Joseph George Caldwell
May 7, 2004
1. World Oil Production Is Peaking. According to leading
geologists, global production of oil will peak in this decade, and all
commercially extractable oil will be gone by 2050 (“Hubbert’s Curve”). See http://www.dieoff.com or http://www.foundationwebsite.org for details.
2. Pentagon Predicts Global Climate Catastrophe and Global Resource Wars. A recent report by the US Department of Defense warns that abrupt climate change is about to occur, and that nuclear conflict, mega-droughts, famine and widespread rioting will erupt across the world (see http://solutions.synearth.net/2004/02/23 ). A significant drop in the planet’s ability to sustain its present population will soon become apparent. Deaths from war and famine will run into the millions until the planet’s population is reduced by such an extent that Earth can cope. Future wars will be fought over the issue of survival rather than religion, ideology or national honor.
3. Large Human Numbers and Industrial Production Are Causing Mass Species Extinction, Loss of Biodiversity and Climate Change. The high level of industrial production is causing destruction of the environment and global biodiversity (loss of an estimated 30,000 or more species per year, in the planet’s so-called Sixth Extinction). It is the cause of the catastrophic global climate change discussed by the Pentagon. The current planetary management system of over 200 sovereign countries all striving to increase industrial production exacerbates the problem, which is steadily worsening. All national leaders are calling for increased industrial production, not less. Each year, the demand for energy increases. All countries are striving to increase national industrial production and improve material standards of living, even though and as this is destroying the planet.
4. Human Population Is About to Plummet. The human population grew from a few hundred million in 1650 to its present six billion as a result of the one-time windfall of energy from fossil fuel (particularly, in recent times, used for mechanized farming, insecticides, herbicides, irrigation, and genetic modification). As global oil supplies exhaust, the human population will drop from its current six billion back to the previous level of a few hundred million or less, since that is the level that can be supported by the planet’s recurrent solar energy “budget.” This “dieoff” is certain to happen, not just because the energy from oil will be gone, but also because mankind is destroying the environment and biosphere in which it evolved and that is essential to its continued existence. The human population has grossly exceeded the carrying capacity of the planet to support itself on current solar energy, and it will soon drop precipitously. This situation is referred to as Catton’s “Overshoot” condition. See http://www.dieoff.com for many articles on this subject. You cannot change the future to avoid the imminent collapse of industrial society and human dieoff. What you can affect is the state of the human population and the biosphere after that collapse occurs.
5. The Choice Is How Many People at What Level of Living. The planet’s recurrent solar energy flux and the biosphere can support several hundred million people living at a very low standard of living, or about ten million people at a quality standard of living. A continuing population of six billion is not an option. A much lower population will be a fact – all that can be affected is whether that much smaller population is as large and as poor as possible, or small with a high quality of life. When human population declines in a few years, there will be a choice: several hundred million people living in desperate poverty, or about ten million living at a good quality standard of living. The latter population is called a “Minimal Regret” population. It is a long-term-survivable human population that lives in harmony with the rest of the biosphere. (See http://www.foundationwebsite.org for details.)
6. The Current System of Global Anarchy Will Soon Be Replaced by Global Synarchy. The current anarchic system of planetary management – hundreds of independent sovereign nations, rampant economic development, massive industrial production, globalization, gross intermingling of species, and destruction of the biosphere – is self-destructing. Growth-based economics is like the bacteria in a tank of fermenting beer that eventually kill themselves in their own waste, or like a cancerous tumor that kills its host and hence itself. Explosive systems like these don’t last very long. If human society is to survive in an intact biosphere, a new system of planetary management will be adopted, that does not exhibit or embrace any of these destructive characteristics. The current system of global anarchy (“lack of rule”) will be replaced by a system of global synarchy (“joint, ‘together,’ cooperative, or unitary rule”), with a single planetary management organization that is committed to the long-term survival of the biosphere and mankind.
Under synarchy, growth-based economics will cease to be the basis for planetary management. Large-scale global industrial production will cease. The out-of-control anarchic system of multinational laissez-faire politics will come to an end. With a single nation, there will be no war. The human population will remain at a low level that does not harm or destroy the biosphere, but operates harmoniously as a small, integral part of it. The destruction of the global environment and the biosphere will stop. The mass species extinction will stop. We need the biosphere, but it does not need us – we will abandon our arrogance that we can control nature, and accept our role as a small and dependent part of it.
Synarchy is not to be confused with synarchism. Synarchism is control of the world by economists, financiers, and industrialists. It is directed toward the control of the world for the purpose of producing material goods and power at the expense of nature. Synarchism, like anarchy, leads to further destruction of nature, ruin of the biosphere and, eventually, to the extinction of mankind. Synarchy leads to a healthy, happy human population living in harmony with nature – a long-term-sustainable human population living in a species-rich, stable biosphere.
