Here are the most important long-term obstacles that the Earth faces today to maximum sustained civilized life on this planet according to this author as of 12/6/19:
1. Global warming and ecosystem destruction
2. Irradiation of the oceans by nuclear contamination
3. Acidification and death of the oceans
4. Unsustainable agricultural practices
5. Unsustainable and cruel animal industries
6. Spiritually unsustainable living spaces
7. Manipulation of mass media
8. Nuclear proliferation and contamination
9. Unsustainable and cruel economic system
Here are the steps necessary to mitigate these obstacles according to this author (PNB) as of 11/26/19:
1. Global warming and ecosystem destruction
A. End of fossil fuel infrastructure and just transition to renewable energy
Immediate indefinite moratorium on all new fossil fuel projects except enough to preserve a tiny fraction (0.1% or some number that does not infringe on a goal of 350 PPM CO2 in atmosphere as soon as possible, as determined by scientists with a proven humanitarian bias) of existing usage.
All car companies must immediately stop producing gas-powered vehicles and must only make electric vehicles (similar to the WWII effort where all car companies immediately stopped making cars and just made tanks).
All cars bought from now on must be electric vehicles (contingent on supply).
Build-up of electric vehicle infrastructure (in the UK, there are already more electric chargers than gas stations).
This will create many new jobs.
Immediate indefinite moratorium on the flight of all gas-powered aircraft, except in the case of military self-defense, and in that case, only permissible if flying over one's own country or within a few miles of the border (self-defense).
People need to stop trying to have such a fast-paced, break-neck economy and expecting immediate access to all parts of the world.That is why we have such things as telephones.
For those who need to travel long distances, they should expect that travel time might be a factor, as it was a hundred years ago.
Regarding economic disruption that this would cause: see #9.
B. Ban on all fracking going forward.
All gas heaters and stoves must be replaced with electric and solar heaters and stoves and other technologies that do not rely on natural gas.See also #9.
This will create many new jobs.
C. End all fossil fuel subsidies.See also #9.
D. Build up solar panel farms and wind farms.See also #9.
This will create many new jobs.
E. Immediate indefinite moratorium on chopping down rain forests and other old-growth forests.
F. Tree planting programs.
This will create many new jobs.
G. Monthly assessments of progress made by scientists with proven humanitarian bias that will be available to the public and adjustments being recommended by these scientists.
2. Irradiation of the oceans by nuclear contamination
I believe this problem has been extensively
covered up by the current administrations to prevent panic.
This is an extremely difficult problem to address and assess in an honest way.
I believe this will require help from outside sources, such as friendly extra-terrestrial beings, God, or secret military technologies that have been developed and kept hidden by concerned governments.Whatever happens, it must be done in a completely transparent way that is open to the public.Otherwise, people will not be trustful and will not cooperate.
3.
Acidification and death of the oceans
This is caused by an increased level of CO2 in the atmosphere as well as high amounts of plastic and other garbage entering the ocean.
If we reduce our fossil fuel usages (see #1 above), this will begin to be addressed.
We will also need to start international programs of coral reef restoration.
We will also need to start international programs of ocean cleanup.
This will create many new jobs.
See also #9.
4.
Unsustainable agricultural practices
Immediate indefinite moratorium on monocultural agriculture and GMO's.
We will need to return to responsible agricultural practices such as regenerative agriculture.
There are certain untapped resources for food production such as seaweed and new technologies being developed out of NASA.
A diet of corn, beans, and squash, which are all local crops to the US, and the addition of some other local crops, is a way to feed most people in a sustainable manner without resource waste.
See also #9.
5. Unsustainable and cruel animal industries
The animal industry currently accounts for
30% - 50% of the problem of greenhouse gas emissions as well as deforestation and
ecosystem loss.It is also wasteful of food
that could be fed directly to humans.
Animals must no longer be tortured.
No CAFO's or confined living quarters for food animals.
No unnecessary antibiotics or drugs fed to animals unless to treat an illness.
Humane ways of butchering animals must be adopted.
Animals must be allowed to live to maturity with land to roam around on during warm weather.
Meat prices should be expected to be much greater and so society will have to live with the fact that meat is a luxury item with a high price tag and not something so readily available.
Certain allowances will have to be made for people who have digestive conditions where they cannot digest vegetables very well.See #9.
TV re-education programs must be instituted to re-teach people that eating an abundant amount of meat is actually a great evil (because of the tremendous amount of resources required and the inhumane suffering of animals) that they take for granted. This will require a massive cultural shift and re-education effort.
6. Spiritually unsustainable living spaces
Urban and suburban spaces need to broken up with always-open, 24-hour stores, coffeehouses, juice bars, and/or community centers open to the public and always staffed with at least 1 person at a minimum of one every square mile.This is a necessity for healthy communities. These designated people must be trained in helping people in the community and being responsive to their needs.
This will create many new jobs.See also #9.
There must be no more solitary confinement and torture in incarceration.
Every incarcerated individual should be assigned a councilor who talks with the individual at least once a week and assesses progress towards becoming a safe member of society. Jail and prison sentences should be considerably shortened at the discretion of these councilors, who should be able to go before a judge to have a prisoner released if the judge and the councilor deem it warranted, and the ability for the councilor to choose a different judge each time.
