How to save the world? A global journey into making our lives better…

In our previous post about peak oil I introduced the concept of finite resources which may be a limit to growth, and described how important oil has become to our civilisation. What will happen if dramatic actions are not taken in order to address the increasingly limited availability of oil and other fossil fuels? The consequences of scarcity of oil will be dire. Basic market laws of supply and demand indicates that the decrease in production will lead to higher oil prices, and therefore higher price on all of the goods and service which heavily depend on oil, as I detailed in one my precedent posts.

As cost will keep rising and consumer’s disposable income will keep decreasing, we will witness slower growth at first, followed by foreclosures, recession, depression, inverted rural flight and a potential collapse of governments and financial systems.

A storm is coming, and some say that it will wipe our civilisation off the earth¹. I am talking about the progressive disappearance of oil.

I have been thinking and investigating the issue called “peak oil” for over a year now, and it is one of the reasons which started me writing this blog. Peak oil is defined as the moment where the maximum oil is being produced and the production starts it final decline.

There are indications that peak oil is either imminent or even may have passed a few years ago. Although the consequences won’t be immediate after the peak, on the long term they will be dire. We will discuss what the possible solutions to peak oil are in a moment but first, what are we talking about? Let’s start by a few facts:

• There is only a limited amount of oil on the planet – because the planet is round.
• The world’s first commercial oil well was drilled in Poland in 1853, and global production reached 4 million barrels a year in the 1860s² (one barrel is about 159 litres).
• Today’s production hovers just above 70 million barrels a day³.
• 2005 was an all-time high at 73.72 million barrels a day³. Production is nearly flat since.
• The Industrial Revolution brought a better understanding of how to use energy and allowed global population to increase ten times compared to what has been constant over millennia^4a, 4b. It is quite clear that our population would never have reached this level without access to all the cheap energy sources we currently have.
• Our industry, food system and economy have become wholly dependent on cheap fuel.
• India and China demand for oil is set to quadruple by 2030⁵.
• Some 64 million barrel per day of additional gross capacity – the equivalent of almost six times the daily output of Saudi Arabia today – needs to be brought on stream between now and 2030 (World Energy Outlook 2008⁶)

So if the amount of oil we have is limited, if our demand is exponentially growing and if production has been stationary for 5 years, how much oil have we left?

Cloned cattle have been the subject of some recent front-page coverage in Europe^[1a] [1b]. Meat from cloned animals has also been approved by FDA for human consumption two years ago^[2]. With this come the usual heard arguments: the pro-cloning parties say that there is no difference between a clone and its “parent” (or sibling?), in which they are right on a purely genetic point of view, and they go on saying that the Earth resources are limited (correct), and that we need to feed everybody (true but how to save the world from hunger is subject to discussion). Those against cloning point out that the long-term implication have not been tested (true as well), that cloned animals have a very high rate of abnormality (correct^[3]) and implies significant levels of cruelty to animals (correct^[3]).

But besides all of those perfectly valid albeit slightly passionate arguments I’d like to bring one which is not heard often, and the implications of which are rarely made plain enough. It is a cold, logical and scientific argument linked to the survival of the fittest theory from Darwin. But first, let’s take lessons from a troubled period of our history.

Slavery has existed since the dawn of our civilisation. Throughout history, various people have worked to abolish slavery, starting by Cyrus the Great, 6th century BC. However the Abolitionism movement only started to gain real momentum in the 18th century, and reached global status in 1948, when the United Nations adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which declared freedom from slavery is an internationally recognized human right.

However, until today slavery exist in every country and millions all around the world are trapped in forced labour without the right to walk away. To discuss this issue and how to introduce potential solutions, my guest today is Kevin Bales, one of the world’s leading expert on modern slavery. Author, professor of sociology and consultant for the United Nations, Kevin Bales is the founder and president the nonprofit organisation Free the Slaves. He has made it his mission to save the world’s last slaves.

Throughout history, the richness and health of their soils has made the underlying power or utter downfall of nations and empires^[1]. Over the past century mankind has witnessed an increasing trend towards top soil depletion^[2], threatening the very basis of our complex societies^[3].

