Within the global movements of ecological stewardship, social innovations and indigenous knowledge systems there is a common understanding that we already have an abundant wealth of practical solutions to solve most of the world's problems. Seeing how this vital information is not finding its rightful place in the commercial media, this Solutions Portal will become a significant branch of the United Earth platform by providing a planetary overview and directory of all the best practices, guidance and tools for ecologically- and socially-responsible living.
We have the knowledge and technology to provide for all and to reduce our impacts on the environment. The emergence of a global civil society is creating new opportunities to build a democratic and humane world. Our environmental, economic, political, social, and spiritual challenges are interconnected, and together we can forge inclusive solutions.
- The Earth Charter
All the most inspiring, educational and practical information about the new paradigms and practices can be found on the Internet. You just need to know where to look. This toolkit is a humble beginning of the coming Solutions Portal, and provides a refined selection of videos, websites, articles, direct actions and more. Learning about the abundance of ecological solutions, possibilities and local actions helps you to feel hopeful and encouraged to become engaged and work together more effectively.
Economic localisation is the key to sustaining biological and cultural diversity – to sustaining life itself. The sooner we shift towards the local, the sooner we will begin healing our planet, our communities, and ourselves.
- Helena Norberg-Hodge
Most social and ecological innovators will agree that the most fundamental criterion for all our political, social and economic reform is re-localisation. This means bringing governance & decision-making, livelihoods & businesses, food & energy production, water, waste & biodiversity management back to a locally directed and a bio-regionally sustainable level. Through these practical collective efforts, as exemplified by the Transition Town movement, we can build vibrant local economies and resilient communities.
This plan is crystallizing around the recognition that most of the cultural and ecological problems that we face are inherently systemic. Therefore, for people to find a harmonious balance within ourselves, each other, and our natural environment, will require a fundamental re-design of all our social systems. Fortunately, through movements such as Transition Towns and the political and economic reform that is happening in Iceland, Ecuador and Costa Rica, we now have living examples of how large groups of people can progressively and effectively change our ways to create systems that actually reflect our values and aspirations - all while building vibrant and resilient communities and honouring the rights of Nature.
The few who understand the system will either be so interested in its profits or be so dependent upon its favours that there will be no opposition from that class, while on the other hand, the great body of people, mentally incapable of comprehending the tremendous advantage that capital derives from the system, will bear its burdens without complaint, and perhaps without even suspecting that the system is inimical to their interests.
- The Rothschild brothers of London writing to associates in New York, 1863.
To effectively design and implement solutions we must first understand the nature and root cause of our problems. Today there can be little doubt that human society at large is completely ruled by money. The vast majority of people spend most of their time, energy and intelligence thinking or worrying about how to acquire, accumulate or spend money. Money itself is not the problem. Only when we understand that the fractional reserve banking system is designed to impose and maintain a paradigm of scarcity and inequality, can we begin to comprehend the extent to which it impacts all other aspects of human society - with all its resulting ramifications, i.e. greed, violence, poverty, etc.
There is without a doubt a mega-crisis that we are facing in the coming years. And the big elephant in the living room is the money problem. Unfortunately most people who are active in the sustainability movement and the environmental movement don’t understand the nature of this problem. We are not going to make any significant headway with sustainability or restoration of the environment until we solve the money problem.
- Thomas H. Greco, Currency Design Specialist
(From The Money Fix)
Numerous documentaries exposing the fraudulence of the central banking system can be found on the Internet. The Money Fix is one documentary that provides both critical information as well as some key alternatives. (Please see the solutions-awareness toolkit below for a variety of relevant videos)
United Earth, along with numerous New Economy groups, invites humanity into a new paradigm of economic equality, Universal Basic Income, circular economies, moneyless exchanges, sharing and gifting. We have the economic models to create a responsible abundance for everyone: a world where everyone’s basic rights - healthy food, clean water, comfortable shelter and renewable energy - are easily met; a world where all people can fully develop and express their unique talents and creativity, free from any financial concerns. To co-create this world we need to collectively choose it.
United Earth is co-creating a global platform where we can all express this choice.
Living in a moneyless community or town will soon become a matter of choice for each of us. During the transition, however, there are numerous available tools such as cryptocurrencies, mutual credit unions, community exchange systems that we can communally choose from.
One of the collaborators of United Earth is the Earth Dollar, who are currently developing a cryptocurrency backed by land and natural capital, as a means for ensuring financial mobility to fund our collective Global Transition. For more information, please refer to the United Earth application for the United Nations Inaugural Solutions Summit.
You never change things by fighting the existing reality.
To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.
- R. Buckminster Fuller
Rather than re-inventing wheels United Earth aspires to highlight the monumental amount of valuable resources already out there. Nevertheless, we do foresee the co-creation of a single global hub that consolidates, organises and streamlines all the information on the Internet pertaining to our cultural transition.
