Friday 7 March 2014

Soil Management, who is and should be responsible?

Soil Management, who is and should be responsible?
Is it the land owner, tenant farmer, contractor, hose owner, town planner, architect, etc.

There appears to be a huge gap in who is responsible for land and its use and the damage its use will do to the wider environment and climate.

Despite having departments for all sorts of aspects of soil use and management  . there is no one taking the responsibility for the long-term damage that land uses are causing.There is no penalty for denuding soils of its ability to sustain life  caused by over cultivating, grazing, building to many concrete roads buildings etc.

I believe if we were to replace all existing taxes with a single Natural Resource Tax , that is calculated based on the  damage caused by the resources use would solve many of today's problems.

To idealistic say some , but if we look at the alternatives of the status quo , then we have a system which is highly complicated , few understand and many abuse defraud, evade to ensure there nest is lined at the expense of others and the planet.

Having a single tax system with a single issue at its core, that of "sustainability in all we do", then everyone from landowner to consumer will be made so much  more aware of the damaged caused by misuse, over use of all natural resources. Indeed the consumer will only be paying tax for all the damage they cause to the environment and planet and nothing else.

Obviously having such a simplified taxation system that replaces all existing system will mean that other issues will be raised, such as inheritance , so I also propose a death tax that would prevent excessive wealth from being passed on , as gross wealth has probably caused the greater amount of environmental damage in sheer amount and therefore  that inheritance should be taxed to reflect this  and at the same time to help rebalance the social imbalance within society.

So to address the problem of who is responsible. We all are , and it will not really change until we all pay something for the huge clean up and change in the way we all design, manufacture, retail, and consume,the goods and services we all want and need.

With the population ever increasing, there will be an increasing mismatch between mankind and its available resources, to enable a better match a fundamental way has to be found to restrict resource use and enable new technologies to find better ways of recycling and reuse of materials that have so much embedded energy in them, which is wasted.

We need all mankind to take the responsibility  equally,  and only by making each and every individual directly responsible through their consumption habits  will there be any real reduction in environment disasters and catastrophic end to mankind.

I have children and grandchildren and sincerely hope that they can have a life that is sustainable and rewarding, and to that end I feel we must bring an end to a tax system that maintains a policy of cheap resources and expensive labour , it would be bet to reverse this and make labour cheaper to maintain employment and social harmony and make resources more expensive so we don't squander them like we do now.

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