We have to work within the confines of the planetary ecosystem—much as pilots have to work with the fact that they’ve got gravity on their hands, and much for the same reasons. The first priority of the ecologically available natural resources and activities should be applied to the creation and maintenance of infrastructure facilitating our basic needs. Insofar as the balance of the environmental footprint we can exert, it could be apportioned among all the people of the world to be used as each sees fit. People would be given a monthly allotment of footprint and this would hem in, define, the outer limits of their consumption activities. This quota would be determined by a global body. Every month, footprint credit is added to one’s account, adjusted to the current state of the planetary system and the number of people alive. The introduction of a footprint allotment for each person fundamentally alters the thrust of the marketplace. The incentive would be to purchase, and therefore produce, commodities and services that have a lower footprint price tag. It also means that a twenty-room mansion is far more of a liability than an asset. This wouldn’t just be a socially-contrived principle; this really is the case.
The first priority of the ecologically available natural resources and activities should be applied to the creation and maintenance of infrastructure facilitating our basic needs. Insofar as the balance of the environmental footprint we can exert, it could be apportioned among all the people of the world to be used as each sees fit. People would be given a monthly allotment of footprint and this would hem in, define, the outer limits of their consumption activities. This quota would be determined by a global body. Every month, footprint credit is added to one’s account, adjusted to the current state of the planetary system and the number of people alive.
The introduction of a footprint allotment for each person fundamentally alters the thrust of the marketplace. The incentive would be to purchase, and therefore produce, commodities and services that have a lower footprint price tag. It also means that a twenty-room mansion is far more of a liability than an asset. This wouldn’t just be a socially-contrived principle; this really is the case.