The Abstraction

Money is nothing more than a term which represents an abstract form of exchange of labour for purchasing power. This article will not investigate interest, loans, debt or the creation of money.
For in reality money could be gold, silver, match sticks or pine nuts. Here we will  concentrate on the direct result of defining a value to labour to use in exchange for purchasing power.

While it may be offered that the abstraction (money) simply allows for delayed trade to take place, such as;
Human x has some chocolate.
Human y wants some chocolate and has a chicken farm but at the time has no eggs to trade.
So human y offers an abstraction so that s/he can have some chocolate and when eggs are available human x can trade in the accepted abstraction in return for some eggs.

What we are actually seeing here is little more than what can be considered as the natural progression from barter to a more refined system of economics. For the idea of exchanging goods or services directly as a system of economics (barter) is still in and of itself an abstraction of the exchange of labour for purchasing power.

For through the exchange of an egg, or eggs, for some chocolate what is being agreed upon is that the consumption of labour to secure the eggs is in equilibrium with the labour required to procure the chocolate. As an example while it may be agreed that two eggs are a suitable exchange for some chocolate, those two same eggs would not be sufficient in exchange for a house. As the expressions of labour are not in equilibrium for that exchange.

No matter what is used to define the value of labour, the fundamental ramifications remain the same.

An employer must have a product or service to produce or distribute in order to turn a profit. An employee must take part in the production, distribution, or peddling of a product or service in order that the employer turn a profit, and can in turn pay the employee in exchange for labour.
Both the employer and employee must take part in the consumption of goods and services as consumers in order to perpetuate the entire system.

Due to this model of exchange the very products that are manufactured are strategically produced to sustain this form of economics. As it is a requirement that nothing produced outlasts the need for continual consumption. Even the most cursory of searches can identify a multitude of items that are either poorly manufactured, designed to break/fail within a given time frame, or that have small aesthetic changes made to them over time resulting in a need or desire to have that item replaced. For in this economic system it simply would not do to produce goods that would last, could be easily upgraded, or could have the external aesthetic manipulated with ease. As this would place insurmountable strain on the consumption model and would lead inevitably to ever growing levels of unemployment. For any decreasing need for consumption translates directly into a decreasing need for production, and as an inevitable result a reduction in humans employed. Thus creating a situation of poverty due to nothing more than the inability to exchange labour for purchasing power.

Stratification of not only the general population, but also of products is a direct result of the use of such an abstraction. As the value equated to labour changes in regards to a multitude of factors such as, complexity, technical and or physical skill sets, and of course abundance or scarcity of the labour pool to point out a few. As a result in order to allow for consumption of goods and services to continue, we as a species must produce a stratified range of products that will encourage all economic levels of our society to take part in the process of continual consumption that is required to sustain the system. This range of value for labour not only creates massive economic disparity, but also means that in order to have lower cost products for those of lesser socio-economic means to be able to purchase they must be made cheaper. This can be accomplished by use of poor materials, a reduction or complete disregard of employee working conditions, and or using off shore factories in countries where employees are paid next to nothing for a days work.

 Human trafficking in Nike's sweatshop factory in Malaysia 

As a society becomes increasingly technologically advanced and employment opportunities are replaced through machine automation, it becomes evident that a growing number of the population will have their purchasing power reduced. Resulting in increasing strain on the consumption model. As consumption slows further jobs are lost through a reduction in the need for production, resulting in a vicious circle of continual loss of purchasing power to the general populace.

World wide unemployment

There is also the insidious reckless waste of our planetary resources that goes hand in hand with the need to sustain the consume throw it away, consume throw it away economic environment we have all been so heavily indoctrinated into.
We have generated a multiplicity of product duplication. Some may be missing certain features in order to keep cost down, yet all of them use almost identical resources in the production process.
All of them will almost certainly fail or be outdated within the next ten to fifteen years. None of them will be capable of being easily upgraded, or having faulty parts simply removed and replaced. Instead when the time comes and the product either fails or is outmoded, it will just be thrown away.
Thrown away....? Like these objects simply disappear into some great empty void never to be seen again. Unfortunately this is not the case, these products fill landfills, end up in our oceans, and create piles of toxic e-waste.

The great pacific garbage patch article

E-waste hell

We have reached a point as a species that implores us to ask the hard questions about the economic environment we have created. No politician is going to seriously address the issues that arise due to the exchange of labour for purchasing power. It is up to us together, as one unified species to stand up and find solutions to endless waste, the misuse of finite resources, social stratification, disparity, war, needless pollution, and cyclical consumption.
Whether we like it or not the future of our species demands that we outgrow this outmoded, antiquated way of living and find a way to work together, for our mutual benefit. We have the technological ability and the scientific understandings to create a new social model, but do we have the will and intellectual tenacity to think beyond our primitive reptilian brain?
It is up to us, the future is now.