7. Democrats and Republicans Are in Denial over the End of the Petroleum Age and the Industrial Age, and Are Committed to Increased Industrial Production to the End. That global oil production is about to peak, and the petroleum age and industrial age are drawing to a close has been evident for many decades (Hubbert’s Curve was published in 1949). Both dominant parties in the US – the Democrats and the Republicans – are in complete denial with respect to this. They refuse to discuss it. All oil will be gone soon, but the two parties speak only of finding more. (We will find more, as current known reserves deplete, but we will find less and less, until we find no more and all known reserves exhaust by 2050.) In the last national election, all political discussion centered on issues that will not even exist within a few years. No discussion focused on the destruction of the world’s rainforests, the Sixth Extinction, the peaking of global oil production, and the imminent end of the industrial age. There was almost no discussion of global warming, its dire consequences, and how to stop it.
The current world system of government is incredibly destructive of both nature and human beings. The number of people living in desperate, dismal poverty has exploded – it is now several billion, and is increasing by millions every year. All countries, including the US, are pressing to perpetuate and expand this inhumane system, even though it means the destruction of the biosphere, more human misery, and the extinction of mankind within the next generation. If the planet’s biological diversity and the human species are to be saved, massive change will be required. Democrats and Republicans are not the least bit interested in addressing this problem. It is unpleasant to contemplate, it requires massive change, it is the “next generation” that will have to pay (and be destroyed), and, perhaps most of all – it doesn’t make more money! Catastrophes do happen! It is relevant to recall that in 1912, after a century of global peace, very few people believed that within two years the entire world would be plunged into global war. In the summer of 1929, most people did not believe the few people who predicted world financial collapse. The incredible aspect of the current environmental crisis is that many people have seen it coming and warned of it for many years, and their predictions of species decline have been right on the mark. Until now, it is the “other” species that have been exterminated; unless we change our ways, our turn for extinction will arrive soon.
8. Primary Objective: To Establish a Long-Term-Sustainable Society in a Species-Rich Biosphere. As global oil production starts to decline, human population will fall proportionally. As global resource wars break out, nuclear war will occur, and the current system of global government will collapse quickly. The old system will be replaced by a new system. The future will belong to those who prepare for it. The present system of anarchy has failed. In the near future, the planet will be under the control of a rational planetary management system – or human society will cease to exist. I am an American, and I will work to convince other Americans to take steps so that America endorses, promotes, and participates in this new system a long-term-sustainable society in a species-rich biosphere.
9. Please Support My Candidacy, and Have A New Voice in Congress.
This year (2004), I intend to run for Congress from the ninth Congressional district of Florida (Clearwater). This will be an uphill battle. Most people are either unaware of or are in denial of the fact that the industrial age will soon end, and they are in favor of increased industrial production even though it is destroying the planet. I do not expect many candidates with my views to be elected to Congress, because Congress is an integral part of the system that promotes economic development, industrialization, and globalization, even at the cost of extinction of the human race.
The US system of government is based on two major parties, and it is very difficult for anyone outside of these two parties to be elected. Both parties are totally committed to the global industrialization that is destroying the planet. Congress will continue to be controlled by the Democrats and Republicans until global collapse occurs. At that time, if nothing is done to prepare for a different, better system, the powers currently in control of the planet will simply try to rebuild and continue the system of industrialization that is destroying the biosphere, until it is finally destroyed and the human race made extinct.
If I am elected to Congress, I will work to raise awareness of the problem, and work for a solution – the establishment of a long-term-sustainable human society that lives in harmony with nature. I will work to establish a single-nation synarchic planetary management system in which a healthy, happy human society will live in harmony with a species-rich Garden-of-Eden biosphere. This society will be one without war, in which all human beings may achieve their highest levels of personal and spiritual development.
I do not ask you to send me money. I ask instead for your consideration. Consider the important issues discussed in this Position Paper, and consider me as your voice in Congress. If you decide to support the issues of which I speak, then I ask for your time and effort and commitment and help. Please think about these important issues, ponder them in your heart, talk about them with others – and act. Please register to vote and vote for me – if everyone votes for me who did not vote in the last election, I will easily win.
Do not worry about whether it is the Democrats or the Republicans that win the Presidency and/or a majority in Congress, because those parties are virtually indistinguishable in their views relative to the current planetary environmental crisis. It does not matter at all, from the point of view of the long-term-survival of the biosphere and the human species, which of those parties wins, since both are in favor of more global industrial production, which is the source of the problem. Whichever one controls the Presidency and Congress, the overall focus of the government will be the same – just slightly different ways of continuing – and expanding – the current global industrialization that is destroying the planet.
