FIVE: THE NATURE OF A SUSTAINABLE PLANET.

Whilst the Green party has formulated a wide range of national policies it still hasn't outlined the nature of a sustainable Planet nor has it explained how countries around the world are going to live in harmony with each other and with the Planet. The Green party needs to specify the structures, functions and purposes of the global institutions needed to regulate the Planet's climate, maintain a sustainable Planet and protect the Earth's Biodiversity.

i) Regulating the Earth's Climate.

As has just been pointed out, if there were no humans around, the Earth would currently be heading back into the next ice age and vast ice sheets would gradually be spreading across the north american and eurasian continents. However, since the industrial revolution the over-industrialized nations have caused so much atmospheric pollution and ecological devastation they are not merely preventing the return of the next ice age they are threatening to create a global warming disaster. There is little choice about the matter. Humans have got to regulate the Planet's climate to prevent either of these extremes.

ii) A Global Scientific Council.

The regulation of the Planet's climate and the maintenance of a sustainable Planet would be carried out by a global scientific body like the inter-governmental panel on climate change (ipcc) - which, for the sake of argument, can be called here the global scientific council (gsc). This body would be responsible for setting the concentration of atmospheric Carbon and determining the scale of the Planet's Forest cover.

iii) A Global Carbon Audit.

The gsc would compile a global Carbon audit to measure the amount of Carbon on the land, in the sea, and in the atmosphere as well as the rate of Carbon exchanges between them.

iv) A Global Carbon Budget.

The gsc would draw up a global Carbon budget to determine the level of atmospheric Carbon and Forest cover needed to avoid an ice age or a heat age.

v) National Carbon Budgets.

The gsc would allocate Carbon budgets to each country around the world i.e. the amount of Carbon they are allowed to release into the atmosphere and their level of Forest cover. All countries would take an equal responsibility for controlling Carbon emissions and maintaining the requisite scale of global Forest cover because they all have a stake in maintaining climatic stability - although, as will be shown later, this would not mean that in the transition to a sustainable Planet all countries would have to reduce their Carbon emissions and Reforest their land by the same percent.

vi) The Age of Wood.

The creation of a sustainable Planet will mean that the current predominance of fossil fuels will have to be supplanted by Phytomass. In order to regulate the climate there will have to be a decrease in global Carbon emissions and wholesale Reforestation. Reforestation is imperative not only to increase the amount of Carbon extracted from the atmosphere but to increase the Planet's albedo. The consequence will be a dramatic reduction in the use of fossil fuels and a vast increase in the supply of Wood. The vast majority of raw materials, clothes, energy, commodities, and food would be derived from Trees. The role of Wood in a sustainable Planet would mean that the new currency of the future will not be gold, the dollar nor the yen but Carbon.

vii) Banning Solar Energy.

A distinction needs to be made between renewable forms of energy (Photosynthesis) and solar forms of energy (solar power, photovoltaics, wind, wave, and hydro-electric). Firstly, unlike Phytomass energy which renews itself when used, solar forms of energy are not renewable - they do not renew themselves. Secondly, whilst renewable energy produces only a limited amount of energy i.e. the amount of Photosynthesis that can be carried out by Plants, solar forms of energy are capable of generating astronomical levels of energy which exist in even greater abundance than conventional sources of energy such as fossil fuels and nuclear energy. The regulation of the climate necessitates a ban on solar forms of energy, except in a minor number of instances where they could help to control global average temperatures, because solar energy produces so much energy it has the potential to cause vastly more ecological damage than fossil fuels. The ecological damage caused by solar power consists of the construction of massive solar powered energy supplies e.g. the colossal hydro-electric power schemes in India (the Narmada dam); China (the Three Gorges project on the Yangtse); Brazil (the Caracas project), etc., as well as the use to which astronomic supplies of energy will be put.

viii) The Distinction Between a Wood Economy and a Solar Economy.

A Wood economy is correspondingly distinct from a solar economy. In terms of the supply of energy, as has just been noted, a Wood economy relies overwhelmingly on the energy created through Photosynthesis whereas a solar economy would rely on thermal energy, photovoltaic, hydroelectric, wind, wave, etc.. In a Wood economy the vast majority of raw materials, clothes, energy, commodities, and food would be derived from Trees. Whilst a solar economy would bring about a fundamental change in the supply of energy it would not produce any changes in the supply of raw materials, clothes, commodities, and food. A solar economy would thus continue to rely upon, and thus legitimate, the current ecologically disastrous ways of supplying raw materials, clothes, commodities, and food. It will reinforce and even exacerbate the exploitation of Animals. Solar power is not only a direct threat to the Planet's ecology, it is also an indirect threat since it depends upon many of the current forms of ecological destruction. The attempt to create a solar economy must be opposed because it will prop up the Animal exploitation industry.

ix) The Geophysiological Structure of a Sustainable Planet.

