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| ==Critique by James Quilligan== | | ==Critique by James Quilligan== |
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| James Quilligan:
| | * see the discussion page at https://wiki.p2pfoundation.net/Talk:Solar_Dollar |
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| "One of the most interesting proposals I've seen, although I haven't read the three papers referred to in the video. So it's rather difficult to assess this proposal from the basic outlines presented in a three-minute film and the remarks that follow. Currency value here is based on a risk assessment of climate change, and on that basis a 'mitigation reward' is then combined with carbon taxes and/or a cap-and-trade protocol. This implies some thermodynamic understanding of the problem (i.e., the entropic nature of global warming), yet puts forward solutions that would not be helpful. The elements of this proposed monetary system are market-based measures that are geared toward financial investment in green technology to mitigate climate change. What does this mean? Think about it for a moment. Since global risk assessments would be the basis for the price of the solar dollar, the world will derive monetary value entirely from the metrics of the demand for financial innovation on climate mitigation. Here, once again -- as is repeatedly expressed by ecological economists when they try and apply their thermodynamic knowledge to money -- we see the epistemological confusion between actual monetary value and financial value. Monetary value and financial value are two entirely different things and need to be kept separate, not conflated: the monetary value of a currency is a measure of resources held in reserve to guarantee the purchasing power of the currency -- NOT its financial price in the marketplace. Yet, for solar dollars, there are no reserve assets! (only "green quantitative easing", as the Solar Dollar King exclaims in his remarks following the video). Because *if climate risk is truly a reserve asset*, this means that the world has given up business as usual, we are now in a state of major emergency in fighting global warming, and the risk of disaster from a hotter planet is our only standard for a sustainable civilization. I agree that the carbon crisis is a HUGE problem, but so is the hydrological crisis in water scarcity and the nitrogen crisis of declining yields in soil and food production. These are all symptoms of a larger problem, which is simply aided and abetted by solutions like that proposed by Solar Dollar: humanity is in denial that the non-renewable resources available on the planet are not being conserved at a pace that will leave much left for future generations, and renewable resources are not being replenished quickly enough to meet the needs of the present population which continues to grow. It's been said many times but can't be said enough: human population is using resources faster than Nature can replenish them. So the image of *Solar Dollars* sounds truly wonderful: we're going to use the Sun to provide a healthy measure for a thriving civilization that is harnessing solar energy to generate sustainable, syntropic, bountiful resource yields to meet the needs of the entire population of the planet! Yet, what Solar Dollars really represents is a commitment to a program of disaster mitigation which is completely based on the unsustainable, entropic and deathly effects of solar energy and its heritage in fossil fuels, humanity's foolish overheating of the planet, and civilization's inability to stay within the limits of its carrying capacity. Solar Dollars would only throw fuel on this fire."
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| (https://www.facebook.com/groups/p2p.open/permalink/1627933447250828/?)
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| =Project 2= | | =Project 2= |
Revision as of 15:37, 26 October 2017
= 2 proposals, as yet not existing projects
Project 1
Related to the Global 4C Mitigation policy proposals. They write that the solar dollar:
- will be an official world currency, and will not be a carbon credit or a carbon offset;
- will create a price signal that aggregates with the price signals created in carbon markets; and
- will not be associated with carbon that is previously rewarded with carbon offsets.
"The Solar Dollar will be a vehicle for a worldwide social-and-environmental movement that can circumvent unproductive rhetoric of politics by launching without inter-governmental agreements. In a sense, we can use the Solar Dollar to lead a new monetary narrative, rather than following the same old political narratives. It is argued that a balance of Solar Dollar rewards, conventional carbon taxes, and fair regulations is necessary for society and businesses to experience a social transformation towards a sustainable economy. The Solar Dollar will provide the trigger for social transformation because it speaks a common language – value. The Solar Dollar will be issued directly to enterprises, firms, citizens, as a reward for greenhouse mitigation, assuming that the applicants can pass a reliable auditing and assessment process. This will help avoid the corruption and inefficiencies of intermediaries. The Solar Dollar will be used to create a worldwide public database for sharing knowledge about all types of abatement and sequestration. This will lead to greater market efficiency and social inter-connectedness. The policy for the Solar Dollar is very clear – it will request a guarantee from all of the world’s major central banks to create a multi-decade bull market in the Solar Dollar currency. The Solar Dollar price will be scheduled to rise over the coming decades, to ensure that greenhouse emissions are mitigated, and to significantly improve our chances of staying below 1.5-2°C of global warming as defined under Article 2 of the 2015 Paris Agreement. The Solar Dollar bull market will also allow citizens and firms to protect wealth during a period of tumultuous change."
(http://www.global4c.org/solar-dollar/)
Critique by James Quilligan
Project 2
Thomas Greco’s Solar Dollar proposal is for a new credit instrument for local electric utility companies.
- please see Beyond Money and this discussion paper: https://beyondmoney.files.wordpress.com/2016/08/solar-dollars-proposal-rev1.pdf