A New World Order - Part One

The notion of a World Government has been around since the 14th Century when Dante wrote "Monarchia", and has since been explored by great thinkers such as Grotius and Kant. More recently George Bush Snr, not his simian half-wit offspring, has also been musing on the idea of a New World Order. Unfortunately, given the current mistrust of American domination of the planet, his version was somewhat ignored.

However, I do feel the need has come for a World Government. This planet is fucked and, unless we do something about it quickly, so are we. The domination of the multi-national corporation means that the exploitation of the planet's resources is likely to continue unchecked. This is unsustainable. A World Government with an ethical living agenda is required urgently.

We have already seen the deforestation of large areas of the rain forest. The so-called "lungs of the planet" are being removed by lumber companies, on behalf of cattle companies, who need more space to keep the herds required by hamburger companies, to feed the demands of already obese consumers on other continents. I'm not suggesting everyone should become a vegetarian, but a reduction in food miles and a move towards quality rather than quantity would surely help.

During the mass production of food in the 50s through to the 90s there was a tacit assumption that the results justified the methods. Farmland was soaked with liquid fertiliser to increase productivity, crops (and surrounding land) were aggresively sprayed with chemicals to protect them from natural diseases and hedgerows removed to allow larger machinery to increase productivity further. The water tables around these farms have been polluted, the diseases have become resistant, and the wildlife that creates the eco-structure around the land have been forced out of their natural habitat or poisoned.

There's a slow but increasing move back to organic farming methods and a crop rotation system that wouldn't be unusual to the Romans. You may get slightly less back, but the damage to the enviroment has been reduced significantly. The same is true in fishing, where the traditional method of line catching reduces the overall number of fish caught, but allows the fisherman to throw back anything undersize. The huge drift net fleets catch anything and everything and have contributed massively to the depopulation of North Atlantic Cod, whilst drag netting has damaged the seabed.

There may be less food, but it will be ethically produced and not as damaging to the environment as the stuff currently available. Now all we need to do is reduce the number of people, which is probably where America can help.