To all who
made the Ecosystem Assessment possible
As a retired
farmer who owned and ran a large scale glasshouse strawberry enterprise in Essex
England, supplying local shops, market traders, and the large supermarket
chains, with high value out of season product to the consumer, and being
involved in the decisions of how to grow crops in a sustainable and ethical way
was very demanding if you stand from the moral high ground.
To me
farming is my love and life, with all the ups and downs of how plants grow
prosper and yield lovely fruits for us all to enjoy, It is this together with
my skills as an entrepreneur businessman, that made my business very successful
and the company remains in the forefront to this day under new ownership, That
gave me the vision and ideas I have arrived at since retirement.
My four
children, who are very supportive along with my wife who helped through all the
years of establishing and running a highly profitable business made me realise then
and even more now that I could not have achieved without the full cooperation of
nature, and natural resources we are all dependant on and of course my fellow
workers who were really all equal to me, as I certainly would not have been
able to achieve without them and an understanding bank to enable it all to
happen.
My Belief in
human nature is positive , otherwise we might as well give up now, but the challenges
that confront us are so huge, that I feel I have to intervene as no one appears
to be talking about the real environmental economic situation, , we have finance
ministers meetings, and we have COP, but they never look at each other’s
agendas and talk, The environment issues can only be controlled by bi lateral
meetings of all departments, especially finance and economics, with the
understanding of each other’s needs.
I arrived at
proposing a NATURAL RESOURCE TAX after several years of study at why we fail to
achieve our aims, and arrived at a point, that we do not look at the picture
from afar. Instead we are looking at solving immediate problems, and relying on
historical methodology to determine our ways of running society. To me,
civilizations have failed due mainly to bureaucracy and not enough workers; we
seem to be approaching this scenario fast globally with high unemployment, and
institutions and political leaders talking the talk but with little effect. What
seems to be happening is that individuals feel the need to be involved as no
one expert has the answers to the many insoluble crisis we are enduring and
facing.
This idea of
an NRT taxation system needs to be studied and evaluated to see if it has real credibility,
but to my eyes reducing bureaucracy,
enabling simpler systems to be employed and making the whole process transparent,
equal and equitable to all , is goal worth fighting for, what other choices
offer so much?
What Can We Do about It? Some Key Steps
Available to Reduce the Degradation of
Ecosystem Services
The Fundamental change required
is an understanding by all in society that we have finite resources and the
extraction and use of them causes irreparable damage to the environment despite
anyone’s individual efforts to help the situation. It is the case that we are now
all totally inter-dependant on each other for all our needs of life, from food
and shelter to art and culture, all aspects of life have this dependency on
each other.
The dependency demands that we should all act in unison in a
responsible way and have respect for each other’s decisions and actions, but at
present we all live in a real world where everyone makes decision just for
themselves and it is this that will be the hardest part to change to include
the rest of society in the equation also.
It is for that reason and to
save the planet from self destruction, that we need to act fast and make
everyone equally responsible for their actions, and by replacing all existing
taxes with a single tax on all natural resources (NRT) will help equalise all
aspects of environmental damage caused by all sectors of society, businesses
and individuals alike no one would be exempt.
Two other remedies needs to be
put in place alongside this, a
1.
A death tax to help
equalise wealth at the end of life, and help reduce excessive wealth build up
by individuals and corporate entities
2.
Total reform of
welfare to ensure the individual has responsibility for their own well being
and I suggest a WAGE FOR LIFE that is put in place from leaving state education
to death, and would replace all welfare and pension payments, thus making the individual
responsible to take early preventative action , rather than late fire fighting
action as happens at present. The individual would be responsible for
maintaining enough money for there own welfare and there would be little other
state monies available with the
exception of dire need and disabilities.
Change the economic background to decision-making
Change the economic background to
decision-making can only achieved with fundamental reform of financial institutions,
banking is one but it’s prime aim is to enable the status quo and advance it
with growth. Taxation is the only
mechanism we have in society to influence the way we all behave and at present
it taxes labour heavily and resources lightly, so it is easier and cheaper to
use excessive resources, this must be reversed to encourage employment and
reduce resource use.
Change to another Tax base, based
on NATURAL RESOURCES with tax collected from these based on the environmental
damage they cause by their potential and actual use. I call this NRT
The existing tax system is
corrupt and not built for the purpose of the Earths present and future demands,
Taxation is the only tool Man has that is generally acceptable and ensures people are incentivised
to do the right , or wrong, thing in
their decision making process.
This fundamental change would
change everyone’s behaviour and help to re-establish a fairer and equitable
society as everyone would be treated equally without exception, all would pay
the same taxes on everything. The
consumer is the polluter and they should pay equally for any damage they cause in
the decisions they make on purchase of all goods and services.
This is a mindset change for all,
for the benefit of all mankind and biospheres’…..
■ Make sure the value of all ecosystem services, not just those
bought and sold in the market, are taken into account when
making decisions.
This would inherently be a part
of the new NATURAL RESOURCED BASED
SYSTEM as everything that is designed,
made and sold, would all be subject to purchasing the raw material or the finished
product based on the raw materials used and the associated NRT tax paid for it
use.
■ Remove subsidies to agriculture, fisheries, and energy that
cause harm to people and the environment.
All subsidies and grants cause harm by
creating a climate of increasing growth, however, they may be used for short-term
help in areas of conversion and development of new ideas and technology.
■ Introduce payments to landowners in return for managing their
lands in ways that protect ecosystem services, such as water
quality and carbon storage, that are of value to society.
This should be introduced only to
revert lands into a former state that will be held under perpetuity licence to
keep and maintain the conversion in a state for long term benefit of ecosystems,
and local population.
