STATEMENT INTERSESSIONAL NOVEMBER 22:
Management by all people of the Earth’s System within planetary boundaries
The time for incremental change has passed. Our survival is at stake
Our present debt-based economy is threatening the very survival of humankind. For if by 2050, we do not drastically change business as usual, it is projected that the then existing temperatures will no longer support human life. This is within the life span of most of us in this room today. There would be no future generations.
Yet experts on Planetary Boundaries point out that if we can keep the impact of our activities to within pre-1950 levels, we will be creating an environment in which human life can flourish for hundreds of thousands of years.
Making the necessary change will require all people to participate in the management of the whole of the Earth’s System of which we are an integral part. For its present quality is the result of the combined actions of all of.
A number of Commons Cluster participants are exploring the following steps:
1. The Earth’s System is proclaimed a global commons to be managed by and for the benefit of all people and nature.
2. The use of depletable resources are strictly capped.
3. Each person could be apportioned a non-transferable share of the global footprint that would guarantee that human’s impact would stay within pre-1950 limits.
4. Instead of being taxed on our work, we would pay a fee for the use of any part of the global commons.
5. The monies collected would go to a Fund to restore the global commons and a possible basic income for all people.
6. The Fund could be administred by the UN’s Trusteeship Council.
We have a draft SDG on the management of the Earth’s System which describes our next step: supporting the formation of a High Level Panel to study the above and related approaches in consultations with people worldwide.
This initiative will succeed if enough of us continue our diverse individual work but at the same time all are dedicated to one common goal: the well being of all people and nature as a whole.
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