It's the Climate, Stupid.

The economy is a financial shadow of the state of the physical world. Economics is simply one way of measuring certain activity here on a small planet on a spiral arm of a somewhat non-descript galaxy in the known universe. There are lots of planets, rocks, planetoids, stars, dust motes in the universe that appear to have little or no activity that could be measured in economic terms (other than zero) because the local climate and weather have reached steady states that are too hot or too cold for economic measurement.

We float around the galaxy in the goldilocks zone, neither too hot nor too cold for lively economic activity, yet when our economic house of cards starts to shake, we can’t figure out that the climate in the goldilocks zone is the ultimate free lunch and that economics are a shadow of the physical world. We appear to be willing to destroy the climate rather than upset the economic schemes of the dominant species on the planet.

Homo industrialis is a dominant and successful species, but maybe not too smart. We need to evolve to become homo sustainabilis or we kiss it goodbye. We better wise up soon.

Lots of weather news out there. The Rio climate talks were disappointing. No political will to re-order our priorities and realize that the economy relies on the climate, not the other way around.

Here are some news items about the weather, some things to think about as we enter the lazy days of summer:

• East Coast sees sea level rise – not a good thing. Is it related to global warming and the burning of fossil fuels? Yes. I will say it again. Yes. Burning fossil fuels is causing sea level rise. Time to stop equivocating.
• Here’s a piece on record high temperatures and storms in the east.
• Arctic ice is melting at record pace.

We have options. We have to look at ways to prevent capitalism, the church of the profit, from burning the house down while we try to live in the house.

Here is an interesting piece about democratic capitalism in Spain. I don’t know if this kind of thing is the answer, but it’s encouraging to see a less top-down model of corporate structure. Mondragon Corporation. Read all about it. Thanks to Alternet for running this piece.

Chris Hedges has a piece on Alternet today about Crazy Horse. It’s a good piece, but Chris is someday going to need to reconcile his “black bloc is a cancer” screed with pieces like this one where he glorifies warrior lifestyles. I don’t say that I know which approach is right. I agree with Chris on this article that includes a quote from the lesser-known Marx Brother:

Karl Marx was correct when he called unregulated capitalism “a machine for demolishing limits.” This failure to impose limits cannibalizes natural resources and human communities. This time, the difference is that when we go the whole planet will go with us. Catastrophic climate change is inevitable. Arctic ice is in terminal decline. There will soon be so much heat trapped in the atmosphere that any attempt to scale back carbon emissions will make no difference. Droughts. Floods. Heat waves. Killer hurricanes and tornados. Power outages. Freak weather. Rising sea levels. Crop destruction. Food shortages. Plagues.

Yep, it’s Monday morning. Time to throw on the office clothes and get the work week underway. Be careful out there. Stay cool. Keep cool.