p. 299 - 307   (David's sixth selection, out of six) :-

- Observe the precautionary principle in all uses of technology. This principle says, simply, that in assessing the risks of any technological expansion of our powers, the burden of proof of safety must be on those who promote the expansion, not on those who oppose it, as is normally the case now. Short of scientific and public consensus that the risks are acceptable, the proposed use should be forbidden. To a dangerous degree, the genie has long been out of the bottle with this principle (chemical manufacturers can release a new compound into the marketplace as long as no one has proven it isn't safe), but that makes it all the more critical that we put the cork back in. We've seen—and come to universally regret—the mistakes we made with nuclear weapons proliferation. We're beginning to see the magnitude of the mistake we made in allowing more than 100,000 synthetic chemicals to be produced and dispersed throughout our air, water, and soil, when the long-term effects on people and the planet have never been tested. In effect, we have alowed our industries to use us and our world as our guinea pigs—with no recourse if things go wrong. And now we're starting down that same treacherous path with biotechnology, in a reckless attempt to extend our agricultural capacity—and our population-carrying capacity—still farther out on a limb that is already breaking. It's time to reverse the practice of allowing transnational companies to patent and profit first, the worry (or not worry) about what the new chemicals or organisms will do to the planet's life.

- Look beyond technology. In the late twentieth century, technology came to be implicitly treated as the ultimate human achievement. (Yes, there are those who have warned us that it is not, but they have been easily marginalized as "Luddites"—or "extremists who want us to go back to the Stone Age.") Yet, a technology is only a tool, an extension of our hands, eyes, and ears. There are other kinds of tools that extend the reach of our minds and spirits. We have accelerated the development of those tools with the computer revolution, but it would be a mistake to regard what has happened on that front as anything but a beginning. ... our broken educational system ... What children need now is not more extension of their already vastly extended corporeal powers, but more capability to make sense of the powers they have.

- Begin complete materials and energy accounting in all human activities. From original extraction (minimg, logging, oil drilling, water harvesting) to industrial processing and manufacturing, to use of products and services, to final disposal and recycling, we need to establish a world-wide system for tracking all materials and fuels from nature through the economy and back to nature. The system needs to be complete, with no gaps for corporate or national secrecy, or shadow activity, or careless or surreptitious dumping. The system also needs to be protected from policies that would restrict scientists' access to information that is part of the common heritage of humanity. This database will be essential to the effective functioning of the new forms of governance we will be needing in the coming century.

- Move to complete financial accounting, in parallel with the tracking of physical and biological materials and of human labor. In the same way that not having to pay for pollution (as with CO2 "allowances") weakens and destabilizes the environment biologically, not having to pay equitable wages for labor (as with garment sweatshops) weakens and destabilizes society. The unpaid dumping of waste, or a low-paid exploitation of labor, is still a cost. At every stage where such costs are incurred, prices need to reflect them. In this way, hidden costs can be paid by those who are responsible, rather than passed off to those who are not.

- Move toward global information tracking, in parallel with materials/energy and financial accounting. Treat the integrity of public information with the same rigor as we treat the safety of food or drugs, since systematic misuse of information can do the same damage as deliberately poisoning or addicting. We need to establish the same kinds of standards for science reporting, advertising, and corporate PR as we do for publishing medical information. They have no less potential (and often more) to affect the lives of millions.

- End the private ownership of public policy. Environmental economists make a strong case that in places like India, Mexico, and Indonesia, where assets such as forests and water were once commonly owned, the appropriation by states and subsequent "sale" to private interests has destroyed traditional stability. Private ownership, they argue, should be reformed in two key ways: the price of ownership of anything physical or biological should include full costs of production and recycling to full future use; and certain assets that are inherently common assets of all the world's life—not just its people—should not be privately owned at all.
  Meanwhile, however, as we begin to understand more clearly that the assets are not just physical materials but the processes of which these materials are a part, the owners of the property have made rapid hearway in acquiring effective ownership of the processes as well. Ultimately this is the greater danger. ...[ref. mining law.] The same process can be extended—and is being extended—to laws affecting a wide range of industrial processes and communications services that affect what we know and believe. By controlling the information sources that shape policies, it is possible to control the human interventions that shape nature. To do that is to grab the reins from God without knowing where the horse is headed. Some call this reckless. Others call it blasphemous.

- Shift from the economics of liquidation to the economics of restoration and asset building. [a list of old and new industries.] Just as the human economy will need to better replicate the economy of nature to be sustainable, the information systems it uses for self-regulation will need to better replicate those that operate in nature—from the nervous and endocrine systems of individual organisms to the genetic adaptation of species. ...

- Reconsider "growth". In this we come full circle, to seeing the scale of things. Just as sleeping pills or vitamin A can be beneficial in one quantity and lethal in another, so it is with all forms of growth. Rampant growth in cells becomes a cancer; in algea it can become a lake-killing "bloom"; in population it can lead to implosion. In the human economy, an industrial metabolism that sucks up resources faster than they can be reintegrated into the natural environment can poison itself. It is not just unrestrained growth, but the ideological promotion of growth that has driven the spikes on which our civilization has been impaled.

Come back to the theme of the pervasive denial that lets so many of us believe we're not really responsible for the consequences of our choices—that God is, or that "human ingenuity in the future" is. The culture of high consumption, along with the conveniences of high technology, have made us accustomed to the idea that we will always be provided for. But that kind of passivity is a sign that we're in danger of losing the kind of instinct for survival—what author Jared Diamond calls the "cunning"—that has enabled us to make our epic journey across the millennia. If we think we'll keep on making it because we're chosen, we're becoming lulled by hubris; we're losing our edge. ...
  The vast majority of the species that have lived on this planet have run their courses and given way to successors, and we live by the same biological and evolutionary rules as they. ... If we can draw a generalization from several hundred million years of experience, it is that every species, sooner or later, either adapts to changing conditions or dies out. There is no reason to believe—it would be fatally arrogant to believe—that the human species is exempt from this rule. On the contrary, by hastening the demise of thousands of other species on which our food, water, and health depend, we could usher ourselves out along with them. ...

What will such leadership require? It will mean having the courage to sweep away the foolishness of the climate treaty's miniscule CO2 reductions and to go for a full phaseout of coal- and oil-fired energy systems—and their replacement by solar, wind, and hydrogen energy production—in the next 20 years. It will mean shaking off the intimidating tactics of anti-abortion zealots and instituting a full-scale, world-wide family-planning program to stabilize population the humane way—before AIDS, toxic pollution, famine, or civil riots and disruptions do it the hard way. It will mean redesigning all our industries and products so that the services we need are provided equitably worldwide, yet with only a fraction of the material resources used now. It will mean pulling in the boundaries of our cities and towns both to reduce the consumption of transport energy and land and to let nature regenerate. It will mean restoring the natural boundaries of biologically distinct regions, even as the boundaries of obsolescent nations continue to dissolve. And, it will mean overhauling our systems of economic incentives to reward behaviour that protects rather than exploits natural resources and that penalizes the heedless borrowing—or theft—of what is needed by other generations, cultures, or species.
  [Then a consideration of the risks, either of doing the above or of continuing as is.]

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