The Earth Factor

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

If we take into account the factor of the Earth, then the United States and China will appear not as the most powerful economies in the world, but as poor losers who do not know how to live on their territory without destroying it. Moreover, all countries of the world, including Russia, are paying for the economic successes of the United States and China.

Economy of the man-earth system

The modern economy operates exclusively with internal parameters (profit, price, profitability, etc.) of the economic system of people. And although this system functions exclusively at the expense of the planet's resources (water, raw materials, energy carriers, landfill sites, etc.), no economic system takes into account the costs of the Earth. Although the damage to the planet has recently become an increasing concern in the expert community, methods of assessing environmental damage are being developed, big business and politicians tend to ignore these assessments. They prefer to evaluate everything and decide everything with money. But is it possible to value in money the loss of clean rivers, deforestation, loss of biodiversity, human life and health?

If we calculate, for example, the environmental damage from such profitable industries for people as the extraction of oil, ores, coal, diamonds, gold, precious stones, etc., then the total benefit of the human-Earth system will be negative.

For this reason, modern economic science, which bases its calculations only on assessing the harm or benefit of the human community, completely ignoring the Earth factor, is flawed. In other words, there is a search for a solution to an equation written incorrectly, since a fundamentally important term has been omitted in it.

For centuries, humanity has been moving along this vicious path, as if not seeing the Earth, throwing it out of all its calculations, considering its resources to be endless, its capacity - for settlements, landfills, etc. - bottomless.

Those who tried to draw people's attention to the interests of the Earth, fly to the sidelines of public life, if they stay alive at all. And how many economists from the liberal camp or even from the patriotic opposition are able to get out of the vicious trampling in the circle of purely human interests, to get away from the flawed worldview of ignoring the Earth?

Today people have come to the natural result of their limited thinking - the planet's ecosystem has been destroyed to a catastrophic level. At the same time, no changes have been observed either in economic policy or in economic science.

How to avoid a disaster? Introduce the Earth factor into all economic calculations. Even a rough assessment of this factor will greatly change the usual picture of the world, remove stereotypes.

In particular, when the Earth factor is taken into account, the standard statement becomes incorrect: the United States and China - the two largest economies in the world - are the most successful countries. These states are the strongest only in the system of human relations, they are leading in terms of GDP, the power of their armies. If we consider the relationship of these countries with the natural environment, the picture will change dramatically, because it is these countries that are world champions in damage to the ecosystems of their territories.

It is the rich countries that have the most destructive impact on the environment, spreading their environmental problems around the world. Thus, China and the United States, the champions in carbon dioxide emissions, together, these two countries account for 42% of all global emissions, and China produces twice as much emissions as the United States. That is, these two countries are the main culprits of global warming, which is responsible for serious climatic anomalies around the world.

The general ecological situation is characterized by two parameters.

Ecological footprint- the resources necessary to meet human needs. It is measured as the area in conventional hectares of biologically productive territory required for the production of resources used by people, for the absorption and processing of waste.

Environmental capacity- the ability of the biosphere to produce the resources that humans need. It is measured as the area in conventional hectares required for the production of renewable resources and waste disposal.

Currently, the ecological footprint of a US citizen is almost double the ecological potential of the territory. The United States of America has the strongest man-made impact on the environment. The ecological load on the planet in terms of 1 inhabitant in the United States is maximum. The maximum consumption of natural resources: with 5% of the world's population and 6% of the world's raw materials, the country spends 40% of the planet's resources, produces half of the garbage. Today, there are more than 700 kg of household waste per US resident per year, and its volume is growing by 10% every 10 years.

Since 1970, the ecological footprint of a resident of China equaled the ecological capacity of the territory; in 2010, the ecological footprint exceeded it twice, i.e. the load on the ground has significantly exceeded its ability to recover.

This means that the Americans and the Chinese are simply destroying their territories.