This will create many new jobs.
7. Manipulation of mass media
TV programs that are not ‘live news coverage’ must be completely reviewed beforehand by artists and/or health professionals with a proven humanitarian and scientific bias.
If they are showing content that is immoral or false, then they must be banned.
We absolutely must reduce the amount of sex and violence and disrespect and scenes of murder and scenes of gruesome horror and scenes of vicarious evil.
We must not allow horrors and immoral behavior and false messages to become widespread.
This ultimately contributed to the disintegration of the family, moral values, true faith, and of trust for each other.
No one organization or person can own, directly or indirectly, more than 3 mass media channels.
Every college and university should have a right to its own mass media channel.
This will prevent a monopolization of the bias and focus in the public sphere.
With better managed mass media, the general public could also be taught many useful things to increase the sustainability of our culture, such as about rain barrels, composting, and energy efficiency. It could be done in such a way that these lessons would be more of a primary focus and not so easily switched off and ignored and portrayed in such a way to make it look like it is just an amusement. In conjunction with #9 below, energy efficiency improvements could actually become more widespread even among those who previously did not have spare time or money.
8.
Nuclear proliferation and contamination
Nuclear exposure is not safe for biological entities, despite what a lot of false media and messaging is now outrageously saying.
Nuclear waste stays around for hundreds of thousands of years and must be constantly guarded from being used for a malicious or accidental catastrophic purpose.
Nuclear weapons are the bane of life on this planet and must be entirely eliminated and outlawed.
Nuclear meltdowns still occur; nuclear plants are not getting safer and safer and still can occasionally meltdown; and the result can be catastrophic and possibly even fatal for human life; as we have seen by recent accidents such as the Fukishima accident.
Do not believe the lies being spread by the pro-nuclear industry, this is clearly nonsense because nuclear exposure has been proven time and time again to cause cancer and other very destructive health effects.
Immediate shutdown and outlawing of all nuclear fission power plants.The accumulation of nuclear waste and the danger of contamination is too great.
Nuclear energy is anyway now more costly than other sources of energy such as solar and wind, so there is no reason to promote its use now, when other, better sources of energy can be made available.
See also #9 for ways to quickly ramp up sources of renewable energy.
9. Unsustainable and cruel economic system
The current economic system has the inevitable effect of making the rich richer and the poor poorer, in general. This is because most of the rich have the luxury not to have to work and instead spend lots of time researching and figuring out how to make even more money and they are also the only ones who can invest and literally make money just by having money, and they can literally modify the political systems through bribery and gifts to suit their goals.
Unfortunately, most of the people at the top of this system have proven time and time again that they are incapable of promoting the sustainability of the planet and the welfare of the majority of the people.
Recent trade deals like NAFTA have really hurt poor people.Most people are below the poverty line, some people work 2 or even 3 jobs for very little money, and very few people these days have any free time to spend on things that they consider are important.
The bottom line however is that the current economic system is completely unsustainable and cannot maintain life on this planet any longer.
Therefore, we need to institute a new economic system where everyone is provided for (food, clothing, shelter, health care and education) regardless of whether they work or are able to work. That means all expenses of food, clothing, shelter, health care, and education are covered for each and every person by the government, within reasonable limits. People of course are not going to be eating steak every day, they will probably be eating a lot of corns, beans, and squash. But once you lift the heavy burden of trying to make ends meet every day with jobs that are borderline slavery, people will become much happier and will be ready and willing to work on jobs that are needed to maintain the civilization.Also, with every job, there should be a little extra money earned that people can spend on things that are not necessarily needs.When people have more free time, there could also be a new explosion of art and a new renaissance of rich culture and development of creative faculties.
We need to give people this chance to prove that they will continue to work even if everything they need is provided for.That is because there is no other way to solve the problem of continuing and sustaining life on this planet.
We may need to make a new rule that every woman cannot have more than two children so that the problem of over-population does not become out of control. Children beyond the first two would have to be euthanized. This may be a necessary measure that must be made in order that we can continue to support all the people who are already alive. This is not cruelty; this is just coming to terms with the needs of a civilization that is coming to terms with exceeding the carrying capacity of its planet.
This means that the old system of money will be replaced by a new system of money. The money from the old system will no longer be usable in the new system.Essentially money will be much less important anyway.
To enact these changes, we will need the help of friendly extra-terrestrial beings, God, or the willingness of the enlightened status quo to step down and begin to work with us to make these necessary changes. We need this to transition to the new economic system.
If we do not make these changes, the entire human race is in danger of becoming extinct, because of the problems covered briefly in 1-8 above.
The new economic system will have to be carefully guided and taken along each step of the way and planned out and mapped and jobs assigned.For this, the best minds of the country should be selected among scientists, engineers, health professionals, spiritual or religious leaders, and common people who all have a proven record of a humanitarian bias. These people will work together to plan each step of the way. There will also need to be smaller groups of similar individuals in each local area.
We don't have much time left.The collapse of our current system and our current ecosystems may occur within the next 1 month to 2-3 years if we do not go down this path.Every day that passes, more and more irreparable damage is being caused to our planet and our ecosystems and many species are becoming extinct every day. The human race will probably go extinct as well if we do not start getting organized and really confronting the problems of our planet head on.