Sunday, May 23, 2010

Economic Stimulation by Slavery Reparations

Forty acres and a mule, plus inflation, to every African-American family who's ancestors were robbed of their life's work. This would go a long way toward restoring USA's moral legitimacy in the world, and help instruct other nations that tolerating slavery doesn't pay.
It could also do more for the current USA economy than trillions to too-big-to-fail bully banks.
When labor is not utilized fully in a nation, that effect is different from when oil is left in the ground. The oil can be pumped out another day, while a day unworked is gone forever. When less than all of a country's residents work fully, there's less stuff of value produced to split up between residents. Everyone is poorer.
When desperately poor, we are all likely to try anything to survive, even if it means taking away from others what is rightfully theirs. So in times of economic crisis, police budgets should be spared, if not increased, and, as done in Germany, the USA should shorten the work week so that everyone has a fair chance to work and earn, even amidst this recession.

Without moral leadership, the USA is left being nothing but the biggest bully on the block. Without jobs, the poor have no reason not to look after themselves at our expense. Without clear economic repercussions, slavery's found financially rewarding, and will continue to again worsen. Without borders, open to trade and investment, being open to people, nations themselves can and will be enslaved by vulture capitalists and such, as author John Perkins has described.

How to save earth from climatic crisis? 'Geritol' solution obsolete?

The 'Geritol solution' is the idea that supplementing low-iron areas of the world's oceans could allow existing oceanic cyanobacteria's iron-requiring nitrogenases to fix the nitrogen (from dissolved gaseous nitrogen) needed to fix the carbon (from dissolved atmospheric carbon dioxide) needed to reverse the climate crisis. Now that may not be needed.

Biotechnology is beginning to successfully design enzymes. A newly-designed nitrogenase which needed either no metal ion, or needed a metal cation which is more prevalent in the oceans than iron could induce enormous carbon fixation and a rebound in oceanic life, including deepwater fisheries like tuna, if that new nitrogenase was active in widespread cyanobacteria.

Such a nitrogenase, if widespread in cyanobacteria, might help to fix atmospheric carbon at rates that could restore temperature homeostasis on earth, without depriving the biosphere of sunlight energy like shading the earth with satellites or stratospheric smog would. Instead, this approach would increase the amount of sunlight energy entering the biosphere, and thus the amount of living beings and biomass on earth.

But there are risks that increased nitrogenase activity in the deep oceanic iron-poor areas could lead to such increased methane emissions, itself an greenhouse gas, that the climatic crisis would be worsened. Also, contrarily, so much carbon dioxide might be removed that the greenhouse effect might be reduced below levels earth's living being need to survive. It is probable that spreading a non-iron nitrogenase wold be an irreversible step. Therefore careful research is needed.