■ Establish market mechanisms to reduce nutrient releases and
carbon emissions in the most cost-effective way.
Improve policy, planning, and management.
Under NRT, the true environmental
cost would be attached to each resource, Land, Minerals Air and Water. All
would have tax associated with their use and how the activity and use, affects
the environment. All in the chain of production from design to sale would have
to make real economic decision based on the cost of the products with their associated
NRT.
■ Integrate decision-making between different departments and
sectors, as well as international institutions, to ensure
that policies
are focused on protection of ecosystems.
This area would need finance and
encouragement, along with a full revision of patent and copyright laws to
prevent new ideas and technological developments from being stifled. Indeed we
need to ensure that any new developments are taken as far as possible with some
protection, but if it stumbles, it would then be released for anyone to try again.
Integration of decision making, is one crucial area that has to be monitored
carefully to ensure everyone has a fair and equitable chance of taking te ideas
to the commercial phase to ensure a return on investment.
■ Include sound management of ecosystem services in all regional
planning decisions and in the poverty reduction strategies
being
prepared by many developing countries.
Under this NRT regime, there would be far less
wastage of resources and everyone would be well aware of the consequences of
their actions, by being hit hard in their pockets. New management tools would
have to be developed to ensure that everyone had a fair and equitable chance to
play an active part in the decision making process and that full
democratic process and diligence took
place in implementing and maintenance of NRT
■ Empower marginalized groups to influence decisions affecting
ecosystem services and recognize in law local communities’
ownership of natural resources.
Empowerment to groups has been one of the
major problems in the world and has caused many disputes in the past, however
that said, there should be a full responsibility of anyone using natural resources,
that they are only a custodian for their lifetime and all resources are the
collective responsibility of all in society. Local citizens have a special
responsibility in resource management to ensure that they are not being trodden
over and that their needs are met,
especially in terms of noise, pollution, landscape and enhancing their general
and specific well being, with the collective responsibility of allocating and
using those resources for benefit of all.
■ Establish additional protected areas, particularly in marine systems,
and provide greater financial and management support to
those that already exist.
This would form part of a wholly
integrated tax system that is fundamentally embedded in natural resources.
■ Use all relevant forms of knowledge and information about ecosystems
in decision-making, including the knowledge of local and
indigenous groups.
Influence individual behaviour .
This principle of freedom to
access all information from all sources and to be able to use these to speed up
the development and commercialization of ideas and research is critical. To
this end The NRT tax would not reduce the overall tax burden and any increase
in revenue from savings made should be directed into research, economic prudence,
and commercialization, with mitigation
of environmental damage at its core.
■ Provide public education on why and how to reduce consumption
of threatened ecosystem services.
Under NRT, all within society
would all have a concern that any use of
any resource would have a consequence in their pocket, Education in economics and would be explicitly
linked with natural resource damage, and should form a fundamental part of any
curriculum.
■ Establish reliable certification systems to give people the choice
to buy sustainably harvested products.
Certification schemes mostly fail , in that
they are usually industry led and are hard to police , Under NRT , this would
be self regulating , in that higher priced goods and services would be visible
and show that they have used more resources and or used resources that have
highly bad effects on the environment.
■ Give people access to information about ecosystems and
decisions affecting their services.
Develop and use environment-friendly technology.
Again under NRT this would
fundamental, as all purchases would have to explain why they are the price they
are, so advertising would change in all recognition with encouragement from governments.
The whole mind set would change, and new ethos’s developed in education at all
levels, as the individual is dictating events as they do now, but with one
change of what and how we all spend our money. Money and the way we spend it, as
individuals and society as whole will dictate what happens to the planet, and
civilization.
■ Invest in agricultural science and technology aimed at increasing
food production with minimal harmful trade-offs. NRT would affect agriculture greatly in that all land
would be treated as a natural resource and tax on the land would be assessed,
based on the destruction of the land away from the natural form would assume if
undisturbed, with the proviso that nature needs a helping hand with water
supplies if it is to prosper and make a long term benefit to carbon
sequestration. Abandoning land in the hope nature will sort the problem out is
no solution now, and will not work fast enough.
Investment must Agriculture must
be to encourage macro and micro diversity within the cropping fields and to
increase carbon sequestration, to this end there has to be a taxation stick and
an investment reward, so taxation of heavily mono-cropping with little bio flora
and ability of carbon sequestration, and less tax for sustainable cropping with
high biodiversity and high carbon levels.
Any direct investment would be
aimed at R&D and investment in farmers support structures of education and
management techniques, Ant direct investment in agriculture should be limited and short term and aimed at the development of increasing
biodiversity .
Conservation and protectionism are
short term and no answer to long term development of the biosphere at large. They
are like a zoo, they help endangered species from becoming extinct, but what need
to happen is make new reserves, and eventually all lands under common or
private ownership will be bio diverse and rich in species and abundance.
■ Restore degraded ecosystems. NRT would over time restore many habitats by
incentivising all resource stakeholders to be far more environmentally aware of
their actions and remedy quickly so as to remain competitive, backed up with a full education program and
economic understanding of resources.
■ Promote technologies to increase energy efficiency and reduce
greenhouse gas emissions. Under NRT,
all technologies would be promoting a better outcome from resource use by sourcing
cheaper alternatives which in turn automatically attract less NRT as a result
of having less environmental impact. It would be in everyone’s interest to increase
efficiency so as to reduce the end price; reduction of energy use would make
the biggest impact quickly and has the highest return on ROI.
I hope you have gained an insight into my hopes and fears
for the planet through this process and hope we can enable a new way of thing
that you all suggest should happen
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