America killed by the Americans

Climatic anomalies

The great length of the sea coast gave America many preferences, provided a mild warm climate. Global warming makes coasts a source of problems: rising ocean levels, rising water temperatures, the El Niño phenomenon, which stimulates the occurrence of weather anomalies, an increase in the frequency and strength of hurricanes on the American coast

Note that tornadoes in North America appeared along with the conquistadors. Indian beliefs believe that tornadoes are the souls of Indians killed by whites. Rational explanation - during the colonization of the continent, the conquerors barbarously cut down forests, destroyed almost all wildlife, which was preserved only in national parks.

Damage to the US economy from natural disasters is estimated at hundreds of billions of dollars annually, according to the report "Economic Risks of Climate Change in the United States", to create which Republicans and Democrats have teamed up.

The report outlines a bleak prospect until 2100: by 2050 there will be 27-50 days a year when temperatures will rise above 35 degrees. Celsius, which is twice the average level of the last 30 years. By the end of the century, there will be 45–96 such days a year.

"The report is intended to show the price we will pay for inaction so that everyone can present and no one can ignore," - said one of the authors of the report, the former mayor of New York M. Bloomberg.

In the next 15 years, the damage from rising sea levels, storms and hurricanes on the East Coast of the United States and near the Gulf of Mexico will be up to $ 35 billion. - for droughts and floods. By 2050, coastal property worth $ 66-106 billion will be below sea level. By 2100, the cost of the flooded will rise to $ 238-507 billion. In general, damage from hurricanes and other disasters for real estate on the coast will rise to $ 1.4 trillion.

States such as Florida, Louisiana and Texas are at the greatest financial risk from global warming. “People generally agree that climate change is an important issue. But they say it's a long-term problem and they have other, more urgent things to do, "says former US Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin, who also wrote the report." Our goal is to tell people this is the problem they are must think today."

“The risks associated with climate change are much more serious and dangerous than those brought about by the financial crisis,” said another co-author of the report, former US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson.

Extreme climatic events have already affected the US economy.“The US economy showed a slowdown in the first quarter of 2016. And the reason for this is the harsh cold weather that the east coast faced. Low temperatures have had a negative impact on several industries at once. Some factories were forced to suspend operations due to extreme temperatures. On top of that, the demand for gasoline fell, as transport companies simply did not carry out cargo transportation, fearing for the condition of vehicles. For the same reason, the logistics of most consumer goods were disrupted, resulting in a decrease in overall demand. The cold weather also had a negative impact on agriculture, - lists the leading analyst at Wild Bear Capital Viktor Neustroev.

It is worth repeating: the United States itself is responsible for weather anomalies on the planet, and in the United States in particular, providing record high emissions of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

Increased seismic activity

Another serious threat to the existence of the United States is the seismic situation. The country has regions of seismically powerful objects, in particular, the Pacific coast. One of the most seismically active zones on the planet - the San Andreas Fault (California) - has recently been showing increased seismic activity. So, in October 2015, 435 earthquakes were recorded near San Francisco. Seismologists give bad predictions - the city may disappear. The disaster film "San Andreas" has already been shot, simulating the scenario of the destruction of the region.

The continent's biggest threat is the Yellowstone megavolcano. "The end of the world will begin in the United States," seismologists warn, referring to observations of the Yellowstone Caldera - a crater of a megavolcano that is beginning to wake up. At the end of 2015, a 750x50 m crack and other dangerous signs of a volcanic awakening were discovered in the caldera.

The seismic activity is stimulated by the production of shale gas by the method of hydraulic fracturing (fracking), which is widely practiced in the United States. In the territories of gas production in the United States, there are up to five earthquakes per day.

Experts are confident of a direct link between oil and gas production and the increase in seismic activity in Oklahoma. In 1975-2008, on average, no more than 6 earthquakes occurred per year. Since the start of oil and gas production by fracking in 2009, there have already been 50 earthquakes. In a year - 1000. Now this state is the second in seismic activity after California. The number of "sensitive" earthquakes - with a magnitude of 3 points or more - is growing, which are already noticed by residents, and not only by devices. The so-called "earthquake swarms", groups of tremors that occur in a short period of time, were recorded not only in Oklahoma, but also in the previously seismically calm Arkansas, Colorado, Ohio and Texas.

