The Year is 2200
A Historical Look at Climate Change - 4,506 Words,
May 5, 2022
A Made for TV documentary hosted by Jayson Bower, III
Before we can discuss the ways, our planet has changed over the past 170 years, we need to begin with the story in 2030, when most automobile manufacturers had started converting over to building electric vehicles (EVs), rather than producing internal combustion engine (ICE) powered vehicles. Yes, it took the auto industry over 30 years to get that done. I’m your host Jayson Bower III, and for the next hour let’s take a look at the miraculous changes that brought us from the brink of climate disaster to this wonderful, peaceful world of global technology, full of world-wide opportunity for everyone.
The years from 2015 to 2052 were spent getting the manufacturers of ICE automobiles to realize that there was a universally more acceptable way to get people to fall in love with EVs, rather than the carbon production reduction benefit. To realize this, the great innovators began showing people how that instead of being a consumer, they could become owners and users of vehicles that have shown greater longevity and more economic effects than was first imagined. They have production costs less than was first imagined. They found they had greater public support than was first imagined. They found greater possibilities than was first imagined, and they possessed the power to change the world. Not only from an environmental standpoint, but from the standpoint that for the first time in history, there is world peace. This is the story of the two changes that made carbon neutral a reality in the first 70 years of this story, and then the reality of living this lifestyle for the next 100 years, living the dream. My great, great Grandfather and he was a part of bringing this change to life. He, and a lot of other inventors, innovators, thought leaders, doers of what needed to be done rather than wishers and dreamers. This is a tribute to him and the many known and unknown individuals who made this story possible. We have moved through the stone age, the bronze age, the agriculture age, the industrial age, the information age and ended up in what is now, the Power Age. If you want to sit back and enjoy a walk down memory lane, this is the untold story of those first steps in getting us here.
The United States of America was one of the last nations to achieve the zero-carbon footprint (ZCF) rating, but it was the largest, most effective and it became the tipping point globally in the reduction of carbon emissions. No longer were we producing carbon, but as a global community, we were carbon neutral. That was in the year 2085 and by 2100, the planet was well on its way to recovery. The largest industry of carbon production for the remaining nations was the transportation of its’ people and the transportation of goods and services, followed by the production of energy. Let me take a moment to talk about Costa Rica, the small Central American country that started making changes of its carbon footprint early (See References). In 2015 Costa Rica was honored at the Paris climate talks by the lighting of the Eiffel Tower with its flag colors, for producing almost 100% of it’s energy from renewable resources for the previous year (See References). At that time, a spokesperson for the nation declared that 70% of the carbon production that was still plaguing the nation, was from transportation. So, Costa Rica was showing the world that the production of power and the transportation needed in a country, were the two changes that each nation should make, to lead a nation to Net Carbon Zero (NCZ).
The world began to adopt these two changes and nation by nation the list became longer, there was a change moving forward that people could see, that people could measure. As they saw that the changes were working, they became more and more excited over the years to keep the trend going and the United Nations put heavier restrictions on those nations that were not making progress in reducing their carbon output. The nations that had converted, found the secret to success, found the secret sauce that encouraged their citizens to make the change of lifestyle to EVs. The economical impact became the driving force behind the change, that living a “non-polluting” lifestyle, DIDN’T COST more, in fact it was less expensive living for everyone. Governments quickly found that when their citizens had more money to work with, because their cost of energy was nearly eliminated, they became happier, they had fewer social issues that required funding for solutions, instead they had less health issues that required funding, which led to reductions in divorce rates, in crime rates, in lawsuits, in the CRISIS AND CHAOS that had gripped our globe fighting over energy. The Power Age was fully moving to the forethought of people’s thoughts and minds.
