Urban Permaculture UCBX Fall 2008
Creating Urban Regenerative Life
This group is for the Urban Permaculture Design Class in the city of San Francisco at UC Berekeley Extension. We intend to learn, share, build community and understand the permaculture design process so we can design our communities to meet human needs while regenerating and enhancing the Earth's ecosystems. We will use WiserEarth to share information and ...learn more
GROUP DETAILS
Created: Sep 24, 2008
Updated: Nov 06, 2009
Membership: Open To Apply
Semi-Private
Solution Info Edit Hide
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Problem [Edit]
The problem in today's world is that we strongly rely on a economic and financial system which is totally unreliable [20], unstable [21], unfair [22] and which enables ecological disasters. It lacks built-in responsibility for the participants to the consequences of their actions. Money and greed cause wars, poverty and starvation. Furthermore, units of currency have deliberately been decoupled from well-established units of measurement. There is most certainly not a SI-defined [5] unit for money. The financial-economic system is the world's largest and most important information system, but ever since the gold standard was abandoned, money has been left undefined and floating, subjected to symptoms such as inflation, deflation and speculation.
[5] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SI
[20] http://www.economic-crisis-explained.com/price-system.html
[21] http://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/library/news/dprk/2008/dprk-080128-kcna02.htm
[22] http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2007/aug/24/theperilsofinequalitymo
Action [Edit]
Our current economic system is held responsible for a series of ecological disasters. This system is also suffering from instability and experts are awaiting its full demise. In this paper we have identified the root of these problems: the monetary unit that is floating and undefined, and economic system lacking optimisation for recycling and energy scarcity. Instead of proposing changes to the current system, we have unrolled the design of an alternative: Rainbow Trading and the RGB unit of currency.
The RGB unit of currency uses a three-coin currency, enabling natural qualities to form the price. Resource-efficient alternatives will become economically attractive. Users of Rainbow Trading are encouraged to cooperate instead of to compete. The unfair system of debts and interest has also been replaced by open and transparent marketing and banking.
This system is intended to be introduced bottom-up. There is no need to wait for authorities to decide for its introduction. Unsatisfied users of the current system are encouraged to add to the introduction of Rainbow Trading in their locality. Freely available documentation, data and code will come in handy, but do require extra support as well.
Results [Edit]
Our current economic system is held responsible for a series of ecological disasters. This system is also suffering from instability and experts are awaiting its full demise. In this paper we have identified the root of these problems: the monetary unit that is floating and undefined, and economic system lacking optimisation for recycling and energy scarcity. Instead of proposing changes to the current system, we have unrolled the design of an alternative: Rainbow Trading and the RGB unit of currency.
The RGB unit of currency uses a three-coin currency, enabling natural qualities to form the price. Resource-efficient alternatives will become economically attractive. Users of Rainbow Trading are encouraged to cooperate instead of to compete. The unfair system of debts and interest has also been replaced by open and transparent marketing and banking.
This system is intended to be introduced bottom-up. There is no need to wait for authorities to decide for its introduction. Unsatisfied users of the current system are encouraged to add to the introduction of Rainbow Trading in their locality. Freely available documentation, data and code will come in handy, but do require extra support as well.
Limitations [Edit]
Please note what limitations exist that would make implementing the solution ineffective or counter productive? Are there any specific barriers to adopting the solution?
E.g. "The use of wood to cook can be highly culturally dependent. For example, some communities have specific rituals for cooking which require open fires, changing the cooking stove can change the taste of food and make it harder to prepare food. Be sure to conduct thorough test studies before implementing a large-scale project so that this solution will work at scale in your project area. We recommend adapting this solution to meet the needs of your situation – such as providing micro-financing to buy stoves in areas with incomes below US$3/day."
