The monetary system – our way of finding fairness in trade – is undoubtedly one of the fundamental cornerstones of human life. Normally, it is a functional system that has helped bring clarity to the way we live our lives.

By being bound to the rules of the monetary system – you have none or very little control over the value of your income. Your income can be the outcome of negotiations between your employer and Union representatives or self-negotiated. You may be self-employed, where your income is a representation of what you are able to take out from your own business. Regardless of you being employed or self-employed, the value of an hour of your labour is different depending on where in the world you live. Furthermore, the amount of money you have left to spend is dependent upon the amount of tax decided by the state. The value of the currency you are paid in will vary depending on which other country you go to and when you do so. Even if you are a super-entrepreneur, the value in the stock you own can dissipate as fast or as slow as it was accumulated – sometimes regardless of your efforts to intervene.

There is an intricate balance between our living costs and our incomes. If we have too much money to spend, the market becomes overheated and increases inflation. This has to do with supply and demand. The more demand there is for a product, the higher value the product will have and the more demand there will be for a workforce to supply the product. The increase in demand of the workforce also creates an increase in wages. The increase in wages allows for higher living standards, which raises requirements on the social welfare system. As the spending power of the population increases, so does the cost of all products available to the same. The result is an increase in the value of the used currency. The higher valued currency decreases the cost of importing goods but increases the cost of exported goods which in turn decreases the competitiveness and ultimately the profit from export. The added cost of the exported goods and the increasing cost of living– can either stabilise on its own, slowing the inflation rate – or evolve further into hyperinflation with risk of financial collapse.

The financial tool with which to control the inflation rate, is the interest rate set by the central bank. This interest rate governs the cost of borrowed money, not only for private citizens, but for general banks and the state. With a low interest rate, more money is left in the system enticing the population to spend more money, increasing inflation. Raising the interest rate has the opposite effect. After the 2008 financial crisis, we have even seen negative interest, meaning the banks are paid money as incentive to lend out money, and to increase the spending power of the state. Adversely, this tool, also helps to ensure the balance between living costs and income, so that there is no excess of money available. Without this excess of money, the population is practically trapped within a zone, allowing controlled spending but disallowing excess spending.

The driving forces of the global economy is the market. This is comprised of businesses that provide the products we need and want. This is an ever-driving force enticing us to spend more. These different forces can be described with the analogy of a horse and carriage: The horse is the market, the carriage is the people, the speed of the horse and carriage is the inflation and the driver holding the reigns is the interest rate set by the central bank. The road represents the financial challenges on the way. The part with least control – is the carriage - you.

In 2018 when the French president Emmanuel Macron tried to adjust fuel costs (as well as other tax adjustments) based on environmental needs – the attempt was slammed by the yellow vest movement, with resulting violent riots. The political tool President Macron used was increase in taxes. The problem was that the effected people were unable to afford the added cost. President Macron understood that it was necessary to invest in new technologies for a more environmentally friendly future. These investments costs could not be covered by the government – which is why the cost coverage was placed on areas of society deemed the most polluting. Thus, polluting becomes costly and helps to finance the necessary change.

It is within this vicious cycle that we now reside. We, the population, regardless of where we reside, are trapped inside of a measure of financial control. The same system is unable to fund the necessary changes we need to secure our own survival, due to the consequences of us adapting to the rules of the same system and opting for the most financially sound solution to our monetary standard of living. The only way to fund this shift towards sustainable survival, is as the French president Emmanuel Macron deducted, by taxing the destructive/polluting behaviour. The paradox is, this will require us to pay added costs, we are not allowed to have the money for, as measures to force us to choose the products that least conforms to market values. Returning to the analogy of the horse and carriage, this is like trying to get the carriage to pull the horse.

Pride of being a Swedish nationalist is definitely something that comes to mind when I think of Greta Thunberg. She is a courageous young woman that has voiced her concerns of our polluted and uncertain future.

When she was met by our worlds most recognized leaders and offered the opportunity to speak at the UN summit – a faint hope emerged among many that maybe, just maybe she would be the one to turn the tide and be “that one” to guide our politicians, and ultimately our human race, away from the environmental jaws of extinction.

But what could she really do? What match was she to the political heavyweight champions of the world?

Greta Thunberg energetically came out of her corner and aggressively attacked the inactions of the world leaders. Though, as energetic as a small child that has a seemingly tireless tantrum, her efforts have had barely noticeable effects on the world leaders on the big stage. The counterattack/defence was foreseeable; simply retorting  – “How do you suggest we go about doing this?”.

Politicians effect opinions and move money to key areas of national and international interest. Politicians are not magicians, and their job description cards do not match those of engineers. In other words – politicians do not provide answers, but they can act if given answers to work with.

Popular opinion governs political ability – and as such, also political willingness. Politicians are dependent upon popular opinions to uphold their political mandate. Any actions politicians take that jeopardizes their popularity are going to have an adverse effect on their ability to act.

The policies politicians enact during their guidance of our society are in turn dependent upon the ability to fund the same. This balance, that is created between the available funds to spend, the funds that can be raised from different political actions, and the generated popularity this in turn provides the acting politicians, is what lays the foundation of the political arena. As such – the two main things politicians dread the most, are policies that will adversely affect the popular vote and policies that are too expensive to see through. Greta Thunberg not only demanded both these things – but she also expected our politicians to provide the solution to the problem as well – which is an ability they simply are not equipped with.

With Greta’s increasing popularity, what other strategy was left for our leaders, but the actions that shrugged her off so delicately. Greta was allowed to be heard. Her voiced climate concerns were amplified in the unity with our world leaders, proving their sympathy with her cause. The final blow to our young hero was the subtle slide of hands, stuck in a rigid system of financial rules and regulations, the solution to the financial issues related to the climate concerns were left to Greta to solve, an obviously impossible task.  

