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!
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