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| Living in the Global Economy |
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All life on Earth survives in the same way, making a living out of what the planet provides—and we are no exception. Like the wolves and ravens, everything that’s vital to our survival comes from nature—air, water, soil, minerals and other forms pf life. But the supply is finite and somehow we’ve forgotten that.
The world we’ve built persuades us that we’re self-sufficient, and that our economy can go on growing forever, far beyond the limits of the natural world. We’ve come to think of nature as just raw material, fuel for our industrial machine. Our economic system has turned the whole world into a marketplace where everything on Earth is up for grabs, even the future of the planet.
The mainspring of the human economy is the market, the way we’ve exchanged things since time began. We’ve never found a better way of arriving at prices, and generating wealth. The idea of the market, freely operating without interference, is at the center of our system.
 The market generates wealth but it has shortcomings. For one thing, it knows nothing about limits in the outside world. That’s why there was no rise in prices to signal the disappearance of the North Atlantic cod. Market prices don’t include pollution, or depletion of the planet’s oil reserves.
The crisis is global and monolithic. The solutions will be local and divers. Thousands and thousands of them are shaped by local needs and respond to specific problems. And they’re starting to appear. Here are just a few Canadian examples.
The old fishing plant in Cochagne, New Brunswick, now houses an environmental business which sells around the world. This locally designed equipment recovers fluids from fridges and air conditioners, preventing damage to the ozone layer from chlorofluoro-carbons or CFCs. There’s so much demand that the company’s back-ordered for months.
 St. Joseph Printing in Toronto decided to do the right thing—using recycled paper and vegetable inks. In the end they went the whole hog. Their new plant is custom designed for low energy use, maximum efficiency and zero waste. Responsibility has paid dividends—they’re beating out competitors and they’re expending. The environmental choice turned out to be the cost-efficient one.
The place we belong to, the harvests we depend on, the people we love, and the work we do. That’s what an economy is for: looking after what’s important to us, safeguarding our future.
譯文: 生活在經濟全球化之中
地球上的一切生命都是靠一種方式生存, 那就是靠這顆行星提供的東西謀生。人類也不例外。同狼和烏鴉一樣, 我們生存所必需的一切都來源於自然界, 包括空氣、水、土壤、礦物質和其他生命形式。但是, 供應是有限的, 而不知怎的我們卻忘記了這一點。
我們建造的世界使我們以為可以自給自足, 以為我們的經濟能永遠發展下去, 遠遠超過自然界給我們設定的限制。我們已經學會把自然界僅僅看作是原料, 是供我們的工業使用的燃料。我們的經濟體制已經把整個世界變成了市場, 地球上的每一樣東西, 甚至我們這個星球的未來, 都是花錢買到的。
人類經濟的支柱是市場, 就是我們有史以來進行交換的方式。這是我們找到用以確定價格和生成財富的最佳方式。自由運營而不受干擾的市場觀念更是我們這個體制的核心。
市場生成財富, 但是它也有缺點, 別的不説, 就説一條: 它根本不問外部世界有什麼局限. 北大西洋的鱈魚瀕臨滅絕, 但是市場並沒有反映這件事, 價格仍然不變。市場價格部反映實際付出的代價, 這又是一個缺點。汽油價格並不包括污染在內, 也不包括地球油藏的枯竭。
危機是全球的、 整體性的, 可是解決辦法可以成千上萬, 針對各地不同的需要, 解決具體的問題。這些方法已經開始出現, 下面舉幾個加拿大的例子。
在新不倫瑞克科恰尼地方的老漁業加工廠現在改成了一家環保企業, 銷售市場遍佈全世界. 它自己設計的裝備專門回收冰箱和空調器裏的製冷液, 以防止氟里昂破壞臭氧層。訂單已經定到好幾個月以後去了。
多倫多的聖約瑟夫印刷公司做出了正確的決定, 採用再生紙和植物墨汁，並且決定貫徹到各個方面去。他們的新廠是專門設計的，能耗低，效率高，沒有廢料。責任心帶來了好處，現在還沒有人能同他們競爭。環保型的選擇已經被證明是成本效益很高的一種選擇。
我們歸屬的地方、我們依賴的收成、我們熱愛的人以及我們所作的工作—這才是我們需要的那种經濟，即照顧對於我們重要的東西，保衛我們的未來。
(CCTV-1, “Global”, Dec. 12)
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The market generates wealth but it has shortcomings. For one thing, it knows nothing about limits in the outside world. That’s why there was no rise in prices to signal the disappearance of the North Atlantic cod. Market prices don’t include pollution, or depletion of the planet’s oil reserves.
St. Joseph Printing in Toronto decided to do the right thing—using recycled paper and vegetable inks. In the end they went the whole hog. Their new plant is custom designed for low energy use, maximum efficiency and zero waste. Responsibility has paid dividends—they’re beating out competitors and they’re expending. The environmental choice turned out to be the cost-efficient one.