So, if wealth were distributed more fairly, the world could support a larger population of humans at an adequate standard of living without threatening the environmental conditions upon which we all depend?
How about, ‘if wealth were more equitably distributed, *choice* would be a more realistic factor’?
Of course, that adequate standard of living probably means an end to our collective fantasy about being apex predators, along with driving to our important jobs every day and jetting around the globe at the drop of a hat.
Our ‘fantasy’ of being apex predators has plenty of reality to it, mostly entertained by those born wealthy and/or positioned for effective predation. It’s as real as the farcical notion of “bootstraps” is false
Still, it's worth a try, like our Green New Deal. But can we bring everyone, everywhere on board in time? Clearly, people need to be prepared for such comprehensive change.
The problem with aspirational efforts like the Green New Deal and Agenda 21 is that the apex-predator crew rightly see them as threats to their continuous, unhampered predation. ALL politics is local; the personal *is* political, and the political has become VERY personal...
Some of us are working toward that in our individual lives by not eating animals, switching to alternative energy sources, etc. Showing others that it's not so bad, they might even like it.
I acknowledge the privilege that allows you to not merely make those choices but make them work for you in your life: those choices are simply not available to far too many people
Maybe something else we can consider is forgoing families, at least those of us for whom it's not a hardship. (Don't forget, we can always foster or adopt to satisfy some of our needs and those of children who already exist.) While not required, doing so is entirely consistent with those other changes some of us have already made.
“Family” is not forego-able: we aren’t manufactured products, we’re tribal primates, and we go insane in isolation from others, as is proved by the Internet, large cities, the destruction of real neighborhoods, and by the questionable value of predator relationships, just to name a few. Redefine family, by all means, but attempting to eradicate it is a surer doom than our current mess
And if the Green New Deal (or whatever you have in mind) works, people will be happier. Happy people make babies. How many more billion will it take before our problems return, even if everyone in the world lives simply?