Let me tell you about how the change in transportation to EVs affected the budget of each person so profoundly. The transportation cost in an individual’s budget was from 15% to 35% on average, and your utility cost can be from 5% to 15% on average, and these costs can be a higher percentage if you are in a less developed country. If your monthly income is $2,000 then your transportation costs can be $300 to $700 per month and utility cost $100 to $300 on average. This gives a range of $400 to $1,000 per month, per household on average. What happened is that as the countries in the world started working on converting to EVs, those two figures alone came down to 10% to 15% of monthly income that would yield monthly cash in pocket savings of somewhere between $200 to $700 a month or $2,400 to $8,400 per year. When those amounts were added back to the household, then the household had those funds and could spend them on things they need such as: education, medical or dental work, furniture and appliances, bicycles, vacations, increased savings, or a host of other things. You see, those funds which were previously spent on fossil fuel and utilities, went to a limited number of companies. With this revised economy, the masses benefit from the cash now being redirected to local businesses and individuals. The economy had decentralized itself.
Now let me tell you how this money can be generated inside the household. First, an EV has operating costs, fuel and repairs, is about 10% of the cost of an ICE vehicle. If you are spending $ 600 per month on a vehicle and that cost drops to $60 per month, that’s a monthly savings of $540 per month. If you’re utility bill is $200 per month and it is reduced to zero, it’s a savings of $200 per month. Combined savings of $740 per month or $8,880 annually on average. These are just rough numbers to show where the money is coming from. For far too long, fossil fuel companies have had the consumer tied to their fuel pumps. For far too long, utility companies have had the consumer tied to their service. What if we didn’t have to pay for those two services and allowed the consumer, to become a user of their own assets. To keep more of what they work so hard to achieve. Could their achievements become greater? You know the old saying, “Easy come, easy go”. Well, in the 2020’s I don’t think that was accurate, I think it was “Hard to get it,” and most of all, it was “spent by the design of others” and that was the driving factor to this global change which began with the general public, the individual citizens, in nations all around the world.
The economy of individuals started improving rapidly in small nations like Costa Rica. Annually, as a nation, they budgeted and spent $1.3 billion dollars for the cost of transportation fuel. As of 2040, that number was zero. $1.3 billion dollars that was made available to the country to reduce debt, improve schools, improve medical care and by the way, Costa Rica didn’t have a military to support which put it ahead in the transition already. Truly looking out for their citizens by self-imposed mandates for the good of the people. As other nations signed up for the Costa Rica model, more and more nations began moving up the listing of the Happiest Places on Earth as revised each year. By 2045 it could be seen that Costa Rica’s air and water quality had measurable improvements and by 2050 a corresponding decline in adverse health indicators like lung cancer and other forms of cancer. This showed people that were watching one of the truly great MIRACLES of the lifestyle change, was that the planet appeared to be working with those nations making changes. Changes that scientist thought would take decades were improving in 4 or 5 years. As people were putting positive energy into helping reduce pollution, the planet put out positive energy too. Measurable increases in plant life and scientific wonders from that plant-life, water life and never seen areas begin producing food, never before seen wonders of the capabilities in healing and scientific advancements in newly discovered treatments for what was now being looked for in nature and being found and used rather than synthetic means as previously used. Food was no longer in short supply because nature became the horn of plenty, and it was unlocked and available to all. A new model for organic, local farming became a reality as communities developed food plans. A new appreciation for the planet we live on was born out of the unfolding tragedy of climate change and within the first 70 years there were astounding improvements in the quality of life here on planet earth.
To show my point about the planet helping heal itself is referred to in a paper written by Jay Bower in 2015, which is in the historical record. That paper explained how in the 1970’s there was a growing hole was found in the ozone. Scientists discovered that it was the fluorocarbons that were being used in air conditioners, refrigerators and aerosol propellent in cans of hairspray and paints. In the late 1970’s, the fluorocarbons were outlawed and other things were found to replace them but the scientists didn’t know if the change happened in time and didn’t know how or if the ozone would repair itself. Well in 1988 it was announced that in fact the problem had been solved and the ozone had all but closed the hole created by the fluorocarbons. These are two great historically measurable events that show us that when we take care of the planet we live on, the planet helps and takes care of us.
