Positive Trends

My previous post concerned the signs of possible systemic collapse. There are some serious problems and I gave a brief overview of a few that merited watching.

However, not all is doom and gloom. There are some positive trends.

Believe it or not, the world is actually a less violent place than it was in the past. That includes everything from major wars to crime. The statistics show a general trend to a more peaceful world. Of course, that could change at the push of a nuclear button, but we've already survived decades of nuclear stand off. So far, so good. There's also the possibility that in a more connected world, it's harder to look at other people as being less than human. That makes it harder to hate them.

We've never been connected to more information and people. That's huge. Really good ideas can easily sweep the world. Best practices can be shared and adopted everywhere. People can see something great and decide they want that for themselves. It's never been easier for people to self educate. No need to hole up in a library when the world's information is available on your phone.

Most people don't realize how quickly we are moving to sustainable energy. Solar and wind are no longer “alternative energy.” In many places they are the cheapest and best solution. Prices keep dropping.

Electric transportation is growing by leaps and bounds. We think of things like electric cars, but electric buses, trucks, and scooters will probably have a faster impact. Electric buses make sense as they travel fairly short routes in urban areas. Electric trucks will be short haul at first, but since their operating cost is lower than fossil fuels, there's incentive to expand as quickly as possible. Electric scooters will have a huge impact in places like India and China, where scooter transportation is common.

Food problems? The world has enough food for everyone. The problems mostly concern storage and transportation.

There will be financial upsets in the future. The business cycle has not be abolished. Fiat currencies have a finite lifespan. Some bad times appear to be unavoidable. A financial crisis just might be the stimulus for the development and implementation of a saner financial system. A system that concentrates most of the world's wealth to fewer and fewer people does not make sense. None of the current economic systems appear to have all the answers. Perhaps pulling the best elements from many systems could do the job.

So there you have it. I'm not totally a doomer. I've got hope . . . and preps, just in case.

-Sixbears

Possible game changers

Visions of the future can be pretty bleak. Resource depletion and environmental degradation are real. Some sort of major financial collapse appears to be baked in the cake. Leaders care more for a tiny elite than the regular citizens. I could go on, but you get the idea.

There are technological breakthroughs that can make a big difference. Solar electric has come down in price to the point where it can compete in some markets directly with fossil fuels. Economies of scale along with the best available processes will drop the price even further. That's all happening now.

Then we Elon Musk. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elon_Musk Sure the guy's rich and is involved in some far out ventures like SpaceX and the Tesla electric car. Now that stuff is cool, but for me a real game changer is releasing over 500 patents to the general public. This is huge. At the very least it will give a boost to other companies. They will not have to try to reinvent the wheel. I'm hopeful that the ramifications will be larger than the patents themselves. He sets a good example that doing things to advance humanity are more important than corporate trade secrets.

Then there's the world of money and investment. I'm encouraged by the proliferation of companies that are looking to profit from alternative energy and conservation. One model is for companies to do energy efficiency upgrades and/or alternative energy projects for homes and businesses. The property owner pays no money up front. The upgrades are paid for with savings from lower energy costs. It's a win win. The property owner saves money on energy and eventually owns the equipment. The installation company gets a better return on investment than they would from a bank.

A few years ago I hadn't even heard the word permaculture. Now I know people with permaculture certifications and who are putting those skills into practice. Sustainable agriculture is possible. The world does not have to starve.

There are tools and techniques available to make a better world. Will we use them?

-Sixbears

Rice farmer

This article caught my eye. It's about a way farmers are significantly increasing the yield of rice and other crops. There's no special soil additives, pesticides, or GMOS. It's a pretty low tech planting and field management system that works. No one has to buy anything or pay a license fee.

There are countries backing the method and millions are now using it. This is huge. One of the arguments against the system is that so far it hasn't scaled up well to big commercial operations. I looked at that as a plus. Nothing wrong with the little guy getting the advantage once in a while. I see a lot of articles and videos about problems that plague the common people. Rarely do I see solutions.

-Sixbears