Earth Overshoot day – Who’s responsible.

Well today seemed a good day to write this article on our blog.  We’ve been quiet for a while, because changing the world takes time to plan! It’s Earth Overshoot Day, so it seemed appropriate to offload something I’ve been meaning to write for a while.

Changing the world and joking apart, if we’re going to change the world, we all need to do it.  It can’t be left to a few Politicians and businesses it needs you, the citizen, to engage as well.  Don’t fall into the trap someone else will do it, that is extremely dangerous and makes apathy the catastrophe we have on our hands.

Why change it you may ask? Consensus says we need to.  Check out what the United Nations say.   Maybe you need further convincing, perhaps at an International Level.  Check out Brookings.  We are trapped in a world of “irresponsible consumption” and are at the mercy of those who want only profit at any cost, to satisfy shareholders. As long as we want what they’ve got, we’ll have it and this has to change if we are to take responsibility for this and future generations.

Maybe thus far those of you who have an interest in these matters this will read on.  Maybe not!  However if you do I think at this stage we all need to ask who’s going to be in charge of change and our future? Right now, Money is the empowerment of those who decide, so perhaps we should ask, what if we can influence who has the money and what if we actually could get by without using it so often?  Now there’s an interesting thought!

Why you may ask? Perhaps because we should be aware that if 8 people own half the worlds wealth then that would tell us there are indeed inequalities to ponder and how perhaps we can begin to balance things out.

Do you know that 80% of the world apparently lives on $10 a day.   Ghandi said “there’s enough for everyone on the planet, but not enough for everyone’s greed”.

If true then isn’t it time everyone, including politicians and business admitted this and started to work towards a fair system.  Half a million people on average land on the planet, net of deaths and as it’s Earth Overshoot Day (1^st August), hadn’t we all better take a bit of notice?

Let’s keep a hold on the thought about Money, as we ask ourselves another question. What do we need to live happy lives in thriving communities?  I suggest Food, Shelter and Energy (FSE) are good places to start.   So, lets be honest, in all of those industries there are highly paid people at the top, and investors seeking a return on investment of their hard earned cash. Why?  Is it because they want FSE…yes…but maybe just a bit more as well, so that they can enjoy a hedonistic lifestyle or just to be sure they’ve got the best car, house…or maybe they just want enough FSE again.

I’m not labelling everyone like this, but is it Greed that actually drives society?  Those with the most money, want more money for the same thing we all want, FSE.  So it follows that as the chain drills down to you, as the citizen in your community to pay the bit that everybody adds on because there’s a bit of greed thrown in to the formula and of course it’s compounded because we all want the same thing.

So yes…I hear you say, it’s Profit but consider the formula Profit=Greed or Greed=Profit. Inextricably tied together so we can call it what we like, but I believe it’s the system we’re in and why we are obsessed with GDP at an International Level.  GDP and Consumption are partners in the demise of the planet. (That’s my quote by the way) ?   If you want to look at more sound reasoning on this and engage in a structured discussion about it, then check out Kate Raworths’ Article from Doughnut Economics.   I suggest that sorting out FSE, will bring us Well Being outcomes and this is a metric I hope to introduce within the scope of our own work.  EEESafe’s Social – Environment arm LocalitEEE has an objective to bring the wealthy and poorest into a partnership community model.  The new site should be opening around June/July 2020, where you can clearly see what we’re offering through our Award Winning and Scaleable Model.

So, as we consume, we pay for FSE and in almost every FSE provider, there are investors taking a little bit more than they really need, for the reasons mentioned earlier.

So perhaps by now the whole picture and awareness is painted clearer to you, although I accept there are many more far able to do that better than I am.  I hope I’ve said enough for the purposes of introducing our LocalitEEE concept from EEESafe.  This platform is designed and being designed from the ground up, to be citizen focused, incentivised and engaging for the things that matter to all generations.

It may interest the reader to know that our concept won an award for it’s design in the iSustain awards, see the short video.  (You can see us at 4.40 secs)  It may further interest you to know we had an offer of up to £2m investment from Centrica to scale up our model.  They run British Gas, in case you were not aware.  As a standard we are to White Goods, what they are to Gas Products. Rightly or wrongly, it was refused by us because I didn’t want to become part of the current system, the one that causes poverty and planetary challenges to this and future generations, demonstrable in the issues we see in Earth Overshoot Day and many Climate change sites due to over and inefficient consumption.

Digital Currencies

Many people will today be more familiar with Bitcoin and many different digital currencies, most of which didn’t exist when the concept was devised.   We always planned to introduce a Local Currency, dedicated to Volunteering and into a platform owned by local communities and for their benefit.  Geared towards a Circular Economy model, but not owned by the people who have all the money, otherwise nothing was going to change.  In recent years we’ve seen many organisations create currencies that you buy into, and like any stocks and shares your investment can go up and down in value so you may lose out as well as gain.  Each currency is linked nowadays to an exchange system and Bitcoin will likely be the most well known and like many, are very volatile. So if you’re going to tackle Poverty as well as Climate Change, it should be through a risk based model where the gambling arena, normally at that level the domain of the rich but now available to the masses with supposed good things coming out of them.  That may well be, but it’s not going to bring about the fundamental shift we need, and time is running short, if not gone.

So why are we different with our proposed currency, the EEECoin?  1. You don’t invest in it.  2. It stays the same price. 3. You don’t cash it in, which is what Centrica wanted us to do when we talked about their investment.  No, instead we create it by giving 25% in cash and currency to the local CommunitEEE from transaction charges from the LocalitEEE Community Shop.  With an online shop for every local electoral ward in the UK, (almost 9000) we can ring fence it and distribute regular issues of Cash and EEECoins to people where they live.  This is voted democratically by you, the community member.  You can buy it, but if you do we give 75% of the cash back to the community again, looking after the people who created it.  Businesses in the local community can also be credited for selling their goods, food and services to the local community.  They can even just purchase and the ring-Fenced Money and Currency will be used for local people, groups and charities.  You choose, not some corporate company controlled by its investors and those who have perhaps more than they need for FSE!  These are not our enemies, they are our partners and together we can adjust and balance for a fairer society together.

Based on a Waste Prevention Model, materials are yours to choose to do what you want with, even when it does become waste.  You can sell the sorted materials to the highest bidder and this through your own community owned receptacles, filled and emptied by you, the volunteers where you live, and who you work with in business where you live.

LocalitEEE will have many Apps that use the EEECoin and Cash, and it will capture many Waste and Carbon Saving metrics, including social and well being outcomes attributed to owners of the Community.  Transactions will be managed by your own Community Investment Card, digitally controlled in our Wallet and Blockchain based Model.  You can prove your volunteering and your contributions to your community with ease.

Access to the Platform is a choice from our New Appliance Safety Register, which is due to be upgraded from our previous one  and is designed to protect homes and people from fires from Electrical Appliance Recalls.  Additionally, this is linked to our forthcoming Qualification for White Goods Repairs, so we can generate more local jobs and increase Spares from Waste Prevention accessible to local EEESafe Domestic Appliance Technicians and Refurbishers.

It’s also our intention as a Community grows in use of the system, to give 2/3rds of all Transaction Fees to be distributed to Members of the Community.

If you are keen to prevent another Grenfell, help your local economy grow and bring our Micro-Grants to your Community, please get in touch.