If humans are to create a sustainable Planet then the Earth will have to be divided into three geophysiological zones. I: Forest Zones. The Earth's climate can be regulated by varying both the amount of Carbon released into the atmosphere and the scale of Forest cover. Until the global Carbon budget has been worked out and more accurate measurements calculated, it can be suggested that one-third of the Earth's land surface would be needed for Forests solely to vary the scale of the Earth's Forest cover to control global average temperatures. II: Wilderness Zones. Given the Earth value of Wildlife species then one-third of the Planet's land surface should be designated as Wilderness and reserved exclusively for the use of Wildlife. This designation should be regarded as the absolute minimum for Wildlife given that humans ought to repay their geophysiological and evolutionary debts to Wildlife. III: Human Zones. Humans would be allowed to establish regional Wood economies only on the remaining one-third of the Earth's land surface. Although they would use another one-third of the land to regulate the scale of the Earth's Forest cover to stabilize the global climate, they would not be allowed to live in these areas nor use any of the Forests' resources except where it was necessary for climate regulation.

x) The Political Structure of a World Government.

Although the global Carbon budget would be drawn up and monitored by scientists, it could be implemented and enforced only by a world government . However, in order to prevent the world government from becoming a dictatorship a number of political checks and balances would have to be put in place. I: A Global Eco-Constitution. A global eco-constitution would determine the powers of the various branches of the world government. It would guarantee the geophysiological division of the Earth and thus the survival of all life forms on Earth. The world government would be responsible for protecting Wilderness areas. The global scientific council would work on behalf of, but independently of, the world government. Only the global government could implement and enforce global policies. II: A Bill of Earth Rights. A bill of Earth rights would determine humans' responsibilities towards the Earth and would protect individual rights. III: Regional Governments. Eco-constitutions and bills of rights are indispensable but, ultimately, they are only bits of paper. The primary check against a world government can only be political institutions. The institution best able to play such a role is regional governments (the size of county councils). Regional governments would be set up in all countries around the world. They would be the primary state institutions in the new ecological order and would possess the most legal powers.

xi) The Creation of Regional Wood Economies.

On a sustainable Planet, regional governments would preside over regional societies based on regional Wood economies. Each region would create Forests and draw their raw materials, clothes, energy, commodities, and food, etc., from the annual income produced by their Forests. Each year, regions would have to decide what their annual Phytomass income should be spent on. If, for example, the majority of people in a region wanted more of their Wood resources to be spent on providing fuel for cars then this would be quite acceptable - but it would mean there would be less resources left to be spent on new arrivals (whether kids or immigrants) or capital construction projects, etc.. Decisions about what would be done with the annual Phytomass income would be decided by a democratic vote of living in the region and the regional government would implement these decisions. On a sustainable Planet there would be no need for regional Carbon budgets. Each region would be able to exploit the Phytomass resources within their region as intensively as they wish because national governments would be able to use Forest thermostat zones to counter regions' impact on national Carbon budgets. It would only be in the transition to a sustainable Planet, whilst countries were balancing their Carbon budgets, that national governments would have to provide regions with a Carbon budget to determine the amount of pollution and the scale of Forest cover.

xii) Living within the Earth's Geophysiological Means.

It was noted above that the Earth has geophysiological limitations and that there comes a point when regions, countries, and the Earth, is full up. Just as it is necessary at the moment for individuals/corporations/political authorities to live within their economic means so it would be critical, in a green world, for individuals to live within their region's ecological means, and for the human race to live within its geophysiological means. If humans depended for their survival and well being upon the income drawn from their regional Phytomass resources, and if national governments used their Forest zones to meet their Carbon budget requirements, then this would automatically fulfil the objectives of the global Carbon budget and thus bring about climatic stability and a sustainable Planet. Human expansionism is currently causing global ecological destruction and transgressing ecological and geophysiological limitations. The primary check against expansionism would be the geophysiological structure needed to maintain a sustainable Planet. The second main check would be regional Wood economies because humans would have to rely for their survival only on the resources produced within that region. To put this as graphically as possible. Each year, say at the start of the new year, everyone in the region would go out into their Forests to collect their annual Phytomass resources. They would know that if they took too much wood from the Forest there would be less available for the following year. After collecting what they wanted, the Phytomass income would be placed in the town square so that everyone in the region could see what resources they had to rely on for that year. People would then vote on how much should be spent on the region's various activities. Perhaps they might decide the region should have more arrivals (whether kids or immigrants) or more cars (decisions as to who should have the kids and who should have the cars would be a separate issue) but they wouldn't be able to have as much as they wanted of both. In comparison to capitalism which promotes endless economic growth through the reckless exploitation of the Earth's capital resources, and in comparison to solar economies which seek endless economic growth through the exploitation of the astronomic power of the sun, a global system of regional Wood economies would provide only limited resources and thereby keep human expansionism in check. The massive ecological damage caused by the five population overgrowths can be stopped only by the creation of a sustainable geophysiological structure and regional Wood economies.