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Pitch

The biggest problem in the world is that enough people are not working on the biggest problems.


Description

Summary

This proposal takes the view that radical consumption reduction, without a Green Economy, results in exploding unemployment (and an economic meltdown). There fore this proposal concentrates on ultra-pure 100% clean products and services.

We need to reduce greenhouse gases produced by and from the use of products and services. There are two ways of doing this. Either to promote the lifestyle of monks in a monastery, to reduce the consumption of products and services to a bare minimum. But this does not promote carbon neutral products and services. The original problem is not addressed. The more people there are on earth, the more GHG emissions. Sooner or later this road leads to planetary suicide. The second way, is to reduce the amount of GHG produced by the production and consumption of products and services. Actually we need to be able to produce and consume products and services with zero GHG emissions and zero ecological footprint. 

What we really need is to create millions of better jobs, millions of better paid jobs, create millions of jobs that actually fight climate change. 

Jobs are created from the economy, the economy works by people providing valuable commodities to other people in exchange for a price.

The key question if we are to stop the sixth mass extinction, to stop a runaway greenhouse effect,  is “Is it in our economic interest to do so?” 

 


Category of the action

Reducing consumption


What actions do you propose?

Proposed Action;

Gather a start-up team of committed and passionate people, to build a non-profit for developing and perfecting Green Businesses with the entrepreneurs. And engage the public to be members, backers, donators and customers for those businesses.

Explanation;

Are you a stargazer? Ever looked at the stars and wondered if there is life out there somewhere? 

But seriously, shouldn´t there be life in the universe? Shouldn´t the universe be teeming with life? If there are billions of galaxies that each has billions of suns, each with its own planets, shouldn´t the universe be bursting with life?

What if there isn´t any life in the universe because before life can spread, it kills itself?

Why would life kill itself? Why would life commit planetary suicide? What is the point in that?

It sounds so absurd, so, lets examine it. Lets examine you. What are you doing right now? Nobody can deny that today, this moment we live in is the pivotal moment on planet earth, this is the most important time to be alive in the history of mankind, and what are you doing?

It is perhaps the only possible moment in the history of history to make life able to spread out in the universe and not kill itself. But I bet, if you examine your lifestyle, the carbon footprint, the ecological footprint, you see that you are among the people who are fast committing planetary  suicide. At the most important point in the history of history, what do you find yourself doing? You are shopping, consuming, and living in a way that leads the planet, and life as we know it, in to an early grave. 

So, what should we be doing about all of this? We should be living with zero carbon footprints, zero ecological footprints. But is it possible today?

Plainly speaking: "Is it possible, can you become rich, really really rich by saving the planet?" and the second part of the problem: "If you spend a Trillion dollars on products and services that make people happy, does that help save the planet or does that contribute in its destruction?"

We really need to make it so that every time you spend or make money, the planet is saved by a tiny tiny fraction of an iota. We really need to make it a economic imperative to save the planet. 

Where do all other options lead?

It is now 40 years since the Club of Rome report “Limits to Growth” why has there been so little progress? Why are we so close to overshooting the the 2C limit? Why are we in danger of destroying the planet and ourselves? The biggest and the scariest threat we have is: "Will it be in our economic interests to destroy our planet, or to save it?". Will humans be a species that drives of the cliff. Or will we have the ability to drive off in to the stars? There is no middle ground, it is either A. or B. , that´s it.

Now, say you really wanted to live the "right" way. Live in a way that by consuming products and services your GHG, direct or intermediary, would be zero. If checking in to a monastery would not be a viable option for you, how would you do that? OK a few things we can guess, first make sure you use 100% renewable energy. Solar, wind, geothermal, that is easy. What then? You would have to take care of 100% recycling or 100% circular economy, that is a bit harder but yes, it is still doable, with a lot of effort. And after that? A Tesla, a Green Bank, divest pension fund investments from fossil fuels? How would you be able to reduce greenhouse gases, by consuming products and services that are always consumed in the everyday rutines of human life, if all products and services today, increase human activity that in fact always increase GHG  emissions? OK so here comes the tricky part, even if you had unlimited money, time, energy and expertise, it is not possible to live 100% carbon free with a 100% zero impact footprint in our society today.

Today, we have no chance of making it.

Why not?

