This is the truth, nothing but the truth, and the whole truth, with a waterboard as my witness!

Thursday, November 27, 2008

The commanding heights of the New American Century V

The last commanding height of an economy is the environment. Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed by Jared Mason Diamond illustrates the concept in the most compelling argument yet put forth. All of the Global Trends reports I cite in my profile also address the same issue of environment.

If you look back at the Global Trends report issued in 1997, which peered ahead to 2010, the nearest time to our own, you can see the problems of prediction. That report said of Russia: "The erosion in the authority of the central Russian government that has occurred will not be easily reversed."

Well hold on a second here, Global Trends is not in the business of being psychic, these are "trends" that are indeed coming true.

In this section the fifth commanding height of the NIC report is illustrated.

It is not as if Diamond read the report and then decided to write a book, or that I grabbed what was in the Commanding Heights PBS documentary and blogged, or is this an issue of if the predictions put forth by the 2010 report all came true.

Take it as an assured look into the future from the perspective of facts and the past, that these are the challenges that are before us.

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=fisheries+collapse

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=deforestation+collapse

Or read about a hungry world with inadequate water and food.

Over many years a person I admire greatly looked far into the future and did what he could to mitigate a damage that cannot be undone.

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=fisheries+gilchrest

This was the correct stewardship one would expect from a Republican and what is needed to effectively manage an economy. This is leadership that looks beyond the event horizon and does the right thing today for tomorrow. It is the essence of "getting it right."

Read Collapse, read the NIC reports, support people such as Wayne so that your future is more viable. Think and stop behaving like a locust, think and stop imagining that the solution is not local, think and stop blaming others, think and come to understand that these challenges require cooperation.

If you think the costs of a bailout for the derivatives markets is high, keep in mind that collapsed fisheries are even higher, and no ammount of money can correct the damage once done.

Wake up to the commanding heights and recognize those who know the price of everything and the value of nothing.

The environment is the final commanding height.

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