Orion Digest №20 - Eco-Socialist Federation: The First Steps

Hypothetically, once a world federation is formed, where do we go further? The formation of federation itself is just a stepping stone to environmental and economic reform, and while we know it's what we need, how do we achieve it? Once united, how would we recover from the damage and move towards a peaceful, wise, spacefaring society? The first steps would not bear immediate fruit - the kinds of action we need to take to help the planet recover and to bring equality across the world would take time to pay off, which is why most governments are unwilling to take them. It's a costly and tedious business, and one whose need is not made evident until much later.

The balance that needs to be stricken is between economic needs and in more industrialized nations, the needs of countries struggling with starvation, and the ultimate need for a stable foundation for environmental recovery. The question is one of both how much do we produce and who needs it the most, because industrialized nations produce at a rate designed to make their economy grow, because it satisfies a growing population. To help create stability, we'd need a sort of shock to make larger populations slow down their rate of growth, so those additional resources could be funneled to others in need.

For the sake of argument, let's think of it as two people - Person A and Person B. Both people need three loaves of bread for a healthy and sustainable diet, and Person A is given five per day, whereas Person B is given one. Person A adjusts at first to being given five loaves of bread, and soon enough, becomes accustomed to a larger appetite and is only satiated with the full five loaves, while Person B is malnourished, and unable to live healthily without more bread in their diet. Now, taking two loaves of bread from Person A and giving them to Person B, in the short-term, will be detrimental to Person A. They've gotten used to that stable meal, and when the extra loaves are taken away, they will still feel hungry, and it will take an adjustment period until they are able to be satiated by merely three loaves. However, if they were to continue with their five loaf diet, Person B would surely starve.

Just the same, if the population of industrialized and wealthier nations increases during this transitional period, they will find that such a number cannot be sustained, as what is produced and kept is enough for them to remain at a more stable level while other parts of the world are given financial and resource assistance. Of course, this does not mean a population must stop reproducing altogether, or sacrifice any of it's current members - due to death by natural causes, a population will naturally decrease without reproduction, and a population that is in a static state of equilibrium would have an equal birth rate and death rate. The goal to deescalate unsustainable growth is both a decrease in excess and unnecessary consumption as well as a decline in the birth rate, with the same production rate being used as a temporary means of propping up those in need. Once these other nations are able to reach a level of sustainable production and growth on their own, the need for continued excess production will be lessened.

So, say we've had time in which we had international limits on industrialized nations (likely implemented based on GDP) and a network of resources going to nations with low average quality of life and high rates of poverty as a means of short term support, all the while ensuring that the seeds are planted for sustainable industry once quality of life and infrastructure are improved. Assuming we've still been burning resources at the same rates we do now for helping the world recover, our next goal would be to get used to lower levels of production, going from a growth-based to a need-based economy in the long term. Having adapted to using less resources and having close to a ZPG model (zero population growth), the world's heavily industrialized nations can be the starting focus for slowed industry, with the preceding project as a dual-purpose means of preparation.

From then on, the production and corresponding population growth limits would proceed from the highest GDP nations downward, coming in waves as to allow the newly industrialized nations time to reach self sufficiency. During this time, to supplement the continued destruction of the environment through industry, government funding would go towards research and projects like replanting, species protection, eco-friendly technologies, etc. A world federation of allied republics would be less inclined to go to war, so while military would not be fully phased out, the massive amounts used for military spending today could do well for this sort of environmental research and development, spurred likely even further by the acquisition of mass deposits of wealth in large capitalist corporations (to destroy a corporation entirely could cripple the economy, but greater rates of temporary taxation on the wealthiest powers and people could help to redistribute the approximately 43% of global wealth they hold for more beneficial matters for the greater good).

Having worked downward over a long stretch of time, the developed final phase of industrialized nations would be limited to reach close to a ZPG, and by this time, we would have a developed research department to revitalize the environment that had been operating, which would be boosted by a global decrease in emissions. Important to mention is that a democratic workplace economy would likely only aid the decrease in production, and that public relations and regional governments could encourage further environmentally friendly actions achievable by the common populace, such as conserving water and electricity, using public transport, and growing personal gardens. While most of harmful emissions is created by industrial production of goods and services, it would not hurt to go a step further, especially when we need to divert our course as fast as possible.

ZPG (or close to ZPG) economies, once they had reached sustainability, could be held until such a time had passed at which research determined growth could continue sustainably, and once we had passed that threshold, we would continue forward with less government-imposed limits on production, and when we finally began to start again, we would go forth not as we did before, but with a better knowledge of balance between economy and ecology, as well as more equalized prosperity for all. There would be much more to do before we achieved our goal, but in terms of practically setting us on the right path for sustainable industry and global recovery, we have an idea of our first steps.

- DKTC FL