The profit motive drives ecological exploitation and the externalization of costs onto the environment. Consumer coops respond to the voice of the community.
Of course, there are so many problems with this line of thinking. It totally ignores #externalities. It also assumes #PerfectKnowledge#perfectInformation of both the marketplace and the nature of the goods being produced and sold. Firstly, that farmers even have a good grasp of what they're applying, how much needs to be applied to maximize yield and minimize expenses. Secondly, that somehow that either buyers or end-consumers are aware that such #pesticides are being applied.
The terrible human toll in Gaza has many causes.
A chilling investigation by +972 highlights efficiency:
An engineer: “When a 3-year-old girl is killed in a home in Gaza, it’s because someone in the army decided it wasn’t a big deal for her to be killed.”
An AI outputs "100 targets a day". Like a factory with murder delivery:
"According to the investigation, another reason for the large number of targets, and the extensive harm to civilian life in Gaza, is the widespread use of a system called “Habsora” (“The Gospel”), which is largely built on artificial intelligence and can “generate” targets almost automatically at a rate that far exceeds what was previously possible. This AI system, as described by a former intelligence officer, essentially facilitates a “mass assassination factory.”"
"The third is “power targets,” which includes high-rises and residential towers in the heart of cities, and public buildings such as universities, banks, and government offices."
“Levy describes a system that has almost reached perfection. The political echelon wants to maintain the status quo, and the military provides it with legitimacy in exchange for funds and status.”
“Levy points out the gradual withdrawal of the old Ashkenazi middle class from the ranks of the combat forces[…]:
• the military’s complete reliance on technology as a decisive factor in warfare;
• the adoption of the concept […] of an army that is “small and lethal”;
• the obsession with the idea of #deterrence, which is supposed to negate the other side’s will to fight; and
• the complete addiction to the status quo as the only possible and desirable state of affairs.”
It was easier to locate the individuals in their private houses.
“We were not interested in killing operatives only when they were in a military building or engaged in a military activity. On the contrary, the IDF bombed them in homes without hesitation, as a first option. It’s much easier to bomb a family’s home. The system is built to look for them in these situations.”
Only individuals or societies in the grip of an ideology would think of biology only as red in tooth and claw. Counterexamples abound.
It's a bit like the non-controversy of "nature vs. nurture." It is trivially, observationally both. Anyone who refuses to take this as a point of departure is just an ideologue.
I've always been uneasy with privatization of public goods. I started thinking more deeply about it, more practically, sweating without power for 7 days after Hurricane Isaac struck New Orleans as a minimal category 1 hurricane in 2012. It was obvious that our private electricity company was keeping their shareholders happy, but they didn't care about the stakeholders - repairing rotting utility poles is not the most investor-attracting goal for a Fortune 500 company. So I wrote this to out local paper:
Thinking (and trying to write) about #externalities today. Right now I don't think anyone says it better than Julie Klinger:
"There are no 'externalities'... the very word reflects a way of thinking that does not match reality. As residents in an integrated biophysical Earth system, there is no part of the Earth that is external to our affairs."