Man-made disasters on the coasts

The ecosystems of both coasts of the United States - the West and the East - have been damaged by man-made disasters, the authors of which are the Americans themselves. The explosion of an oil platform in the Gulf of Mexico and the response to the spill by spraying reagents that precipitated oil into the water column, as well as the use of transgenic oil-eating bacteria, exacerbated the eco-disaster, since it was intended only to minimize the cost of responding to the oil spill for British Petroleum, the owner of the exploded platform. Flora and fauna of coastal waters and coasts, residents of settlements near the Gulf of Mexico get sick and die.

The western Pacific coast of the United States is suffering from another man-made disaster - the accident at the nuclear power plant in Japan's Fukushima. The emissions of radioactive substances into the waters of the Pacific Ocean by currents spread to the east, to the west coast of the United States. In 2011, in the immediate aftermath of the accident, a report from a research group at Stanford University and the School of Marine and Atmospheric Research at Stony Brook University, New York, reported that the release of radionuclides into the ocean is a concern, both locally and globally. Elevated levels of cesium-134 and cesium-137 have been found in tuna caught off the California coast. And other large animals carried radionuclides to the regions of the North and South Pacific Ocean. American scientists have noted an increased content of beta radiation in the air on the Pacific coast of the United States. Fallout involving radioactive iodine has occurred, with five states being particularly affected. A few days after the accident, the concentration of iodine-131 that fell out in the United States exceeded the norm by 211 times. In early summer 2012, the radiation level in the rain in Los Angeles exceeded the norm by five times.

The consequences of the accident at the nuclear power plant have not been completely eliminated to this day, leaks of fuel and radioactive water pose a serious threat to the Pacific Ocean, the entire northern hemisphere and the west coast of the United States in particular. Radiation on the North American coast has reached levels that the media are afraid to talk about, and government scientists are trying to hide and downplay this ever-growing threat to millions of people. The US government is not taking any action, although the situation is only getting worse, the lives of a large number of people are already hanging in the balance.

According to experts, “radiation along the west coast will grow and the situation will only get worse. The maximum surge in ocean radiation from a torch fired at Fukushima will hit the west coast of North America in 2017, peaking in 2018, according to a study by the Center for the Environment and Remote Sensing of Norway.

According to Professor Michio Aoyama of the Japan Institute for Environmental Radioactivity, Fukushima, "The level of radioactivity that has reached North America today is almost equal to what was prevalent throughout Japan during the early stages of the disaster."

There is a complete destruction of the ocean and the surrounding land. The level of danger is such that residents must be evacuated from the US Pacific coast. However, the scale and cost of the operation precludes it, so the media and the US government prefer not to talk about it for fear of panic and chaos. Journalist: "Nobody even talks about Fukushima anymore … the fish … it's just hard to find … the ocean is dying, it's empty and scary, the government is not warning the public to expect a threatening rise in mortality on the west coast."

Even the most optimistic forecasts estimate that the work will take about half a century. Pessimists believe that modern science is incapable of eliminating radioactive contamination of this level.

There is a lot of information that the cause of the tsunami that destroyed the Fukushima nuclear power plant was nuclear explosions arranged by the United States in the Pacific Ocean with the aim of suppressing China and Japan. Given the meagerness of the US governing structures, who do not know how to calculate the consequences of their actions to suppress everyone and everything (like the atomic bombings of Japan), this version does not seem incredible.

Suicide land

Founder of the Institute. A. Einstein Jean Sharp wrote the famous book: "From Dictatorship to Democracy." This is a guide to organizing color revolutions, which has been successfully used to destroy the country by the hands of its own people. Such a book could only be written by an American skilled in the destruction of his country.

Climatic changes and an increase in seismic activity are not exclusively due to natural processes. The United States of America creates environmental problems for themselves.

Of course, American prosperity is nothing more than a propaganda myth.

For American "prosperity", bought at the price of damage to the ecosystem, the inhabitants of the country pay dearly. In the United States, a real epidemic of obesity, allergies, and oncological diseases is growing. Nervous disorders requiring psychiatric services and medication have affected up to 90% of Americans.

