Money burns the world

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Hermann Knoflacher

Vienna University of Technology, Austria

: Expert Opin Environ Biol

Abstract

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The destabilization of the climate as a consequence of anthropogenic interventions is tried to be contained mainly by financial instruments. In doing so, the problem is attempted to be dealt with by that quantity which is the cause of the climate problem: the financial system which, with money not existing in nature, has set up an artificial quantity increasingly distant from the laws of nature, but which has become the guiding parameter of political action with the concept of Gross National Product (GDP) introduced in 1934. If one compares the development of GDP with the indicator for real progress GPI (General Progress Indicator), the parallel developments that existed until the 1970s separate from this point on: GDP continues to increase steadily, while real progress GDI stagnates or even declines. GDP, on the other hand, remains positively correlated with the exploitation of materials and the material footprint or branches of the fossil fuel industries to this day. When analyzing the time series of the above indicators with the ecological footprint, it is noticeable that at the same time as the divergent development between GDP and GPI took place, the latter exceeded the limit of the ecological carrying capacity of the Earth. Since political decisions are not based on the climatic and ecological indicators, but on the artificial monetary indicator GDP, the purpose of action is based on a monetary quantity. Thus, in the interaction of the Aristotelian four causalities, causa effiziens becomes causa finalis, i.e. the means to an end and thus detached from the reality of the natural mechanisms of life-sustaining systems. The theories of economics that emerged in the wake of the fossil fuel glut, such as the mysticism of the invisible hand of the market and/or the Economy of Scale or the Theory of Comparative Cost Advantages, neglect the connection to reality and have led to economic systems that inevitably contribute to conflicts with nature and lifesustaining processes. As a result, the dominant therapy of money-focused climate action today cannot achieve the desired outcome because it distracts from the real drivers of the destruction of climate-stabilizing processes. The focus on emissions neglects the many other drivers, such as tropical deforestation, desertification, soil sealing and denaturation of the natural water balance etc. The effect of money and the financial system can be seen for example in the cycle of tropical deforestation, through the profits from the sale of precious woods by corporations, followed by the profits of states through the financing of reforestation with which the positive feedback of the destruction of nature is continued instead of stopped. It is just one of many examples of well-intentioned measures that do the opposite of good. The effect of money is through the multiplication of energy slaves, a term used to illustrate the amount of energy of non-human origin consumed in an industrial society, which is highly correlated with CO2 emissions. "Problems can never be solved by the same way of thinking that created them." (Albert Einstein) also applies to this issue. Since money as a source of energy has not been understood and has been freed from all limits by the financial system, which inevitably leads to the burning of the world, even if it is used for climate-friendly measures. To escape this dilemma, a breaking of taboos is necessary in this system as well, leading to a paradigm shift to orientation towards life-sustaining processes, which are certainly not anthropocentric. Anthropocentrism is not a sustainable principle of evolution if it burns the lower and upper classes in which we are embedded.

Biography

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Hermann Knoflacher is University professor of the Institute of Transportation, Research Center of Transport Planning and Traffic Engineering, University of Technology Vienna (TU Wien), Austria. His Main research focus: Design of transport elements; Transport system user behavior; Trafficinfrastructure and mobility; Sustainable development of cities and mobility; Traffic safety; Energy-consumption; Environment; Basic interdisciplinary research, Human system behavior and evolution, dynamic of complex urban systems, sustainable urban and transport development, traffic safety from a system view, interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary research, building a sound-scientific background for transport and urban planning.