Juggling Dynamite

Many people are aware we need to clean up the oceans.  Some are moving ahead with doing so.   See: A billionaire is giving away his fortune to clean up the oceans.

And also: A 22 year old raised 30 million for ocean clean up project.

The Ocean Cleanup uses a boom to capture plastic and keep it in areas where a boat can come and periodically pick it up. The pipe moves with the waves and uses floating anchors. Critics are skeptical of the system’s compatibility with the extreme forces of the ocean and its potential impact on ocean life.

The system should be fully deployed in 2018. $30 million has been raised for the cleanup.  Here is a direct video link.

As soon as we acknowledge that billions are needed to clean up the mess, it focuses thinking on who should be bearing the costs for doing so.  The answer is those who make the profits producing and filling the packaging. This will realign all business models to account for the waste they produce and encourage smarter, cost-effective solutions.  As in the old days, if we use packaging to sell our products, we have to responsible for collecting, reusing and recycling it.  You produce it, you own it.  This will also naturally encourage biodegradable and minimal packaging solutions.  All smarter than the current approach.

Who doesn’t want utility bills of zero?  Wasting less will help families, businesses and governments dig out of debt.

By 2020, the California Energy Commission plans to require every new residential building to meet a code called “zero net energy.” Under ZNE, over the course of a year a new house should consume no more energy than it generates from sources such as rooftop solar panels.

The state is still writing the rules that will define exactly how builders are supposed to meet the goal, and some warn the plan is so ambitious that regulators will be forced to roll back deadlines. But the Energy Commission insists it is sticking to its timetable. By 2030, the mandate is set to expand to all new commercial buildings as well. See:  The quest for utility bills of zero.    Here is a direct video link.

We all lose when debt bubbles drive shelter costs to unsustainable levels. Productivity and other investment falls as finite funds are disproportionately funneled into this one expense item. Price mean-reversion is needed to reconnect cost with incomes once more. History assures us that it will happen and that will help future buyers, but not before first hurting today’s many over-leveraged owners and lenders.

A young millennial’s attempt to buy his first home. Here is a direct video link.