China is a vanishing country

China is following the same vicious path that the USSR took in its time, trying to "catch up and overtake America": it uses cheap dirty technologies, not caring about environmental consequences. The Chinese leadership ensured economic growth under the monstrous slogan: “Economy first, ecology later! Environmental concerns are the lot of rich countries. "Despite the impressive size of the economy - the second in the world - China, according to experts, is unlikely to be able to solve the problems associated with environmental pollution, and therefore it was included in the list of 10 countries that may disappear over the next 20 years.

Overpopulation. Food problems

The population of China in 2016 was 1.368 billion people - this is 20% of the world's inhabitants, which makes this country the most populous in the world. Annual growth is about 0.6% - seemingly not much (152nd place in the world). But with a huge population, this small percentage gives large absolute values - a new Chinese citizen is born every 2 seconds. According to the forecasts of the World Bank, the population of the PRC by 2030 will reach 1.5 billion people.

The danger is that with a large number of the Chinese, they turned out to be very susceptible to the tenets of the consumer society. They strive to live by American standards, catching up and surpassing the United States in terms of consumption. So, on average, the Chinese already consume 2 times more meat and steel than the Americans. The need for grain and coal is approaching the same indicators. Unprecedented rates of economic growth plus population growth and unbridled consumption - this bouquet deprives the country of its future.

China has a fifth of the world's population and only about 8% of arable land. Some of this land is no longer suitable for cultivation due to waste pollution. This creates food problems. Investors from the PRC around the world are actively buying up food and agricultural producers around the world - in 2013 they spent more than $ 12 billion on this. The Chinese authorities are constantly buying or renting farmland from other countries, for example, Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan. So in 2013 they rented 3.5 million hectares of land in Ukraine.

Water scarcity

China is unlikely to be able to avoid the worst forecast: by 2030, there will be no drinking water left in the country, since all water will be heavily polluted. Half of the water in city springs is already not drinkable. Investing $ 112 billion in the modernization of water supply networks turned out to be insufficient.

One of the reasons for water shortages is droughts that regularly hit China.

Deforestation of 75% of forests provokes droughts. As a result, rivers dry up, lakes evaporate. Thus, the number of lakes in the Hebei province surrounding Beijing has decreased from a thousand to several dozen.

The main reason for water shortages is pollution of rivers and other sources. Twenty thousand chemical factories pour dirty water directly into rivers, while billions of tons of untreated wastewater are discharged into the Yangtze River alone.

Two rivers in China are included in the list of the 10 most polluted rivers in the world, including the Yellow River, the second longest in the country. The main source of water supply for 2 million people in northern China, this river is heavily polluted with oil spills.

In 2009, there were 170 major accidents related to environmental pollution in China, in the first half of 2010 there were already 102. In 2012, the number of accidents associated with leaks of harmful substances, including oil, increased by 98%.

As a result of neglecting the environmental consequences of the economic boom, the problem of water has become extremely acute in China. In 2012, water shortages hit 2/3 of Chinese cities.

In 2014, “severe water shortages” (less than 1,000 cubic meters per person per year) were experienced by 16, and “very strong” (less than 500 cubic meters) - by 6 provinces and cities of central subordination.

By 2030, China will have to significantly reduce water consumption for irrigation of fields (in some areas by 14%) due to the depletion of sources, including underground

Already today, China is faced with the need to import water. Despite all the efforts that have been made over the past 5 years to solve this problem, China is on the way to the complete disappearance of water.

Given that the problem of clean fresh water is exacerbating around the world due to population growth and pollution of sources, the prospects for China are tragic. By polluting its water resources, China is committing an environmental crime against all of humanity. At such a rate of destruction of sources, fresh water on the planet will end in 25 years.

Air pollution

Another serious problem in China is air pollution. Dirty manufacturing technologies provide China with the dirtiest air in the world.

China is not visible from space, it is covered by smog - a mixture of smoke and dust. Pollution levels in Beijing and Shanghai are often 20 or more times the safe level.