“Soil erosion is second only to population growth as the biggest environmental problem the world faces,” said David Pimentel, professor of ecology at Cornell. “Yet, the problem, which is growing ever more critical, is being ignored”^[4]. It has nowadays reached a point where, to save the world from agricultural collapse, an in-depth rethink of soil management in view of sustainably improving soil fertility is needed.

I have already exposed in previous posts how good agricultural practices, including natural farming and the preservation of untouched spaces could contribute to a more fertile land. Today I want to discuss weeds.

Saving our world’s rainforests and their incredible beauty and diversity is, undoubtedly, one of the most important challenges of our time. The gradual deforestation process around the globe is easily ignored, but is significant enough to trigger the sixth massive extinction of species since the beginning of the world.

Stopping the world’s ecosystem collapse into an irreversible nose-dive requires more than dramatic action: it requires a massive culture shift. It requires us to learn how to live in harmony with and in nature, develop sustainable communities and develop a real sense of care for life in general.

Today I want to give a new community the opportunity to share their fantastic work on building and pioneering a sustainable way of life at the very heart of the rainforest. Erica Hogan has kindly answered our questions about her community, Finca Bellavista, in Costa Rica. Here is the transcript of the interview:

The recent events in the gulf of Mexico are cause for terrible concern, both for the ecosystem and for the nearby populations who have seen their livelihood disappear in a matter of a few weeks. This only remind us how helpless we are in front of disasters and ecosystem collapse.

There is no magic solution and the fragile ecosystem of the gulf will take time to recover, if at all. However, here is a clue on how we could potentially help the recovery inland, and help save our world’s endangered environment.

This tool is natural, safe and inexpensive: we are talking about the amazing digesting power of mycelium. Mycelium is the name given to the root-like system which support mushrooms (In actual fact, mushrooms are the fruits of mycelia).

Can the world be saved from hunger? To answer it I would like to introduce today the work of a true genius. His name was Masanobu Fukuoka. From advanced scientist to coming back to nature, this Japanese man did nothing else than bring to the world a real agricultural revolution, a culture shift capable of radically changing our rapport to food production.

The availability of organ transplant is a subject of major concern today: every 30 seconds, a patient dies from diseases that could be treated with tissue replacement. In the last decade, the number of patients on the waiting list for a transplant doubled, but there has been no increase in available organs.

And these statistics do not even start to consider people who have an amputated limb. Each year, thousands of children are mutilated by landmines in countries such as Cambodia or Angola, thousands suffer amputation, a majority of which is due to vascular issues but we cannot ignore armed conflicts and road accidents as other causes.

Yet there is hope. Really amazing new technologies are arriving very quickly, as you will see in the video below. We cannot quite reproduce a whole leg overnight yet, but there exist working solutions for most of the essential organs.

When the first humans arrived in the Philippines thousands of years ago they found a group of 7,000 islands remarkably rich in natural resources. The seas where inhabited by the globe’s most diverse communities, providing an abundant source of food throughout the year. The land was covered almost entirely by rain forest that provided them with food, building materials and seemingly everlasting supplies of clear, fresh drinking water.

Few countries in the world were originally more thoroughly covered by rainforest than the Philippines: Brazil has extensive savannah and brush, Indonesia has many dry islands, Kenya and Tanzania have only small patches of rainforest…

Because the sea around the Philippines is very deep, no path were open for wildlife to cross during ice ages, when the sea levels were lower. This resulted in a country that has more unique species acre for acre than anywhere else in the world. More than 510 species of mammals, birds, reptiles and amphibians exist nowhere else in the world. As a point of comparison, Brazil, often referred to as the “storehouse of biodiversity”, has only 50% more unique species whilst being 28 times larger.

Worldsalvation.info is now on .

Click on the button below to follow us and get regular updates.

Anyone who has lived in a underdeveloped country knows how corruption is both a source of poverty and caused by it. It renders whole state systems inefficient, generates considerable economic distortions and inefficiency, and only allows the strongest to prevail. According to World Bank estimate there is more than a trillion dollars paid every year in bribe worldwide, which amounts to a amazing 3% of the whole global economy.

