Economic Recession has a Silver Lining

If we think of the Earth as a living organism and the global ecosystem as a single system, then we can begin to understand the kind of damage that has been done to this integrated system in recent history. Humanity has been rapidly degrading the health and resiliency of this ecosystem. We have been abusing our home in ways that we would not consider acceptable for any individual.

To put it in personal terms, the Earth has been smoking far too much, drinking far too much, and she has been frantically tearing at her own flesh like some disconsolate teenager with an emotional disorder. The faster that the global economy grew in force and magnitude and rapidity of expansion, the more quickly has the environment become injured and altered and compromised.

However this careless and shameful destruction of the Earth has suffered a serious setback with the downturn in the economies of all nations and the global economic system which binds them together intimately. In one fleeting year we have witnessed a shift from nations squabbling over levels of reduction in acceptable pollution emissions levels, to a situation where these levels have been suddenly reduced far below anything Kyoto would have ventured to recommend.

Bureaucracies and bureaucrats like the Kyoto participants, discussants and signees generally lack boldness, imagination and courage. Their hands are tied by a variety of knotted issues, pressures and constituents to whom they are accountable.

We have been handed a reprieve and the Earth has been given a much deserved and needed moment to breathe and stretch and rest and recover some of its strength and vitality. It is being given an opportunity to heal and revitalize itself.

One year ago the cost of renting a large dry container ship was about $120,000.00/day. In less than a year, due to lack of market demand, that price plummeted to about $1200.00/day. The number of ocean transits has dropped off the charts as has the extraction of crude oil and use of petroleum products. Airline flights have dropped by almost 50% in some sectors. People are driving less, raping the Earth for plastics and metals and woods products less, poisoning the air less, blindly and irresponsibly spending [consuming] less. Everyone is quickly rethinking everything. Many are thinking about the "Re-Greening of the Earth."

We are now in a position where we can choose our future rather than blindly accepting that bleak and brutal and poisoned future that was being pushed down our throats by the corporate and political giants who have acted with impunity and without consultation. As Premier McGuinty of Ontario has recently observed, this economic 'downturn' is a grand opportunity for us to embrace a green economics model and build a clean and hopeful and successful and lasting future.

The Invisible Hand in the Market seems to have acted decisively to provide humanity...and Canada...with a much needed Opportunity. Now we must reach out and take it, embrace it and make it our Vision for the future we can and will build.

Environmental recovery and rejuvenation are part of the silver lining in the economic “disaster”.