One of the reasons for air pollution is the heavy use of coal. Although China is actively switching to gas (its production tripled from 2000 to 2013) and plans to develop nuclear power, the volume of harmful emissions is almost not reduced, because an increase in clean energy is offset by an increase in production capacity. China only promises to cut its emissions from 2030.

Another pollutant in China's atmosphere is dust. Massive soil erosion caused by archaic farming methods, a sharp expansion of cultivated areas and pastures due to population growth and consumption levels. China's skyrocketing demand for wool and meat has spawned giant herds of livestock. As a result, huge areas of grass cover have been destroyed, the topsoil is loosened, the land is turning into deserts, covering the cities of China and neighboring countries with sand. Up to half a million tons of sand is applied to Beijing alone every year. In recent years, desert areas have taken the place of several thousand settlements. Deserts grow by 4 thousand square kilometers annually. Dust storms have become the scourge of the country.

Garbage

China produces about 250 million tons of household waste annually, that is, 20% of the world's volume. In 2004, China surpassed the United States in this parameter to become the largest garbage producer in the world. Around large cities - Shanghai, Beijing, Chongqing and Tianjin - there are at least 7 thousand garbage dumps.

China is actively importing garbage. If in 1990 the entire market for trade in used plastics did not exceed $ 120 million, then by 2008 China (including Hong Kong) imported over $ 6 billion worth of plastic waste, which accounted for up to 80% of the total market. China imports twice as much metal waste, especially copper and aluminum. In China, 70% of all the computer and office equipment discarded in the world turns out to be - local residents are trying to extract non-ferrous metals from it. Gradually, some cities turn into solid heaps of discarded electronics.

Much of the garbage to be recycled simply does not reach the official sorting stations. Up to 65% end up in landfills, and about 60% of them - on improvised, which negatively affects the environment and human health.

About 20% of garbage in the PRC is burned, which causes air pollution.

Most of the garbage ends up in rivers. China makes a significant contribution to the saturation of the world's oceans with garbage. The “Great Pacific Garbage Patch” has already reached an area of 15 million km², the mass of garbage concentrated in it is about 100 million tons. China's massive production of cheap, short-lived and often toxic goods sharply exacerbates the problem of garbage on the entire planet.

Every hundredth percent of GDP growth leads to even more waste production in a country where a system for their service has not yet been created, so that China's economic well-being can drown in its own waste.

The population pays for the savings on environmental protection. The true price of cheap Chinese goods is, "Every thirty seconds, a disabled baby is born in China."

China is sinking underground

Excessive mining of minerals (primarily coal) and the merciless exploitation of underground waters lead to the formation of ground sinks. More than 50 cities are gradually going underground due to subsidence of the soil, the formation of underground craters. The largest underground craters in the world are located under Beijing.

The total volume of excess groundwater exploitation in northern China has reached 120 billion cubic meters. The north of the PRC goes underground, "drinking" water from under its feet. The North China Plain has become the world leader in the rate of soil subsidence: a decrease in their horizon by 20 cm was recorded in an area of 60 thousand square meters. km. A huge hole in the ground "drank" an entire reservoir with 25 tons of fish from one of the fish farms in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. In 2012, 693 holes formed in the ground in central China's Hunan province in two months. The dips were recorded at the bottom of the reservoirs - whole rivers flowed under the ground.

In some regions, the situation is catastrophic: the city of Cangzhou actually fell into the ground: over four decades, local heights above sea level fell by 2.5 meters. Soil subsidence created a threat on the autobahns and railways, the foundations of buildings floated, and a serious shallowing of lakes and rivers began.

In total, serious soil subsidence was recorded in 50 municipalities of 12 provinces of the PRC.

At the expense of Russia

If we take into account the factor of the Earth, then the United States and China will appear not as the most powerful economies in the world, but as poor losers who do not know how to live on their territory without destroying it.

Moreover, all countries of the world are paying for the economic successes of the United States and China.

