Category: Earth Intelligence

The only thing more tired than the “sharing economy” meme might be this opinion. While there’s truth in what he and many others before him have said, his post throws the baby out with the bath water. It shows a shallow understanding of the economic transformation underway, and this being Slate, with millions of readers, could turn a lot of people away from an important change.

Who is the Real Sharing Economy Sell Out? Maybe the Media

EXTRACT:

Yglesias’ big miss is that away from the headlines about the latest tech wonder, a real sharing economy is booming. Member-owned credit unions recently earned record profits, member-owned cooperatives are proliferating modeled off the successes like Mondragon, The White House is getting behind participatory budgeting for local governments, 20 states are considering some form of public banking, open source software is eating the software world, and grassroots sharing projects like seed banks, tool libraries, coworking and hacker spaces are spreading like kudzu.

This economy is substantial. Taken together, credit unions make up the fifth largest bank in the US. Cooperatives employ 100 million people globally (20% more than the Fortune 500) and have 800 million members. Coops span major industries – retail, agriculture, housing, transportation, manufacturing, energy, telecommunications, healthcare, and more. There are over 200,000 open source software projects worth around a half a billion dollars. One study put the value of fair use content at $4.5 trillion, one sixth of the US economy. I’m just scratching the surface of all that we share. The mutualized part of the sharing economy dwarfs all the tech-based sharing startups put together.

Whatever you want to call this economy, it’s the real story. While our civilization approaches economic and environmental collapse, the solutions lay right under our nose. This is arguably the biggest story today as our survival may hinge on how this emerging economy unfolds. The question is whether the mainstream media will bring it to the attention of a public desperate for real solutions. If Yglesias’ latest post is any indication, they will pass it up in favor of click bait to boost ad revenues.

Read full article.

Wikipedia / Peter Joseph

There are, I believe, corporations that are functionally evil. BP is one of them, as is Chevron. Here is further evidence in support of my hypothesis.

BP, Chevron Accused of Illegally Dumping Toxic Radioactive Drilling Waste Into Louisiana Water
EMILY ATKIN – Reader Supported News/Think Progress

The American Gulag is a national shame. When I was growing up we used to judge the Soviet Union as evil in part because of its gulag. Ours is bigger, more pervasive and worse. Here is the latest on this trend. And once again, of course, it is all about placing profit first above humanity. It is America's besetting sin.

Food Behind Bars Isn’t Fit for Your Dog
CHRIS HEDGES – Truthdig

Another chapter of our past opens. It is fascinating to me that virtually everything I learned at school and university about early man has subsequently been overturned, and shown to be wrong. I consider this to be a good thing, and another example of why science and facts are important.

Neanderthals Used To Speak Like Modern Humans, Study Suggests
KAMAL NAYAN – Counsel and Heal

This is a very interesting development in science but, I fear, not good news because it may slow the transition out of carbon energy which is essential if we are to deal with climate change.

Scientists Cut Million-year Natural Process to Convert Algae Into Crude Oil to About an Hour
TRAVIS GETTYS – The Raw Story

The evidence of what climate change is going to do to the people and other beings of the Earth continues to build up. And the story just gets worse and worse. Here is the latest scientific report.

‘Whole World' at Risk From Simultaneous Droughts, Famines, Epidemics: Scientists
NAFEEZ AHMED, PHD, Executive Director of the Institute for Policy Research & Development – The Guardian (U.K.)