We were made aware of the Blue Economy website by a supporter of Extinction Rebellion. We are not a fact check website per se, but we would like to hold the “principles” of this website to the light to see if they make sense. We will list the principles below and comment on each point. There are a lot of them. Our motto is to maximize life. If you do that you’re probably going to survive climate change, way easier to wrap your head around. So here goes..
- The Blue Economy respond to basic needs of all with what you have, introducing innovations inspired by nature, generating multiple benefits, including jobs and social capital, offering more with less. to vague, an abstraction can’t do nothing
- Solutions are first and foremost based on physics. Deciding factors are Pressure and Temperature as found on site. Not sure what this refers to.
- Substitute something with Nothing – Question any resource regarding its necessity for production. Trust can be based on experience, no need to question everything, not sure what is meant here
- Natural systems cascade nutrients, matter and energy – waste does not exist. Any by-product is the source for a new product. Can be true
- Nature evolved from a few species to a rich biodiversity. Wealth means diversity. Industrial standardization is the contrary. A random comparison
- Nature provides room for entrepreneurs who do more with less. Nature is contrary to monopolization. Not always, pests monopolize
- Gravity is main source of energy, solar energy is the second renewable fuel. False, water evaporates due to solar energy, without the sun we’d be at ~63 degrees Kelvin
- Water is the primary solvent (no complex, chemical, toxic catalysts). Solvent of water soluable materials.
- In nature the constant is change. Innovations take place in every moment. Not intentionally except in conscious minds
- Nature only works with what is locally available. Sustainable business evolves with respect not only for local resources, but also for culture and tradition. Ok
- Nature responds to basic needs and then evolves from sufficiency to abundance. The present economic model relies on scarcity as a basis for production and consumption. Nature doesn’t do anything on purpose. The economy assumes abundance, not sarcity, that is the problem.
- Natural systems are non-linear. What does that mean?
- In Nature everything is biodegradable – it is just a matter of time. Practically true
- In natural systems everything is connected and evolving towards symbiosis. Nope, it tries to eat whatever it can.
- In Nature water, air, and soil are the commons, free and abundant. Duh
- In Nature one process generates multiple benefits. Not necessarily
- Natural systems share risks. Any risk is a motivator for innovations. No innovations in nature, evolution yes
- Nature is efficient. So sustainable business maximizes use of available material and energy, which reduces the unit price for the consumer. Nope it is not efficient, it tries to survive. Plants are 5% solar efficient.
- Nature searches for the optimum for all involucrated elements. Nope, nothing searches in nature except conscious minds.
- In Nature negatives are converted into positives. Problems are opportunities. There is no judgement except in conscious minds.
- Nature searches for economies of scope. One natural innovation carries various benefits for all. Nope, they may get eaten less readily
Ok, having done the check it seems the blue economy principles are a lot of claims about nature and what it wants and does. Including that it would somehow search for an optimum for all “elements captured in a membrane”. Nature doesn’t search. Nature is mostly dead except for life which is opportunistic and can’t create the conditions it needs most of the time. Nature runs on solar and nuclear (geothermal) energy. Without those two sources we’d be on a frozen iceball.
One Roboeconomic principle is : Maximize Life
Its important not to rely on nature to much in our current situation, because according to natural processes we are headed for a massive extinction that includes humanity and then at least a million years of dead silence from the oceans and on land, due to toxic gasses like H2S released from rotting organic material. Worst case would be a hothouse earth, which will happen if so much water evaporates that our atmosphere can not cool itself down (water is a greenhouse gas) resulting in a positive feedback loading more water capturing more heat. We need human intervention in this warming process and we need technology and industry to achieve it.
If you have principles, make them instructive, don’t expect people to guess your thoughts.
There is plenty of energy to fix our predicament, it just needs to be directed towards the right mechanisms of change and manipulation. This is what the roboeconomy is about, we need AI, robots and automation running on renewables to steer us away from runaway warming, and we can. Just conserving or waiting for things to fix itself will not work.