Most of the fight against corruption until now has been down to law makers only, with little effect. In the midst of this lack of political will, Shaffi Mather from India came up with a really audacious business plan aimed at fighting corruption.

Here is one of the largest scale project I have yet seen to battle climate change. It is also one of the strongest in terms of hopes it generates.

Instead of using high-tech ultra-expensive only-for-rich-countries solution promoted everywhere, this one is cheap and benefit the poorest. In actual fact, it creates a proper green economy by taking a desolate arid valley the size of Belgium and turns it into a lush oasis of life and abundance, creating wealth and taking subsistence farmers out of poverty.

Desertification is probably the most critical issue that the world is facing. For numerous reasons including over-logging, poor agricultural practices, poor water management and poorness itself, the world is rapidly turning into a desert.

It does not need to be. The following videos prove it and show a way to solve the problem.

In these videos, Geoff Lawton, from the permaculture research institute, show his work on greening the desert. He proves that, when intelligently designed and maintained, a piece of land can develop into a rich, fertile and profitable ecosystem.

This short documentary creates hope for our planet. It clearly demonstrate that the need to turn down our way of life is a misconception, but what really matters to solve the climate crisis is the way we tend and manage our planet. Permaculture shows that instead of acting like grasshopper, men should act as the gardeners of the earth, as is advised in many of the traditions of old.

Civilisation is mostly about social organisation. Preventing organisational failure is therefore a must of protecting our world.

Further to my recent post on the power of the brain, I recently finished reading Guided Imagery for Self-healing by Martin L. Rossman, and I found it to be one of the most powerful and enlightening books I’ve ever read.

There are about 300-500 million cases of malaria every year, killing between 1 to 3 million people. It places a major strain on resources and considerably slow the development of countries in which it is endemic. It has been estimated that in some countries the disease decrease purchasing power by a factor 5, takes 2 points of growth, and costs Africa $12 billions USD every year. In some countries it may account for up to 40% of public health expenditure. In young children it can lead to brain damage.

In this context, GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), one of the world’s leading pharmaceutical company,

This may sound like an impossible dream, but it is actually feasible. Better still, it is already under way.

Recent legislations in Europe, USA and Canada prevent people from smoking in public places, which makes it possible for the first time to actually see on a wide scale what the effect of second hand smoke can be on health…

Here is a lovely example of a brilliant idea that help us rethink our approach to education. The town of Tulsa, Oklahoma, is the place where this unusual partnership takes place…

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

I do not generally like to relay bad news of any sort, and this is certainly not the subject of this blog. However once in a while it is good to face the reality of the world in which we live, specially when it is exposed by professionals who have acquired a great deal of knowledge about this subject. The following video gives a deep insight into the corruption of this world.

Here is a disturbing video about people using the power of their brain to heal their body.

We are educating children for a world that doesn’t exist yet. And in our rapidly changing global setting we cannot say what the world will be when our children will have to face it 40 years form now. Therefore the most important feature an education must have is making children adaptable and creative.

Our civilisation is facing some of the biggest challenges in the whole history of mankind. The only way we can possibly get out of the vicious cycle we seem to be in is by thinking out of the box and thinking creatively…

Willie Smits set out with a mission to save orang-utans some years ago. Facing tremendous degradation of their natural habitats, those intelligent animals on the verge of extinction are being killed for food, traded as pets or simply failing to thrive as their home gets degraded.

In the following video, you will see how the process of saving these creatures led him on to restoring the rainforest, creating job, preventing the creation of yet another desert and giving people and the nature a chance to develop together in harmony.

Paul Stamets makes an amazing presentation on an organism that is more often than not totally ignored: mycelium – the fruit of which are mushroom.

Believe it or not this is a serious scientific subject, studied by universities and hospitals around the world. You can get a good introduction by watching the videos below.

I like Hans Rosling. The following presentations are properly jaw-dropping. He takes the old myths about poverty in the world and shine a new light on them.