# Sustainability factors *Scraped from in 02/2021* This is a critical breakdown of each of the UN's sustainable development goals. - This is to clarify the ultimate [purpose](purpose.md) they're trying to attain, not tear it down. Specificity is the only way to attain social progress. - However, [highly influential](power-influence.md) people can do more with vague concepts, since they can make promises that mean nothing. One far-reaching issue across these goals is [Shirky's Principle](lawsaxioms.md). - Organizations don't have much reason to entirely fix a solution when their existence depends on resolving the problem. - The only way to fix *that* problem is to create a temporary-only group with no permissible time extension. - However, temporary solutions often become a new permanent one. ## Goal 1: No Poverty We must define poverty. A. If we measure poverty by the quality of life, [technology](technology.md) today would make 99.99% of the people who lived 100 years ago qualify as "poverty-stricken". B. Quality of life is also inherently difficult to quantify with money. - Someone living on the equivalent of $1.90 a day in sub-Saharan Africa is living better than someone living on $10 a day in New York City. - The economics of wealth go back to market prices for goods and services and employment, both parts of Goal 8. C. If poverty refers strictly to inequality, we must move the discussion to Goal 10. In general, poverty exists as a comparative store of human [power](power.md), and people are too selfish to entirely give up power they proportionally hold higher than others, which keeps the pyrammid structure we all live in. ## Goal 2: Zero Hunger This affects a *ton* of the other goals, since survival is literally at the bottom of the hierarchy. - If everyone focused on this goal and Goal 6 above everything else, people would feel safe enough to start solving everything else from inside their community *without* needing international cooperation. As of now, world hunger should no longer be an issue. We have enough [technology](technology.md) and an adequate [supply chain](logistics.md) system to feed the world five times over. ## Goal 3: Good Health and Well-Being As of now, uneven [healthcare](body-4_health.md) shouldn't be an issue. - Medical [technology](technology.md) is sufficient to address many issues, with many geniuses building increasingly cheaper solutions to resolve this problem. The primary issue is that technology adoption often undermines the people who have [power](power.md) in those portions of the world. - As an example, aid packages mysteriously disappear once the country's military helps distribute them. There are several solutions: 1. More control over that nation's leadership. 2. More incentive for their government to distribute medical equipment. 3. More access to a [free market](economics.md) for medical components and services. Healthy, happy people make a country thrive, but they also start climbing Maslow's ladder enough to ask why they can't have a [democratically elected](politics-systems.md) leader, and most military-enforced governments don't like those questions. One of the most effective forms of improved healthcare, though, comes in understanding basic hygiene and infectivity, which comes naturally with Goal 4. ## Goal 4: Quality Education [Understanding](understanding.md) is critical to all success, and [education](pedagogy.md) is the means to that understanding. The onset of [the internet](browser.md) makes education trivially easy. - This goal could easily be rephrased as "Unfiltered/Free Internet for All". This won't come without pushback. - There's plenty of power at risk of redistribution by groups that control information. - One example is how [educated people](pedagogy.md) tend to resist conformity and question the legitimacy of an authority's power. The most lasting form of education, though, comes through the wisdom and experience of the [older generation](maturity.md). - In that sense, in all [disciplines](jobs-specialization.md), venerating the works of the elderly is the best way to glean [tribal knowledge](understanding.md) that's as-of-yet unattainable via systemic reproduction. ## Goal 5: Gender Equality Females and males are [biologically different from birth](gender.md). Unfortunately, those differences often create nuanced differences in [purpose](purpose.md). Like with many [left-leaning ideologies](leftism.md), the hangup ties to the specificity of the term "equality". In that sense, this is a subset of Goal 10. Since males and females don't [think](understanding.md) precisely the same way, they will not [accomplish purposes](purpose.md) in the same way, or with a similarly predictable timeline. - We should we clarify whether we should give females and males an equal shot at everything, or make compensating efforts to accommodate for inadequacies in one gender or another (i.e., equality of opportunity vs equality of outcome). Generally, while anyone can agree on mistreatment and dehumanization of one gender (specifically females), it's self-evident that