For the sake of maintaining its global domination, the American leadership does not stop at any large-scale damage to the ecosystem anywhere in the world. The American-initiated development of nuclear weapons, their testing and use, the creation and use of climatic and seismic weapons, the initiation of military conflicts, including the use of uranium-containing ammunition - this is an incomplete list of US environmental crimes. It is actively killing biodiversity and the powerful promotion of genetically modified crops by American corporations, first of all, the notorious company Monsanto.

The liberal-market economy promoted by America, in need of a "consumer society", is pulling in most countries, killing the ecosystem of the whole world.

Air pollution in China is dangerous not only for the people of the country, it "casts a shadow on the whole world."

River pollution in the United States and China is destroying the world's fresh water supplies. According to experts, fresh water will run out in 25 years.

The United States and China have enough funds and influence to solve their problems at the expense of other countries, including at the expense of the resource-rich and unpopulated territory of Russia.

So the United States, with the help of corrupt officials of the Russian Federation and the oligarchs, is buying up various resources of Russia in huge quantities at dumping prices. Russian imports to the United States are estimated at about $ 20 billion, of which half is oil and oil products, $ 1 billion is nuclear fuel, and $ 0.7 billion is precious metals (data before the imposition of sanctions).

China imports Russian hydrocarbons, electricity, metals, water, timber. Almost all minerals are in demand, as well as technologies and fuel for nuclear energy, many types of weapons. There are large volumes of illegal timber supplies to China, poaching of Chinese citizens in the border regions of Russia. The settlement of the Far East and the interior regions of the Russian Federation by the Chinese is actively going on.

Today, China is considering the possibility of transferring part of its enterprises to the territory of the Far East. Under the law on priority development territories (TORs) and the Free Port of Vladivostok, Russian officials are ready to provide the Chinese with substantial tax benefits and administrative preferences.

With the open arms of the Russian authorities, reports that China has been building broad-lane roads on a concrete base for several years in the direction of the Russian border, which can withstand the load of heavy military equipment, do not go well with the open arms of the Russian authorities. Also alarming are the data on the construction of an incomprehensible purpose of empty cities with extensive underground shelters.

The US leadership also expects to use the territory of Russia. According to the US presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, a significant deterioration of the geophysical situation in the area of the Yellowstone megavolcano and the San Andreas Fault threatens the very existence of the United States, which raises the question of transferring American statehood to European territory.

The main place of such resettlement is considered the territory of Ukraine, the climatic conditions of which are most familiar to American citizens. “We must not abandon this territory, as the most favorable for a global American move, because of the position of Russia and will continue to coordinate international pressure to return Crimea to a single territorial space as of February 2014. In addition, it is necessary to carry out preliminary work on the inclusion in the future European United States of the territories of several Eastern European states - Poland, Hungary, Romania and the Baltic countries. Thus, we will be able to expand the necessary living space so as not to feel cramped and have the prospect of further industrial and economic development,”Clinton said. She suggested that a significant part of Ukrainians (those who will survive) will be evicted to the countries of the Middle East and Africa, since “strong countries occupy the vital territory of weak and unpromising states that cease to exist … And with Russia and China As a result, we will find a common language and become good neighbors and equal trading partners who do not need any wars and shocks."

Clinton's statement of good-neighborliness with Russia is hardly worth trusting, meaning NATO bases, which are rapidly expanding near the borders of the Russian Federation.

Rumors circulate on the Internet that the Rothschilds are planning to move to Russia.

There will be no winners

It is obvious that the United States and China by the overexploitation of their territories have depleted natural resources to a level incompatible with life. To solve internal problems, these countries are forced to use foreign lands through the purchase of resources or direct occupation. They have no other opportunity, they pushed themselves against the wall, and they will desperately fight for foreign territories.

This should be taken into account by those at whose expense they will solve their problems, primarily Russia. Our country is in such a miserable state today that predictions about the seizure of the Asian territory of the Russian Federation by China to the Urals and the Americans of the European part seem realistic. Of course, the invaders with the mentality of earth-killers, who have ruined the ecosystems of their own states, will not be able to feast in Russia for a long time, because they will quickly render the occupied territories lifeless. But is this really a consolation for the citizens of Russia destined for destruction?