right under President Chelsea’s picture.  Life is sure good in 2035!

US is Earth’s #1 Fossil Fuel Subsidizer!

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Are we nuts, America? We are subsidizing the demise of the entire planet at record breaking rates. The International Monetary Fund just reported that global fossil fuel subsidies in 2012 were $1.9 trillion annually. Of that, $502 billion comes from US taxpayers, to enable the oil industry to continue to enslave us with cheap and plentiful supplies, and to deter development of clean alternatives. Global warming and catastrophic climate change are the "negative externalities" of these subsidies, and we are the greatest enablers of both.

To put things in perspective, the independent website GlobalIssues.org estimates that we could provide universal access to all basic social services to all people in all developing countries for a mere $40 billion as follows: education for all: $6 billion; water and sanitation for all $9 billion; reproductive health for women $12 billion; basic health and nutrition $13 billion.

America spends $8 billion on cosmetics, $17 billion on pet food, and gives a whopping $502 billion each year to subsidize dirty fuels that are destroying the environment for all living things.

What is wrong with us? Why aren’t caring, smart Americans screaming in the streets, or at least sharing this information by the millions? My prayer for this Good Friday is that we wake up, as the great nation we still can be, and demand that America start to behave as a responsible global citizen.

And no, I do not hate America. I love this country, but only as a parent still loves a child who’s become a maniacal beast.

Here’s the link to the IMF REPORT released today.

Here’s a Marketwatch summary of the report. Good to know the money guys and economists are finally getting involved!

Here's link to http://www.globalissues.org
P.S. America also supplies 44% of all weapons to the world. Our sales of weapons to developing countries more than doubled in recent years. We are now selling weapons to both sides of almost every conflict on the planet.

PROOF:The Right’s Denial of Climate Change is a LIE.

In doing research for my Bucky book I found this quote from The Energy Task Force report to (corrected) President George Bush in 2001 (Wikipedia showed it as 1981):

“Given the magnitude of the potential threat represented by global climate change, it is equally in the strategic interest of the United States to identify and implement cost-effective measures at home and abroad to stabilize the atmospheric concentration of greenhouse gasses at levels that will not lead to catastrophic climatic change.”

It goes on to say:

“Many different constituencies within the U.S. government will need to work together to develop a unified and integrated energy policy framework with well-defined and orchestrated goals—a policy that addresses not only today’s energy bottlenecks, but also will seek to provide affordable, clean, and reliable energy supplies five to fifteen years into the future, in order to underpin long-term economic growth in an environmentally acceptable manner and to promote the security of the United States, and its allies” Here’s the LINK to the PDF Go to page 35, and please let me know if you go there and it has been taken down. (It wouldn’t be the first time.)

So just to review, this republican task force sponsored by the James Baker Institute and the Foreign Affairs Council from 2001 said they knew and understood that we had a serious problem. At the time, they said it would take 5 to 15 years to provide alternatives, which would, in their words, promote the security of the United States. That should have meant we would have made the transition by now, at latest.

What the heck happened?

Have they known all along that they were throwing all Americans and every living thing on the planet under the bus?  Just for their own measly little careers and fortunes, they have been forsaking the future for the rest of us? Since 2001?

How did we come to “unknow” what we already knew in twelve years ago?

When will it be time for torches and pitchforks in the streets?

What are we going to do, Mr. Obama?  What are we going to do?

Bucky’s Biggest Idea: A World That Works for All.

It is gratifying to see and hear Buckminster Fuller’s ideas for creating a better world getting out there. It gives me hope that his “design science revolution” may still happen in time.

Here is a link to a very interesting radio program about the Buckminster Fuller Institute’s support of environmental and social innovations like a hybrid house that energizes itself. Through its curtains! Many, many amazing such ideas and inventions will be presented at the 23rd Annual Bioneers Conference in Marin this October. I went last year, and it was the most interesting, hopeful, and life affirming thing I did all year.

What the Bioneers proved to me was that we DO have the technology and know how to get that earth-destroying fossil fuel monkey off our backs.

Now if only we had the political will to demand that it actually happen. Somehow this kind of thinking needs to be implemented on a large enough scale to turn around this massive environmental mess brought on by carbon levels in the atmosphere.
Here’s the Link: http://www.bioneers.org/radio/a-world-that-works-for-all