since about 50% of people are males, both females and males should find an agreement on things that are equal. - Given [the absurdly difficult challenges natural to merely living in the same building together](people-relationships-3_marriage.md), we should start with imitating the modeling done within the vast variety of healthy marriages sprinkled across society. ## Goal 6: Clean Water and Sanitation This problem is foundational to everything else. Developed societies need hygienic, healthy people, which requires free access to water. Like with Goal 2, there's zero reason why we can't make this happen. [Michael Pritchard](https://www.ted.com/talks/michael_pritchard_how_to_make_filthy_water_drinkable) has made a pristine and affordable solution for clean drinking water that doesn't need plumbing. ## Goal 7: Affordable and Clean Energy Accomplishing this Goal will make every other Goal much easier. We have [technology](technology.md) to industrialize every nation right now, but this is a very political topic because of Goal 13. In the absence of climate-related discussions, we could provide access to cheap electricity to all the nations. However, that would likely shift around the power dynamic, and some NGOs (non-governmental organizations) would lose their funding if they're [no longer useful](mgmt-badsystems.md). The impact of this is huge. Charles Eliot once called electricity "carrier of light and power, devourer of space and time, bearer of human speech over land and sea, greatest servant of man--yet itself unknown." It multiplies force and is the greatest form of non-human [power](power-types.md) we have available to us. ## Goal 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth Generally, people work when they have [a reason](purpose.md) to work. The most clear version of this is money, but it can be any [form of power](power-types.md) to accomplish what they want, except for [enslavement](slavery.md). Very often, governments of many countries [strip motivations](mgmt-badsystems.md) to do society-enhancing things. A policy can create a perverse incentive, and other times a [totalitarian regime](politics-systems.md) makes people feel their sense of [identity](identity.md) can't extend into the world around them. Other times, non-government groups possess enough power to control what a government does (e.g., oppressive religious groups, corporations). - In those situations, clearing out corruption pushes against *many* groups at once and becomes nearly impossible without a proper [war](people-conflicts-war.md). Either way, giving freedom for people to work the way they want, on things they want, without large-scale oppression, typically requires [outside competition](economics.md). - If governments [fear](mind-feelings-fear.md) invasion (especially when they may fall behind on [technology](technology.md) [trends](trends.md)), their leaders will frequently adopt changes they wouldn't have otherwise made that work in the best interests of the public. ## Goal 9: Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure There's really no such thing as "sustainable" infrastructure, since it's the product of past-tense actions by the people in a region. Thus, the only sustainable infrastructure comes through the continued maintenance by motivated people who wish to build and improve their environment. In that sense, Goals 7 and 8 naturally lead to automatically satisfying this Goal. More broadly, Goal 11 addresses sustainability. ## Goal 10: Reduced Inequalities We must define inequality. 1. As a concept, [reality](reality.md) itself makes us all unequal. Some are stronger, smarter, more popular, likeable, or strong-willed than others. This is a statement of fact. 2. However, the perceived inequality comes from the [values](values-quality.md) we prioritize on things. 3. In a fair game, there will always be winners and losers, and the only people in any game with a problem with the arrangement are the losers. 4. More accurately, we must consider *unjust* inequality. 5. Unjust inequality fits into several classifications: - Unfair opportunity - some people have more than others when they didn't earn it - Unfair treatment - some people are given uneven treatment compared to others This entire discussion of inequality also has time-sensitive implications. Is the child of an oppressor responsible for the oppressor's actions? It's safe to say that the majority of crimes against humanity have happened by long-dead people, so how do we reconcile this? The first thing, before anything else, is partial forgiveness by the injured against their persecutors, specifically as [release](happiness-2_recovering.md). Then, when the unjustly treated can speak [reasonably](logic.md) about their [suffering](ptsd.md) and the people who may lose from the dialogue can [have compassion](people-relationships-love.md) on the victims enough to sacrifice for them, then and *only then* everyone can [fairly](morality-justice.md) discuss terms. A nation is made of its citizens, and individual differences create individual inequalities. Entire