We need products and services to live, period. We need other people to make and produce products and services so that we can live. We are not able to live in a complex technological society without the products and services other people produce. 

We need a whole array of products and services, we need banking, insurance, cars, roads, logistics, information technology, applications, pension funds, kitchen appliences, schools, libraries, universities, we need the government, police, military, raw materials and food, and fertilizers for that food, we need an entire ecosystem of products and services to be able to live our lives.

But every company, every job, every product and service imaginable is produced in the most cost effective way possible, today, this always intails exploiting the environment, overconsumption of resources, a carbon footprint, this is the tragedy of the commons.  

We are living in a world today in which the only way of reducing the ecological footprint and GHG emissions by the consumption of products and services, is to reduce consumption, period. Even if one company would be committed to produce carbon neutral, zero footprint products, that company still uses products and services from other companies that do not, that are not with zero carbon footprint. This means that there is no green economy, there is no 100% circular economy, there is no green growth. This also means that every time a human being is active on planet earth, our planet is destroyed by a tiniest of a fraction of a fraction of an iota.

But this is not necessarily our future.

Now, how do we change the game? Is it possible to change the game?

- Is it possible to live 100% carbon free, in our society today?

- Is it possible to live 100% without a ecological footprint, in our society today?

The answer is actually; "Yes we can!"

But to be able to do that, we really need a worldwide network of people and companies that go 100% all the way. Not just partway, but all the way, 100%. Not just greenwashing, but people and companies with a multitude of products and services that go 100% all the way. It is utterly impossible to do it alone, or even in a small group. But if there is a legion of us, skilled, innovative, creative, hard working professionals, yes it is absolutely possible to live our life 100% carbon free 100% zero ecological footprint lives, all of us. It takes a lot of innovation, completely new products and services, ingenuity and thousands and thousands of entrepreneurs, start-ups and patents and trademarks. But yes, it is possible.


Step 1.

Bring together a community of like minded startups or entrepreneurs.

Example: Go.Co


Step 2.

Build a network of angel investor, venture capital and mentoring.

Example: 500 Startups


Step 3.

Build startups that rely on monthly payments and ecological products and services.

Example: Pijon and Blissmo

Step 4.

Build a automated investment service for green investing.

Example: Wealthfront

 

And how to get it all started?

What do you actually need to get that ball rolling? That question: "What do you need?" is asked very nicely at Pix 21 Agency

Mostly the best way of being in business is to be in business, that means that what we are actually lacking is a service provider that has a fee of say 24,99/ month designing and perfecting Green Service or Green Product Business with the entrepreneurs (making a business better actually never stops).

Game Plan; teach the green entrepreneur to be self sustaining by teaching him/ her to be a web developer of his/her own webpages with say Word Press Avada Template

Designing and perfecting the green entrepreneurs business (web page design) would entail the very through examination of the following with the entrepreneur:

1. What is the one thing you want people to do on your web page?

2. What is your story to old customers/ new customers, what is the best visual way of telling that story?

3. Why do we need this? When is it good? An example of the bad? What is an FAIL compilation in your field of products or services. What is an WIN compilation in your field of products or services?

4. What is the one thing to remember about your service or product? In what situation are people in, when this should be remembered?

5. What gives a "WOW!-effect" in your field of products and services?

6. What Landing Pages (and SEO) do you need to reach the customers as mentioned above.

(there are more questions for making the business interactive etc. etc. but I believe you get the main idea)

As the months progress the green service or product entrepreneur slowly builds up his/ her own business and perfects it step by step.


Engaging the public

Now everybody don´t want to be entrepreneurs, so how can you be a supporting member? Actually My Charity Water has done a great job of getting members to commit themselves. Either by donations or by starting your own charity. These same methods can be used to engage the public to buy and otherwise support ultra-pure 100% green businesses.


Who will take these actions?

Who; the start must have a start-up team

Explanation;

Albert Einstein used simple thought experiments to verify his theories. Care to make a quick thought experiment?

Think of the world 20 years from now. How will the world look like 20 years in to the future?

From the IPCC reports we know that global warming has had its toll. The world will be warmer more unstable, there will be wars and population migrations, and there will be around 9 billion people living on it.

Now, what kind of companies, products and services are available 20 years from now?

Are the products and services the same as today?