Do not listen to anyone who says that you are wasting your vote by voting for me, since I intend to win. Moreover, the issues presently being discussed by Democrats and Republicans will disappear in a very few years, whereas the issues that I am addressing will profoundly affect the existence and quality of the biosphere and the human species for all time. You are, in fact, wasting your vote if you vote to perpetuate the current destructive system. Who will speak for Gaia? Who will speak for the millions of unborn human beings and other creatures in the billions of years to come? I will. Will you?
The fight to establish a long-term-sustainable society in a species-rich biosphere will be very hard. Most people alive today are very much in favor of increased industrial production. All nations, all heads of nations, and all international organizations – the United Nations, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the World Trade Organization – press for more economic development, industrialization, and globalization. The forces of economic development and global industrialization are very powerful, and they may win, bringing about the complete destruction of the biosphere and the extinction of mankind. But it does not have to be that way. If enough people work hard for the goal of a long-term-sustainable society, it will happen. The choice is up to you.
10. Position on Other Issues. In general, my personal views are in line with a higher level of personal development – mentally, physically, and spiritually – living in harmony with nature, and an end to large-scale war and human misery. I have more specific views on many current social, economic and political issues. I am, for example, in favor of teaching ethics in school, neighborhood primary schools, free local public-health clinics, organic agriculture (e.g., Shumei natural agriculture), preservation of the family farm, elimination of battery production of livestock, prohibition of genetic modification, replacing the income tax with a value-added tax, zero immigration, official English, women’s right to choose and right to life, a strong military, preservation of global environmental assets by military action (e.g., to stop the destruction of the rainforests and other natural habitat and the extinction of large species such as whales, apes, orangutans, lemurs, and rhinoceros), the end of free trade (national self-sufficiency, end of NAFTA, withdrawal from WTO, the end of outsourcing of US jobs to foreign countries), no reparations or apologies for ancestors’ actions, end of the use of the Social Security Number as a universal identifier, and justice reform (elimination of all prison terms over ten years, decriminalization of psychotropic drugs, no contingent legal fees, no awards for pain and suffering, punitive damages paid to the state, no “hate-crime” legislation, end of affirmative action).
All of the previous issues are important to me today, and I am sure that each of you has a list of current issues that are of concern to you, in the context of your present-day life and situation. But all of these issues are short-term ones, that exist only in the context of our industrial world of today. And that world will soon disappear. All of these current issues of concern will be irrelevant – gone – within the next few years, as the industrial age ends. These and other current issues may be very much a concern to the current generation of Americans, but except as they relate to the long-term issue of halting the destruction of the biosphere, none of these issues will matter a whit in a very short time. The only issues that matter in the long run are those that will help guide mankind to a long-term-sustainable society in a species-rich biosphere.
Extinction is forever. The actions that matter today are those that will result in more species remaining in existence in a few years, when the current system of global industrialization collapses. From this point of view, I do not intend to waste my time – or betray your trust and confidence – by working on issues that will be irrelevant in just a few years. The Democrats and the Republicans can continue to discuss those issues, as in the past – they can continue to “fight yesterday’s war.” Instead, I will take positions on these soon-to-be-irrelevant issues in ways that provide leverage in obtaining passage of legislation that matters in the long run.
For example, I would provide my vote in favor or against passage of an increased military budget, if the parties sponsoring the bill agreed to work for military intervention in Brazil or Gabon to prevent the further destruction of the rainforests there – thereby avoiding the loss of tens or hundreds of thousands of species. It does not matter whether the residents of the District of Columbia have representation in the US Senate, because the US Senate will not exist in just a few years. So, I would vote for or against this issue in exchange for support on long-term issues, such as a bill to expand national wilderness area, or disallow drilling for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, or reduce the production levels of organochlorides.
The fundamental issue on which my legislative positions will be based is: what position will help – directly or indirectly – to reduce destruction of the biosphere, and reduce the likelihood of extinction of the human and other species. After addressing issues of vital concern, involving the long-term-survival of the biosphere and mankind, I will then address other issues of current concern to my constituency, in the context of present-day life. The issues of current concern to my constituency may or may not align with the personal interests that I listed above. On current issues, I will place the interests of my constituency above my own.
Do not be surprised or concerned if, in my campaign, I do not address many of the issues being discussed by the Democrats and Republicans. Most of the issues they are discussing have to do only with economics, and both of those parties will decide those issues on the side of increased economic growth and increased industrial activity. Almost none of the issues that they discuss are of any significance with respect to the long-term survival of mankind. The point to my candidacy is not to add one more voice to the conflict over temporary-context issues that will disappear within a few years. The point to my candidacy is to increase awareness of the global environmental crisis, so that the biosphere will be in better shape after the industrial world collapses, and so that that mankind may survive in a healthy, diversity-rich biosphere.