Back to the story. Then came the biggest change of all. In an effort to get a global currency, we played with paper money, metal money and digital money all of which had different values on different days and varying issues related to war, peace and energy consumption. In the midst of this hunt, we discovered something everyone was using, everyone could now produce it, could now sell it, and its value was consistently the same over time, that was the value of energy. One watt of power would do the same work, in the same time, anywhere in the world (elevation excluded). It would raise a gram of water, one degree centigrade, or one calorie, a measure of energy used. The beauty of using energy as our base for the global monetary system was that it was always equal, always producible, always having new and creative ways being worked on to produce it. If you had a land asset, you could put solar panels on it and not only reduce your power consumption to zero, but you can also sell your excess energy. If you had a rooftop, you could put solar panels or a wind generator on it and produce the same energy. No longer a consumer of electricity, but a generator of electricity. Communities could help individuals become power independent to the BENEFIT of the community. Communities would start working together for the common good of all. People didn’t need friends on their FB wall, they discovered that they had a wall of friends, their community became their friends again and we returned to helping one another. The community could have a battery pack for storing the excess energy produced by the community and paid the set rate by the municipality and as a community they could decide what the excess was used for, it could be a heated swimming pool, streetlights, a soccer field lights, the local ambulance or garbage collection or commerce and industry. Model communities entered their progress in ZCF and one by one communities around the globe would join those who already attained the ZCF rating.
By the year 2130 all the nations of planet earth had attained ZCF. But it wasn’t without conflict. The fossil fuel industry was the biggest industry opposing the changes. There were nations whose economy was tied to fossil fuels, they aggressively defended the use of fossil fuels. The utility companies influence was greatly reduced by renewable methods to produce electricity. They kept a cycle of conflicts going in places like Syria, Israel, Iraq, the United States and Iran. The fossil fuel companies linked together in pact with the military industrial complex because they saw the effect that the conversion to renewable energy was taking on their influence in the world. Country after country was signing onto buying peace via the United Nations through the adopted “Positive Energy” plan rather than promoting endless wars through the purchase of arms and military equipment. One of the main sales points of the Positive Energy plan was that there is NO COST to the plan. The energy saved totally pays for the plan. The citizens are the beneficiaries of the Positive Energy plan through less taxes, less conflict and strife, less worries. The results were that you got more Positive results out of less Energy, and less pollutants. This was what defeated the main foes of the Climate Control, ZCF transition. Just as Ronald Reagan defeated the Soviet Union and got the wall torn down without firing a shot. POSITIVE ENERGY became the new hero for taking all the bad energy around wars, out of our world, and with it went air pollution, deadly water and the greed that was the underlying purpose of those that promoted endless slavery to a system that was long overdue to get replaced. People came back to a realization that we don’t need costly fossil fuels, we don’t need costly wars and the costly military industrial complex. What we replaced that with was a new Positive Energy motto, “In the essentials, unity. In the un-essentials, liberty. In all things Charity.” All of the nations of the planet sat down and agreed on the essentials, ZCF plan, housing, food, water, basic municipal services, internationally recognizing the calorie as the monetary unit, family wage jobs and food production, highest and best use achieved through basic education and post education systems and technical training. Then the un-essentials are things like sports and sports facilities, museums, parks, zoos, prisons, research facilities, space exploration, historical research, computer sciences and so forth. These became optional to a community, unessential but both profitable and for the community’s recreation. And finally, all people should be dealt with in humanitarian way by letting Charity, or the love for one another, be the rule for the day. There is no greater love than this, that one lays down their desires for the good of another. There was a trickle of nations at first willing to sign on to the commitments of the Positive Energy movement, but momentum grew. People of all nations started seeing the benefits of the changed lives it brought and after about 30 years, from the inception of the program, it had received a unanimous vote at the United Nations. Once the United Nations adopted the Positive Energy plan, then the nations that hadn’t signed yet were subject to restriction ranging from “no trade sanctions” to paying a penalty for international trading of anywhere from 10 to 50 percent. This made those nations that were hesitant to join, after seeing the unity of those that already had joined, they didn’t have much of a choice but to join the Positive Energy collation. There were holdouts of course because of human rights violations, women’s rights abuses and other reasons, but in the long run, they saw the mounting pressure through increased sanctions and ultimately signed onto the Positive Energy plan. That was in 2109 that at the general assembly of the United Nations, the Positive Energy program was officially voted in as the law of Planet Earth and all people began working together to accomplish the ZCF limits and goals.