Are the Fortune 500 companies the same as today?

Are the killer applications, record IPO:s, crowdfunding, angel investors and venture capital firms, the same as today?

If you are honest with this thought experiment, then you will see that much has changed in the world. Making money and using money, has changed. The economy has changed.

20 years from now there will be thousands upon thousands of success stories of entrepreneurs, start-ups, small business owners, large and small companies that went 100% to save the planet and made a fortune by doing so.

20 years form now, much of the economy today has been disrupted by a 100% economy of tomorrow.

How do we know this? What are the facts?

The facts still stand the same as was discussed before; either the economy learns to live in balance with nature, go 100%, or our species will go extinct. It is as simple as that.

So we know as an undisputed fact, that the economy, hundreds of thousands of success stories entrepreneurs, start-ups, small businesses, will make a fortune saving the planet in the coming years.

If we know this as an undisputed fact, there will be thousands upon thousands of success stories, of fortunes made saving the world the real question follows;

"What do you need to get started?" 


Where will these actions be taken?

Where: with the start-up team 

Explanation;

Neil deGrasse Tyson told us in the first episode of the series Cosmos that science is an incredibly powerful tool. Just in a couple of centuries science has gotten our civilization from an feudal society to the brink of being a space civilization. And science just needed a few simple house rules to do this.

House rules of science:

1. Test ideas by experiment and observation

2. Build on those ideas that pass the test

3. Reject the ones that fail 

4. Follow the evidence wherever it leads

5. Question everything

The house rules of Green Products or Green Services should be: "Perfect that business!"

We simply can not afford not to do so. 


How much will emissions be reduced or sequestered vs. business as usual levels?

Answer; 100%

Explanation;

What are GHG, how are they produced, why are the produced?

If you look at the big picture you will probably see that all GHG emissions are for consumers, consuming, the production and consumption of products and services. All GHG are done for human activity, in other words all GHG emissions are from the economy.

When the economy goes 100% then the world goes 100%.

There is actually no other way for the world to go 100%.

All of the GHG and CO2 emissions are from, or by the economy. Therefore we can reduce GHG emissions 100%.


What are other key benefits?

Besides preventing planetary suicide and creating a vibrant economy?

Well, lots of fun.

Explanation;

We know for a fact that without carbon neutral (and zero ecological footprint) products and services our species will commit planetary suicide. We know for a fact that without products and services that go all the way, go 100%, our species will indeed commit planetary suicide.

Green financing gets the economy rolling. Green Investment Banks are essential. But the only way of saving our species from committing planetary suicide is having truly sustainable products and services that  truly go 100%. 


What are the proposal’s costs?

More important is a passionate committed start-up team. 


Time line

That remains to be seen.


Related proposals

It is one thing to create or make certificates, a Green Building Council or create supply chain management, but it is something different to create a marketplace that enables truly 100% green business, to win.

Almost is not good enough. 70% is not good enough. 70% will not prevent planetary suicide. We need to go 100%, all the way. For this to happen innovation is good to have, finance is good to have, marketing is good to have, but if there are not any customers, there are no markets and there is no future.

We need to be able to make, create and share the market for truly sustainable products and services. 

 


References

Here is Michio Kaku the theoretical physicist talking about Birth-Pangs of a planetary civilization. The video is 5min and is well worth the watch  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tnmmnpj_pX8

And here Michio Kaku develops the topic further asking: “Will Mankind Destroy Itself?” The video is only 5 min and is well worth the watch.    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7NPC47qMJVg

Now, what is the key question that enables a civilization to make it to level 1 or not? "Is it in our economic interests to do so?" Here is Neil deGrasse Tyson on the three motivations to accomplish great things. He is talking about how to get to Mars, but the same things apply in saving our planet from runaway greenhouse effect or getting from a level 0 civilization to a level 1 civilization. The video is only 4 min and it is well worth the watch.     https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0CJ8g8w1huc

Why 70% of Fortune 1000 will be changed in a few short years. http://www.forbes.com/sites/nathanfurr/2011/04/21/big-business-the-end-is-near/ and why that has everything to do with entrepreneurship , innovation and making your own market  http://www.farlandgroup.com/2012/04/70-of-fortune-1000-will-be-replaced-will-you-be-relevant/

Twitter: @UnitedGEE