nations become unequal because of differences between those nations. - Instead of "fixing" an inequality, we must thoroughly understand *why* any inequality exists. Dictatorships have fewer hard-working citizens in them than democracies, and that has very little to do with *who* is in charge compared to *how* that society distributes [power](power.md). The sensible action would be to see which countries measure up as the most prosperous and expect the other countries to imitate that of their own governmental volition, with inequalities only measured after accounting for unwillingness to work with "best practices". - Generally, the USA has been fantastically prosperous (contrary to [leftist](leftism.md) complaints), and other countries could [learn](pedagogy.md) from that. ## Goal 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities Sustainable, like many other words, is often stated and rarely defined. Broadly, it means that things persist indefinitely. The only legitimate deterioration of things persisting indefinitely comes through misuse of an object: 1. [Tragedy of the commons](lawsaxioms.md) is when people don't maintain what they don't believe they own (i.e., public property). Privatizing *everything* runs the risk of [monopoly](mgmt-badsystems.md), but no monopolist wants to lose [power](power-types.md), so they'll continue making something (and farming it) as long as they gain from it. As it stands now, we live in an oligopoly, which seems to be the sensible solution to the issue of deteriorating commons. 2. Abuse, typically through [addiction](addiction.md) or [hoarding power](power-types.md), prevents maximizing resources. This can best be solved by allowing a [free market](economics.md) that permits [inventors](socialrisk.md) to pursue further [purposes](purpose.md) that use [as-yet unknown](unknown.md) resources. [Technology](technology.md) tends to generate new resources *all the time* (e.g., copper was just a pottery material until we developed electricity). To make something sustainable, everyone should feel peace about their [purposes](purpose.md). This requires all classes of society to have equal and fair [rules](rules-methods.md), [equally enforced](morality-justice.md). But, equal rules aren't easy because corruption often creeps into the highest places of society. The answer is a [hybrid republic and democracy form of government](politics-systems.md), along with term limits, complete public transparency about everything, and a completely unfettered [press](stories-storytellers.md), just in case anything starts becoming [suspicious](mgmt-badsystems.md). Even then, it can implode at any time if enough [groups](groupslarge.md) conspire together to overthrow it, from [inside or out](people-conflicts-war.md). ## Goal 12: Responsible Consumption and Production While this is a subset of Goal 11, there's a bit more regarding how it develops. Because of human [purpose](purpose.md), we always want to maintain and sustain things if we find [meaning](meaning.md) in their maintenance. Independent fishermen and loggers, for example, have every incentive to "farm" their stock since they wish to maintain their careers indefinitely. However, as groups scale, the [purpose shifts](mgmt-badsystems.md). A logging manager, for example, cares more for self-interested management than self-interested logging, and there's more in common among management roles in different industries than there is among their lowest-ranking members. In that sense, large organizations that create a [subgroup](groupssmall.md) of cultural [elites](classes.md) are the general cause of all [large-scale waste](mgmt-badsystems.md). However, this tends to happen with *any* group that lasts more than a few decades. ## Goal 13: Climate Action One [scientific](science.md) reality about climate change is that carbon measurements aren't anywhere *near* as useful to measure climate change as water measurements: - Rainfall and precipitation - Sea and river levels - Cloud formation - Desertification - Changes in water temperatures - Growth patterns of icebergs As it stands, our climate is improving dramatically, through two factors: 1. We have plenty of [technology](technology.md) and governmental control methods to prevent as much environmental damage as we had performed in the past. 2. The planet has self-healing mechanisms (e.g., trees capturing carbon, microbes that consume hydrocarbons and radiation). However, the positive impact of the climate pales in comparison to the [power games](power-types.md) played with the climate narrative. - By making a broad claim of "reduce emissions", governments get [unlimited access to measure any data](power-types.md) they deem necessary. If the climate is in utter peril, and we're all precariously close to imminent death, then we must submit absolutely *all* forms of activity to our governments, since there's not a single human thing that *doesn't* make carbon. Further, depopulating via mass genocide is absolutely critical for the survival of humanity. Otherwise, if there's even the remotest doubt about