Steve Pope wrote:

> Dave Smith > wrote:
>
> >Oh come on Nancy2. You must have your head in the sand. American
companies have
> >bought up companies and property around the world. They and the
government have
> >supported corrupt and oppressive regimes in order to protect their
> >interests. They
> >have interfered in elections and had a hand in coups and even supported
> >tyrants like
> >Saddam Hussein. A lot of the goods now coming from third world countries
are
> >manufactured by American or other foreign owned companies who moved
> >their operations
> >there to take advantage of lower wages and lax employment and
> >environmental laws.
> >Saudis do own a lot of American business and American debt. You can thank
your
> >government for helping to keep the House of Saud in power.
>
> You're right. It's all dirty. The only fully ethical approach
> is to become an anarchist localvore dropout who does not
> participate in the economy.
>
> Since most people don't want to do this, the next best
> thing is to limit your consumption of evil-associated
> items like energy products and slave-labor manufactured goods.
>
> What doesn't add up is to be a mindless, prolific consumer and
> THEN complain about all the capitalist malfeasance around
> the world. And/or to assert that your own government is somehow
> less guilty of bad behavior than anyone else's.


Except that MORE people are living BETTER lives than at any time in history,
Steve...incomes are rising world - wide, and the number of people in poverty
is steadily declining (except in Hopeless Case Africa). This is all partly
a result of movement of capital and manufacturing cross - border..but
primarily because of the Triumph of Capitalism. Turns out that Reagan and
Thatcher and the Chicago School guys *were* right...

So it's a GREAT time to be alive...and even the UN says so. See:

http://www.independent.co.uk/environ...ed-866486.html

[excerpts]

"We've seen the future ... and we may not be doomed

UN report finds life is getting better for people worldwide - but that
governments are failing to grasp the opportunities offered at 'a unique
time'. Geoffrey Lean and Jonathan Owen report

Sunday, 13 July 2008

Humanity stands on the threshold of a peaceful and prosperous future, with
an unprecedented ability to extend lifespans and increase the power of
ordinary people - but is likely to blow it through inequality, violence and
environmental degradation. And governments are not equipped to ensure that
the opportunities are seized and disasters averted.

So says a massive new international report, due to be published late this
month, and obtained by The Independent on Sunday. Backed by organisations
ranging from Unesco to the US army, the World Bank to the Rockefeller
Foundation, the 2008 State of the Future report runs to 6,300 pages and
draws on contributions from 2,500 experts around the globe.

Its warning is all the more stark for eschewing doom and gloom. "The future
continues to get better for most of the world," it concludes, "but a series
of tipping points could drastically alter global prospects."

It goes on. "This is a unique time in history. Mobile phones, the internet,
international trade, language translation and jet planes are giving birth to
an interdependent humanity that can create and implement global strategies
to improve [its] prospects. It is increasingly clear that the world has the
resources to address our common challenges. Ours is the first generation
with the means for many to know the world as a whole, identify global
improvement systems, and seek to improve [them]."

What is more, say the authors of the report, produced by the Millennium
Project of the World Federation of the United Nations Associations, many
important things are already getting better. Life expectancy and literacy
rates are increasing worldwide, while infant mortality and the number of
armed conflicts have been falling fast. Per capita income has been growing
strongly enough to cut poverty by more than half by 2015 - except,
importantly, in Africa.

Even better, it says, "advances in science, technology, education, economics
and management seem capable of making the world work far better than it does
today".

Medical breakthroughs, for example, are offering the hope of defeating
inherited diseases, tailoring cures to individual patients, and even
creating replacement body parts. And computers are spreading even to remote
villages in developing countries and dramatically increasing in power to
provide "collective intelligence for just-in-time knowledge to inform
decisions".

The report reserves its greatest enthusiasm for the internet, which it says
is "already the most powerful force for globalisation, democratisation,
economic growth and education in history.

"The internet allows self-organisation around common ideals, independent of
conventional institutional controls and regardless of nationalities or
languages. Injustices in different parts of the world become the concern of
thousands or millions of people who then pressure local, regional or
international governing systems to find solutions.

"This unparalleled social power is reinventing citizens' roles in the
political process and changing institutions, policy-making and governance."

And this is happening in a world that is already becoming freer and more
democratic. Over the past 30 years, the number of free countries has more
than doubled from 43 to 90, it reports, while those that are partly free
increased from 46 to 60. Just over one-third of humanity still lives in the
43 countries with authoritarian regimes, but half of these people are in
China.

On the other hand, the report warns "half the world is vulnerable to social
instability and violence due to rising food and energy prices, failing
states, falling water tables, climate change, decreasing water-food-energy
supply per person, desertification and increasing migrations due to
political, environmental and economic conditions".

[...]

There are grounds for hope, however. The use of renewable energy is growing,
and China's largest car maker plans for half its cars to be hybrids within
two years. But the report's authors say that governments are not up to the
job: "Many of the world's decision-making processes are inefficient, slow
and ill-informed, especially when given the new demands from increasing
complexity [and] globalisation." They call on world leaders to do more
long-term planning, and to join in global approaches to the interlocking
crises. "Climate change cannot be turned around without a global strategy.
International organised crime cannot be stopped without a global strategy.
Individuals creating designer diseases and causing massive deaths cannot be
stopped without a global strategy. It is time for global strategic systems
to be upgraded."

Jerome Glenn, the report's main author added: "There seems to be an interest
in creating global strategies, but it needs a little push. There's more
within us now to collaborate in the face of shared problems."

Computer power

25 years until a computer's capacity equals the power of the human brain.
After another 25 years, everyone will be able to access processing power
greater than that of all the brains on Earth combined.

The great melt

5 years before the Arctic could be ice-free in summer. Sea-ice last year
shrank to 22 per cent below the previous record low, a level that had not
been expected to be reached until 2030-50, opening up the Northwest Passage.

Fossil fuel

850 coal-fired power stations are planned to go into operation across the
US, China and India over the next four years. Each station would operate for
about 20 years, greatly accelerating global warming.

Solar energy

25% of Europe's electricity could come from solar-powered stations in North
Africa by 2050. African leaders and aid organisations are to invest $10bn
(£5bn) a year in renewable energy over the next five years..."

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