I am sure that the K.O. of Greta was as unintentional as when an elephant tramples down a small snail. But without providing the elephant with an alternative direction, the elephant had no reason to walk the other way.

Solidarism is partly born from the hope that Greta created. But more than that – it provides a real roadmap for reaching the environmental goals we must meet. Most importantly, it provides the “how” and solves the issues associated with financing. Now all that remains for us to succeed is political willingness.

One is easily disillusioned by the extreme events happening around us. The sheer magnitude of the consequences of being infected with a virus like Covid-19 is just one of many such events. It’s much easier to disassociate with the reality of the threat and assume that the threat will disappear, or it will infect someone else – but not you, or anyone close to you – and if it did, the symptoms would be mild or maybe not noticeable.

Even with the Covid-19 (SARS CoV-2) Pandemic being upon us right now – with thousands dying every day – many people are unable to succumb to the reality of it all and accept that fate may soon be upon them. Denial is obviously not a preferred approach - Yet, what good will it do anyone if we all burst into a state of panic.  Instead – the right approach – which one must admit is being attempted at higher levels of government, is an organized and systematic approach where the threat is realized, and all available resources activated to deal with the problem at hand.

The infection rate and death rate of Covid-19 victims are measurable. By this I mean it is possible to analyse infection rate and death rate quite accurately by testing the population for infection and to determine if a death is Covid-19 related or not. Statistics for this are well documented. This allows us to see the threat level in detail, that Covid-19 poses. This is not the case with the current crises of global warming. The threat of global warming is actually much worse than Covid-19 and will, if not dealt with, kill many more. But the lack of visibility of this threat means it is also more difficult to accept.

From our perception of things, our global environment is slowly, but steadily changing. However, it is as Albert Einstein described things – relative. How well we perceive current climate changes will depend on where we live and with the relative frequency we visit other parts of the world. However, our human lives are short and our footprint in time is but a sudden flash in comparison to the development of our surrounding environment through the ages. As little as 50 years ago, so as to be able to determine what was really happening to our environment – one needed to look back in history to see how our climate had changed and cycled through time. This was done by the scientists of the time. Today, the rate of change is faster and more evident, so much so that the consensus of the world is that we are experiencing global climate change because of the effect we have on our environment. The rate of climate change is in fact not slow or steady – it is rapid, with an ever-increasing rate of change – meaning the rate of change is not linear.

Predictions of global weather, climate and sea level rise are disheartening at best. They rime well with any major Hollywood doomsday blockbuster. In the animated family movie Wall-E, the human species has ruined earth with so much waste and pollution that the earths’ ability to sustain life fails. But our species was saved from extinction – with all of the earths inhabitants saved by a form of Noah’s Arc in space – where we (humans) continue to live our lives as consumers in luxury. In the end of the movie – humans are able to return to earth after a natural restoration of the habitat.

In the movie “The day after tomorrow” the north Atlantic current stops providing warm water to the northern hemisphere – creating a massive storm surge and throwing parts of the world into a new ice age. Luckily, most people are saved – and the US is able to buy its way out of trouble by forgiving Mexico all national debt, allowing American citizens to move to the warmth of the neighbouring country and live happily ever after.

When in peril – we naturally resort back to the various life experiences that have formed us. Any parent will recognise or be able to look back at a (non-violent) situation that was difficult at best and recognise that the resulting (non-violent) actions were often mirrored from one’s own parent’s actions in similar situations. But with our modern media-drenched society – our memories are saturated with memories from movies. I am sure many can relate to several situations or phrases one has used/copied straight from a movie scene, or other media.

The successful series “Myth Busters” debunked many of the movie myths that had become universal truths. I am sure it came to a surprise to many when it was proven that cars do not explode when a bullet pierces the petrol/diesel tank. Neither are you protected from gunfire if you stand behind a door (unless it’s made of reinforced steel). Of course, there were many debunking’s of what was otherwise accepted truths from Hollywood movies. But some truths were not addressed – such as:  the “Hero always comes to the rescue” or “There is always some form of happy ending” or “at no time does everybody die”.

Derealization is a state of mind where one’s perception of the external world is that it is not real. To many, the global warming crises is perceived either as a conspiracy theory or as overexaggerated truths, marketed so as to further enrich the wealthiest 0,1%. Certainly, if everyone accepted the universal truth that we are polluting our planet, overheating our planet and causing mass extinctions to a level that it threatens our survival – then masses of people would be out in the streets, protesting and demanding change. At the very least the problem would be better addressed than it is.

So how does this relate to the current world climate crises you ask? It provides an answer – a thesis – to the question “why doesn’t anyone seem to listen to the outcries – we must do something to save our species from extinction”. We seem to be waiting for the “hero” of the hour to save us – that ingenious machine that cleans all that CO2 from the air, that other machine that removes all those microplastics from our oceans, that massive restoration project that saves our oceans from mass death and extinctions.

But this is no movie. You are not living in a Hollywood blockbuster. The air you breathe is still contaminated with nano-plastics. The water you drink is also, and still, contaminated with both nano- and microplastics. If you die today – and they perform an autopsy to look for plastics in your body – they will find them in your blood and in your tissue – and you cannot change this fact by changing channel. The worlds sea level is currently rising at 3,4mm / year (according to NASA) and the rate of sea level rise is also increasing. The food you eat isn’t the best food you can get. The things you have are not as good as they can be. The stuff we buy is made as cheaply as is humanly possible in relation to the target consumer. And there is no one doing anything to change this!

We - humans, already have the technology - but its too expensive to be used. You need to wake up. You need to help others wake up too. Before it’s too late.