The remaining years, bringing us to 2200, were an absolute MIRACLE. The healing of the planet became far less worrisome as the healing of the people. Planet earth had continued its miraculous recovery and, by 2130, all the indicators pointed to the fact man had made enough changes, with the earth’s assistance, to bring us to the point where the emergency planet program was reduced to the planet awareness program which still called for reductions in carbon footprints wherever and whenever possible. Tremendous strides were discovered, and cancer was eradicated, the cases of diabetes had been reduced along with instances of heart disease. Life span increased steadily since 2130 and the overall thought was that the world had become a less stressful place to live. That brings us to today, May 5, 2200, weather Is partly cloudy, the skies are clear, and the temperature is a bit warm but very enjoyable. Our community in Costa Rica is having a music celebration and the star of the show are the monkeys that hang around Montezuma on the southern tip of the Nicoya Peninsula. Where it was discovered in 2032 that the musical style of Scott Huckaby gave a relaxing beat to the monkeys. They would stop traveling and food gathering just to kick back in the trees and enjoy the melodical tunes. You see I think what made this discovery possible was that we could now sit back ourselves and stop the traveling and food gathering long enough to enjoy the world around us. Yes, the wonders of nature never cease, and they never cease to amaze children and parents alike. New studies of plants, music, light, water, and sound therapy which led to discoveries that reduced stress and illnesses. Gone were the days global health crisis but people did get a great chance to learn about those back in the 2020’s, when air pollution was so bad in a city that people didn’t realize they had mountain views, but after about a week of the health scare and citywide lockdown, the skies cleared over the city to reveal a lovely mountain range. Probably one of the most important lessons learned in the past 170 years is that we need to look at history to see what lessons it can teach us. It was conquest after conquest by nations killing off other nations. It was company after company, killing off competitors and after the competitor was gone, shipping increased to get products to from place to place, where competitors were not around to provide those goods and services locally. History showed us that centralization, was a big part of the problem. As we learned that, there was a great awakening to the fact that we need those other people in those other places. That they weren’t something to conquer, but something to nourish and help them grow into what their community was capable of doing. To help them find and develop the Einstein’s in each of their communities, their Billy Grahams and Martin Luther Kings, their Aretha Franklins, Whitney Houston’s and Barbara Streisand’s, Blake Shelton and Ariana Grande. People began to cultivate the good in people, the brilliance in people, the music in people, the mechanical abilities in people, the talents of all people. Our technology made it possible to share what was happening in “Our Corner of the World” with the entire planet and share the goodness that was growing, that was blossoming, and that was bearing fruit. Then as an entire planet of people, we could feist on this newfound fruit, and there was plenty for all. We all knew we were leaving the planet to coming generations much better than it was handed to us.
Yes, looking forward from 2030, one couldn’t imagine what 2200 would look like. One couldn’t imagine that we could accomplish so much in less than 200 years when it took us over 4,000 years to make a mess of the planet and ITS PEOPLE. The call began back in the 1970’s when Coca-A-Cola made a commercial that said, I’d like to buy the world a Coke …….. and live in harmony. What a prophet piece, it took awhile for people to listen, but we eventually found the better way, eventually John Denver’s rewrite Jungle Roads got through to us. Communities were given several goals to attain within their community. GOLD was for economical achievement, the APPLE was for advancements in farming and ranching, the DIAMOND was for educational achievement, CARBON FIBER was for industrial achievement, the CROSS was for religious outreach and unifying accomplishment, the BRIDGE was for engineering accomplishment, the EINSTEIN was for scientific achievement and the MUNI award was for the outstanding leadership in the community that could foster the areas of growth that insured each community’s future. The DOVE award was the most precious though because it was awarded to communities that reached out to the population with truly loving hands and then were able to move to other communities and give them a helping hand.