the measurements' connection to the climate, or there's been tremendous political swaying of the legitimate risks associated to the climate, we should seriously consider whether all these anti-human-activity actions are even necessary. The fatalist Climate Changeism is more a [religion](religion.md) of our times than anything else. Certain [scientific facts](science.md) indicate truth that opposes the mainstream [narrative](stories.md) (e.g., the Mount Saint Helens eruption caused more pollution than the entire Industrial Revolution), but today's modern, [trendy](trends.md) ideas are as resistant to [influence](power-influence.md) as the ubiquity of the Roman pantheon two thousand years ago. ## Goal 14: Life Below Water As an extension of Goal 13, there's not much to say on it, except that we don't really know much about it. While the body of information is slowly building, we presently know more about stars absurdly far away than about everything underneath our oceans. Before we make decisions about our bodies of water, we need more data. ## Goal 15: Life on Land As another extension of Goal 13, we must consider the philosophical concept of mankind. While it's our [natural tendency](humanity-universals.md) to imagine a human/nature dichotomy, we are a part of nature. [Religious perspectives](religion.md) aside, we have the dominant right of nature to whatever we please purely as a principle of [power](power.md). In an evolutionary sense, other organisms on this planet aren't as fit as us. They either serve our purpose or we can do away with them. Anything of the sort that says, "We have a right to protect the Earth" is simply [religious](religion.md) jargon. ## Goal 16: Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions The justice of a society hangs heavily on its [culture](culture.md). A [good society](perfectsociety.md) requires a culture driven on aspects of [love for each other](people-relationships-love.md). Otherwise, it requires [fair](morality-justice.md) and well-enforced [laws](rules.md). The culture of a society is determined by its leaders, both [big](groupslarge.md) and [small](groupssmall.md). - While [Plato's philosopher-kings](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philosopher_king) is a silly elitist concept, we must know the [moral basis](morality.md) for everyone who comes into power. The closest thing we have, barring a theocracy, is a [free-market solution](economics.md): everyone gets a vote. - This is subject to abuse since political power becomes a [popularity contest](image-distortion.md), but it's worked the best so far to preserve life and [liberties](people-3_respect.md) compared to all the other solutions (e.g., military takeovers). It's a compounding issue: the culture affects the leadership, which affects the culture. The solution goes back to *everyone* receiving [basic human rights](people-3_respect.md), then making sure in some way that the [leadership](groupslarge.md) is punished for violating them. ## Goal 17: Partnerships The entire idea of everyone partnering together is a pleasant-sounding one, but a poor one. History has shown that people most frequently unify over a [common enemy](people-conflicts-war.md). It's the reason we have the history of the nations as they are. The only way for there to be any unity is to have a shared hatred of the same thing threatening society. Goal 13 is an attempt at it, but COVID-19 has shown that a few short months of society shutting down can undo *decades* of unhealthy pollution, so it's difficult to get everyone on a shared [purpose](purpose.md) about it. ## Conclusion These goals are allegedly driven by a valiant desire for [justice](morality-justice.md). However, we already have [technology](technology.md) and systems in place that can solve all the world's problems, as well as many proven-reliable [moral](morality.md) frameworks present within [religion](religion.md). The only reason we still have these issues after millennia is because there's too much to [gain](power-types.md) (e.g., money) in treating the issue instead of fixing it. It'll likely persist as long as the [moral](morality.md) condition of mankind stays the same. However, if you're *really* compelled to change things, there's a sane order to approach it, with each one accumulating into assisting the rest. ### PHASE 1 - DE-CORRUPTION Goal 4: Quality Education Goal 16: Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions ### PHASE 2 - SURVIVAL Goal 2: Zero Hunger Goal 6: Clean Water and Sanitation Goal 7: Affordable and Clean Energy ### PHASE 3 - SAFETY Goal 3: Good Health and Well-Being Goal 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth Goal 9: Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure ### PHASE 4 - EQUALITY OF OPPORTUNITY Goal 1: No Poverty Goal 5: Gender Equality Goal 10: Reduced Inequalities ### PHASE 5 - ACTUALIZATION Goal 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities Goal 12: Responsible Consumption and Production Goal 13: Climate Action Goal 14: Life Below Water Goal 15: Life on Land Goal 17: Partnerships