With the end of the petroleum age in a few years, most of the human population will be gone, as will most of the world’s nations. The crucial issue of today is whether mankind will survive at all, or be barely surviving in a ruined biosphere. All of the political issues that are “hot topics” today – the Middle East, unemployment, inflation/deflation, gay marriage, the death penalty, abortion, tax reform, AIDS, NAFTA, illegal immigration, unfair discrimination, Social Security, Medicaid, the Great Society, the War on Poverty, the War on Drugs, the War on Terrorism – will have long since disappeared. While these issues are important to people today, it is very important not to focus on them exclusively, to the exclusion of addressing long-term problems. All of these short-term, industrial-age-dependent issues will soon pass. But the issues of the state of the biosphere and the existence of the human species will not pass. Nevertheless, most people in Congress discuss the short-term topics passionately and endlessly, to the complete exclusion of the crucial long-term issues of environmental destruction, the end of the industrial age, the ruin of the biosphere, and human extinction.
While in Congress, I will work to keep the focus of attention on the issues that matter – the long-term survival of the biosphere and the human species.
Vision: A Long-Term-Sustainable Society Where Mankind Lives, without War, in Harmony with Nature in a Species-Rich Biosphere
My vision for Earth is the establishment of a long-term-sustainable society where mankind lives, without war, in harmony with nature in a species-rich biosphere. An example of such a system is a “Minimal-Regret” population consisting of a single-nation high-tech population of five million and a primitive population of five million geographically distributed over the globe. This is not the only possible solution, but it is a good starting point for discussion of the issues – it is, in fact, the only feasible long-term-survivable population system that has been seriously considered to date. That this population is of a feasible long-term-sustainable size is known, since it is the level at which the human species lived in harmony with the rest of the biosphere for millions of years. See Internet website http://www.foundationwebsite.org for details.
The current system of growth-based economics, large-scale industrial production, and over 200 independent, sovereign nations is destroying the biosphere, and, if continued, will cause the extinction of the human race. Please act to change this future. If you vote for me, you will help to bring this change about.
The end of the petroleum age, the collapse of industrial society, and the precipitous decline of human population are inevitable. What is not at all inevitable is the type of world that follows. That is what you can affect – you can help determine whether the future is one of a ruined biosphere and human extinction, or a happy, long-term-sustainable society in a species-rich biosphere. My objective in being elected to Congress is to increase awareness of the problem and discuss potential solutions; to help pass legislation that will slow the destruction of the biosphere (such as protecting and increasing natural areas, decreasing pollution, and the stopping of deforestation); and, in general, to take whatever action increases the likelihood of the establishment of a long-term-survivable human population in a species-rich biosphere, after the end of the industrial age.
You Can Help!
What can you do to help? There are several things you can do that would be very helpful. Please discuss the issues described here – and my candidacy – with your friends. If you have access to the Internet, become active in Internet discussion groups. E-mail copies of this Position Statement and my articles on planetary management to your friends. Please make 100 paper copies of this Position Statement and give them to your friends and neighbors. Ask them to consider these issues, and, if they wish to help, ask them also to make and distribute 100 copies. If just 1,000 people contact 100 households each, most of the people in any Congressional District can be contacted. Discuss these important issues in all groups to which you belong – school groups, church groups, social clubs, recreation / sports clubs, and office groups. Host a discussion meeting in your home, with ten or so friends. Ask them to do the same. Believe that this effort will succeed, and it will!
Ask organizations in which you are involved to invite me to give a talk on these issues. If you have visited my website, you know that I play the guitar and sing country music. Ask your friends who have appropriate facilities (e.g., an auditorium, a farm) to host a concert / rally. Come to the rallies. Write a letter to the editor of your newspaper or your television or radio station, asking for more coverage and discussion of my views. If you are not registered to vote, please do so. Please vote. Please ask your friends to register and vote.
And pray. Pray for understanding and for insight on how to bring about a better world. Meditate. Consider the problem. And above all, after you have considered the problem in depth, take action. The world is being destroyed by powerful forces – the forces of greed and materialism – but you can help save it. Please join me in this life-and-death struggle to save the biosphere and the human race. It does not require millions of dollars to win this struggle. It takes only thought and action. The solution will be spiritual in essence, not materialistic. All that is required is to consider the issues well, decide on a course of action, and do it!
If you desire additional information, please contact me at jcaldwell9@yahoo.com or at http://www.foundationwebsite.org .
Thank you!
Sincerely,
Joseph George Caldwell
May 7, 2004
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