Some authorities (P2P) suggest using an alternative - energy Joule based currency, but probably this should be employed only in the case of complete sovereign debt collapse. Autarky, holism and planned economies have ugly associations with totalitarianism & this has to be avoided at all costs. However, both single cells & multicellular organisms are regulated entities. If it is accepted that our planet is an increasingly hungry, thirsty and overcrowded space ship, then some kind of generally agreed regulation becomes inevitable. Possibly each carbon neutral domain, or “symbiotic cell” (consisting of an autotrophic rural area balancing out CO2 emissions from the adjacent heterotrophic city) could be given the status of an ancient Greek city state. Nevertheless it appears that the whole planet is now on a war footing, not among ourselves (yet) but with melting polar ice. By employing a sustainability model based on the deconstruction and reuse of waste, using alternative energy, it may be possible to avoid the boom/bust business cycle of competition for control of natural resources and markets that usually and finally culminates in open conflict (petroleum being a particular case in point). I would like to suggest that each US State be divided into carbon neutral regions; cities or urban (heterotrophic) areas, using the existing federal system, where high consumption of alternative energy, as well as production of goods and services energy, are balanced by adjacent autotrophic regions (rural areas) which produce much of the energy used by the city. It is possible that the laws of supply & demand will automatically go into effect, curbing consumption of new raw materials when recyclable waste enters the material supply system. This should occur without regulation. If the energy from the sun is transformed into hydrogen, electricity, biofuels and net carbon dioxide fixation in autotrophic zones is linked to consumption of energy in the heterotrophic zones, then considerable progress towards both carbon neutrality, and autarky will have been accomplished without compromising democracy.
If the concern over climate change proves to be misplaced (though I note that for this August the volume of arctic ice is the lowest ever recorded, & appears to be dropping off the projected melting curve - see NSDIC), then a tropical rainforest model of sustainability becomes more appropriate. The rainforest, though sustainable, is not a totally closed system (migratory birds etc), though most of it's resources are indigenous. The forests various feedback loops, as well as it's multiple trophic levels, would seem to correspond better with the diversity of contemporary society & trade in rarer commodities could be maintained. Hence, using a rainforest model would avoid the problems of "command & control" economic & political systems associated with ships, aircraft or political systems of limited political & economic freedom. Foraminifera are common as sand grains on Indo Pacific beaches – hence to to misquote from William Blake, “to see the world in a grain of sand”, (and other unknown worlds also). The state as multicellular “super organism”(compare the Gaia model) need not be politically controlling if democratic principles are carefully retained within each “cathedral of sustainability carbon - neutral diocese”& elected officials and venture capital industrialists are given power to coordinate the movement of energy & resources. Environmentalism perhaps also can give new perspectives on both capitalism and communism as neither adequately address the problem of limited resources. If the ice continues to melt as fast as it has been, then we are on a war footing with our much abused, angry mother nature & this war may require emergency planning & coordination!
