In times of ecological collapse, climate change, and authoritarianism Europe can make the difference. Are we ready to embrace the challenge? Find a common vision? And follow a long-term strategy?
"Make consumers pay for the responsible disposal of all purchased goods". Alternatively, make manufacturers take care of each product they produce at the end of the useful life of that product. Not only pay, but actually dismantle them, recycle, reuse, .. Not just distribute and forget like now, but distribute for use, collect after use, and deal with it in a way that leaves no trace in air, water and soil (rather than dump into the air, water or soil of poorer countries, as is practiced by some). Every single thing produced.
Thank you for your comment. It got me thinking and I recognize the shift of responsibility from consumers to producers is fundamental. Therefore I rephrased the sentence about consumers to: "Reduce and avoid waste by making producers, inside and outside of the EU, responsible for the full life-cycle of goods sold in the union"
It’s all a bit crazy, really, because we are not only producers and only consumers. It’s more like: at work we produce the mess, which we then need to cleanup in our spare time.
Well, not necessarily. I have avoided a corporate career exactly for this reason. That is not to deny I am part of the problem like most of us in the developed world. As a consumer I am often faced with sub optimal choices. For example, I am from Amsterdam but live in south Portugal. If I want to visit my friends and family in the The Netherlands I am almost forced to travel by airplane, as a train trip takes at least 30ish hours and would cost at least 4 times as much.
yeah, sounds familiar. What you have written, though, would be a top down approach - at least that is how I understand it. Is that how you see it too? I like the idea of participation of many people, in a kind of open space so that whoever wants to take part, can. Representation has had its day, the time may have come for participation to take over. Thoughts?
Not so much top down the way I see it. Coming to a shared vision would be an EU-wide participatory exercise (organized by municipalities? Taking advantage of experience from previously organized citizens’ assemblies on climate). Subsequent planning and implementation would be mostly decentralized with the EU providing a legislative framework based on the vision. But hey, I’m just making this up on the fly and would be interested how you see it
There is more and more evidence that it is Life that influences climate - life in the oceans as well as on the continents. In which case, it makes it easy to understand what needs to happen: we need to do everything that improves conditions in which Life thrives, and stop doing everything that makes those conditions worse. Keep that up for the next thousand years.
That will help reduce migration too.
The next question could be, yes, but how? The first step is to agree on that basic principle. Spread it, normalise it, accept it in minds of large numbers of people. Once the idea is absorbed into the minds of people, they themselves will see what needs to be done and what does not.
Once that simple idea is accepted by people, they will be able to vote in political parties that has absorbed the same ideas.
Of course, changes will be unimaginably huge, but that is the only way forward that I can see.
"Make consumers pay for the responsible disposal of all purchased goods". Alternatively, make manufacturers take care of each product they produce at the end of the useful life of that product. Not only pay, but actually dismantle them, recycle, reuse, .. Not just distribute and forget like now, but distribute for use, collect after use, and deal with it in a way that leaves no trace in air, water and soil (rather than dump into the air, water or soil of poorer countries, as is practiced by some). Every single thing produced.
Yes fully agreed. The responsibility should lie with the produceer. Of course, one way or another the consumer pays.
Thank you for your comment. It got me thinking and I recognize the shift of responsibility from consumers to producers is fundamental. Therefore I rephrased the sentence about consumers to: "Reduce and avoid waste by making producers, inside and outside of the EU, responsible for the full life-cycle of goods sold in the union"
It’s all a bit crazy, really, because we are not only producers and only consumers. It’s more like: at work we produce the mess, which we then need to cleanup in our spare time.
Well, not necessarily. I have avoided a corporate career exactly for this reason. That is not to deny I am part of the problem like most of us in the developed world. As a consumer I am often faced with sub optimal choices. For example, I am from Amsterdam but live in south Portugal. If I want to visit my friends and family in the The Netherlands I am almost forced to travel by airplane, as a train trip takes at least 30ish hours and would cost at least 4 times as much.
yeah, sounds familiar. What you have written, though, would be a top down approach - at least that is how I understand it. Is that how you see it too? I like the idea of participation of many people, in a kind of open space so that whoever wants to take part, can. Representation has had its day, the time may have come for participation to take over. Thoughts?
Not so much top down the way I see it. Coming to a shared vision would be an EU-wide participatory exercise (organized by municipalities? Taking advantage of experience from previously organized citizens’ assemblies on climate). Subsequent planning and implementation would be mostly decentralized with the EU providing a legislative framework based on the vision. But hey, I’m just making this up on the fly and would be interested how you see it
There is more and more evidence that it is Life that influences climate - life in the oceans as well as on the continents. In which case, it makes it easy to understand what needs to happen: we need to do everything that improves conditions in which Life thrives, and stop doing everything that makes those conditions worse. Keep that up for the next thousand years.
That will help reduce migration too.
The next question could be, yes, but how? The first step is to agree on that basic principle. Spread it, normalise it, accept it in minds of large numbers of people. Once the idea is absorbed into the minds of people, they themselves will see what needs to be done and what does not.
Once that simple idea is accepted by people, they will be able to vote in political parties that has absorbed the same ideas.
Of course, changes will be unimaginably huge, but that is the only way forward that I can see.