Solar radiation and its impacts

As solar radiation reaches our planet it does so as short wave radiation.
About 30 percent of short wave radiation is reflected back into space, while the remaining short wave radiation at the top of the atmosphere is absorbed by the Earth's surface and re-radiated as long wave radiation. Incoming solar radiation that strikes the earth's surface is partially reflected and partially absorbed, in proportion to surface reflectivity (albedo).

Newly fallen snow has an albedo of approximately 0.90, meaning that it reflects about 90 percent of incoming radiation. In contrast, melting snow has an average albedo of 0.50, meaning that it absorbs 50 percent and reflects 50 percent of the incoming radiation. Because a darker surface absorbs more solar radiation, snow covered by dust (dirty snow) melts faster than clean snow. The albedo of sea ice varies with ice age, but when snow covered is on the order of 0.70. Open water absorbs the most radiation of all Arctic surfaces. With an albedo of about 0.08, it reflects only 8 percent of the incoming radiation. The albedo of a water surface increases with decreasing solar altitude and approaches a mirror-like 100 percent near sunrise and sunset, or when the sun is low in the Arctic sky. Solar radiation that is not absorbed by the earth's surface is reflected back into the atmosphere as short wave radiation. Absorbed solar radiation is then re-radiated as long wave radiation.

Arctic sea ice is melting, that is a fact. There are those that would debate that this is part of earth's natural climate cycle, others that would argue it is anthropogenic. Yet as the debate goes on the ice continues to melt.
Sea ice will not directly contribute to sea level rise, as the water displacement caused by the ice is in equilibrium with the water locked into the ice. However as stated above sea ice has an albedo of 0.70 and as such reflects large amounts of short wave radiation up and away from the earth. On the other hand water has an albedo of 0.08 and retains most short wave radiation that it receives. Thus the water warms,  in turn sea ice melt increases, and as a result there is an increase in the amount of long wave radiation re-radiated back into the atmosphere.Long wave radiation is then captured by gases such as water vapour, carbon dioxide, and methane. It is then re-radiated again this time in all directions, including back down towards the earth.

One of earth's natural cycles is the carbon cycle. Billions of tons of atmospheric CO2 are removed from the atmosphere by oceans and growing plants, also known as ‘sinks,’ and are emitted back into the atmosphere annually through natural processes also known as ‘sources.’ When in balance, the total carbon dioxide emissions and removals from the entire carbon cycle are roughly equal.
Balance being the operative word here.
If we as a species add even one percent of global carbon to the carbon cycle we are adding a percent that not only can not be dealt with by the Natural cycle, but that will remain and be added to each year. So if we have been adding say one percent to the cycle each year for the past ten years, we would now have increased the level of carbon by ten percent.

The Sceptics full video from SBS Insight

As carbon levels in the atmosphere increase more and more long wave radiation is trapped and re-radiated, slowly increasing temperatures, causing further melt. Early in December of 2012 it was reported by scientists in Russia that they had witnessed plumes of methane escaping form the sea floor, and into the atmosphere as a direct result of ice at the sea floor melting. These plumes cover thousands of square kilometres.

'Fountains' of methane 1,000m across erupt from Arctic ice

 Methane (CH4) is a gas that remains in the atmosphere for approximately 9-15 years. Methane is over 20 times more effective in trapping heat (long wave radiation) in the atmosphere than carbon dioxide (CO2).
As greater amounts of long wave radiation are trapped in earth's atmosphere global temperatures begin to rise. This not only increases the rate of sea ice melt but also impacts on ocean temperatures and influences glacial ice melt.Earth’s average ocean surface temperature in July 2009 was the warmest since record keeping began in 1880, breaking the previous high mark established in 1998, according to an analysis by NOAA’s National Climatic Data Centre.
A NASA/University study published online on February 14th 2010 in Nature Geoscience finds that glaciers in West Greenland are melting one hundred times faster at their end point than at the surface. The melting of glaciers beneath the ocean surface causes deep, warm, salty water to be drawn up toward the glacier's face, where it mixes turbulently with the glacier's cold, fresh water. The water then rises along the glacier face, melting its ice along the way, then reaches the ocean surface and flows away from the glacier in a plume. An ocean temperature of 3 degrees Celsius can melt glacial ice at a rate of several meters per day, or hundreds of meters over the course of a summer.
Melting of the current Greenland ice sheet would result in a sea-level rise of about 6.5 meters.

If the Antarctic Ice Sheet melted, sea level would rise by about 60 meters.

Failure to make fundamental changes to the way our society operates will result in catastrophic changes to our environment. We can reconsider how we generate, and distribute energy. We have the technological capability to generate enough energy to run our own homes from our own homes. Through the use of solar and wind power generation, no more burning of coal, no more unsafe nuclear power. Then there is geothermal, wave, tidal,solar, and wind on an industrial scale, that would result in an abundance of energy. Even making only this change would result massive economic changes, but that is another subject.