Beginning almost 100 years ago we began building communities around people. The community grew what they needed and would ship on what was excess on in the Pay it forward Program. The community would also use industry to build household furniture, appliances, dishes, utensils and larger finished goods. Some communities would have someone that would put in a small assembly facility for e-bikes, e-motorcycles and scooters and even some e-vehicles. Several communities would link together in building transport trucks, tractors and construction equipment. The use of airlines was almost eliminated because with the reduced cost of e-vehicles, road travel became the biggest mode of transportation by autos, buses, and trains. People found that by traveling with these methods, it took longer to get somewhere, but there was no longer a rush getting from one place to another. A slower pace made viewing the wonders around us more enjoyable and the traveler had a better chance to relax. The journey became part of the joy again.
A community’s deposits into the export account became an indicator of the success of the community with those communities that had good positive balances and strong monthly deposits they were labeled GOLD communities and became the economic goal for growing communities. The GOLD, APPLE, DIAMOND, CARBON FIBER, CROSS, BRIDGE, EISTEIN and DOVE awards became badges of honor the community would place at their entrances and webpages. Once a community had received an award there would be a week of celebration. Awards would be won by communities and would give special mention if there was an individual who played a special role in the community getting the award. The success of a community was the goal rather than the old system rewarding individuals.
Our transportation methods were drastically improved about 80 years ago when the Port of Call (POC) system for cities and communities was adopted. Rather than large transport trucks coming into a city, they would stop and drop their load at the edge of the city or community in their POC facilities. The manager of the POC would call the individual shops and stores and let them know their freight was in and could be picked up or delivered. This eliminated the majority of accidents by keeping the larger trucks out of the business and residential areas and eliminated the noise and air pollution from the trucks. This change alone accounted for a reduction in almost 20% of the remaining air pollution in cities and decreased associated health problems.
So, beginning about 50 years ago, or for 5 decades now, we have found out how to get along as people, striving for kindness and the rewards it brings. Laughter is a good medicine, a day’s work is a good a reward. Unemployment is very low but is kept low by encouragement and the upside of employment for the individual, the family and the community. Homelessness is a temporary condition, crime is a temporary condition and people are encouraged to support themselves or you end up on the municipal work-crew as a city janitor, sanitation crew or similar job. Crime has been redefined to “if you do something that hurts another or causes them to not be able to support themselves or their family, whether temporarily or permanently, that is the worst crime. Troublemakers are not tolerated but shipped to the community that rehabilitates them according to the crimes they have committed. Police agencies have been able to reduce the size of their department within the scope of the community government. Those with medical conditions or mental trouble are handled with kindness. The family cares for them if possible and if not, a home is available in each community. You see that now people are consider more important on a community scale inside the state or nation you are a part of. We spend more time and effort making sure our fellow-citizens are able to find their position in society and their position is just as important as everyone else in the community because without them, it wouldn’t function as smoothly. It’s not utopia, but it’s manageable. What started as an effort to save the planet from a climate crisis,
resulted in its inhabitants finding each other, and life in harmony.
Thank you for joining me on this recap of how we achieved Net Carbon Zero,
and world peace.
REFERENCES
Tico Times, 30-Nov-2015, “Costa Rica honored at Paris climate talks with message on the Eiffel Tower”
https://ticotimes.net/2015/11/30/costa-rica-honored-at-paris- climate-talks-with-message-on-eiffel-tower
UN Climate Change, 20-Sep-2019 – Costa Rica Named “UN Champion of the Earth” for Pioneering Role in Fighting Climate Change
https://unfccc.int/news/costa-rica-named-un-champion-of-the-earth-for-pioneering-role-in-fighting-climate-change
Defend the Planet, 10-May-2018, Costa Rica President Alvarado Announces Fossil Fuel Ban
https://www.globalcitizen.org/en/content/costa-ricas-new-president-banned-fossil-fuels/
Culture Trip, 5-Mar-2017, Why Costa Rica is the World’s Happiest Country
https://theculturetrip.com/central-america/costa-rica/articles/why-costa-rica-is-the-worlds-happiest-country/
Lyrics.com, 1971, I’d Like to Teach the World to Sing – by the Hilltop Singers
Produced by Billy Davis and portrayed a positive message of hope and love.
https://www.lyrics.com/lyric/6601423/the+new+seekers/id+like+to+teach+ the+world+to+sing