THE CLAIRE FOSS JOURNAL
Environmental Issues
Money's Role in the Green Revolution
by Claire Foss
Many economists and the more enlightened politicians today are aware that
the Bank of Canada must again take up its role as overseer and guiding
hand, ensuring that ample low interest rate money is made available
allowing the economic system to function for the benefit of all Canadians.
It must assume the same role it played just prior to World War II and for the twenty five
prosperous years that followed.
This dynamic change, absolutely, has to be top priority and implemented
by our government if most Canadians are to have at least a chance at earning
a decent living. The argument I hear, at times, is that all this low interest
money may lead to the further degradation of the environment. I challenge
this unsubstantiated hypothesis and have many case studies which disprove
this statement.
A good example is the Scandinavian countries ( just prior to bank deregulation)
where wage equity and wealth distribution at least in the immediate past
appeared to be halfway fair. There was ample money in the system and funds
were set aside and targeted to maintain essential services including the
important field of higher education, this long range planning has paid
great dividends in this society. This well educated and enlightened population
has concluded that a healthy environment is the very first line of defence
in their very survival and have proceeded to invest heavily in environmental
protection and cleanup.
The next thing one notices is that the birth rate starts falling
dramatically, and in Scandinavia this is most definitely the case. Scientific
research has proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that the main cause of the
planet's environmental destruction is linked mainly to modern day resource
demands by a rapidly increasing world population.
It must logically follow then, that the global goal surely has to be
birth rate stabilization. In many studies it has been noted that when women
have access to a university or a family planning education, birth rates
start plummeting. Compare many third world countries to these Nordic States
and you see the startling differences in birth rates.
Most third world countries offer poor educational opportunities, very
limited essential services and in many cases almost total neglect of the
environment. Add to this a seemingly uncontrollable population growth and
you end up with a very lethal mix.
It is shocking now to watch conditions in Sweden start to deteriorate
knowing that the major portion of their problems can be directly linked
to the deregulation of the Swedish banking system.
( This disastrous act was perpetrated near the time of the assassination
of Swedish Prime Minister Olaf Palme )
The first step on the road to recovery here in Canada is for the government
to once again take control of the nation's central bank (the Bank of Canada),
and follow the example set prior to the War when Prime Minister MacKenzie
King and then Bank of Canada Governor Graham Towers charted
a sane monetary course for the nation.
The second step is to establish a true citizen's democracy that not
only holds the banks but the government itself accountable, and to insist
that sufficient money be available for maintaining essential services and
to assist in environmental cleanup.

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