Solving Climate Change via cryptocurrency

Every generation wishes better for its children, so why are we not acting as such on climate change?
What makes this issue so special, so elusive? After all there is only one earth.

I live in a small country called Barbados, a tiny speck on the world map, a country undoubtedly that will be impacted by climate change as we see further loss of our coral reef due to increasing sea temperatures and appear set to lose many of our beautiful beaches. Yet even here, just like much elsewhere, it seems a non issue. A problem for someone else to fix. In our defense it does seem like a mess we did not create and largely out of our hands. At this point though; pointing figures is of no real help.

The apathy here is real. Even those in the know and the green movement stick to local issues, like keeping the beaches clean and occasionally reducing our usage of plastic. We have witnessed five Solomon Islands sinking and offered no real support to their plight at the United Nations. In spite of that I think the answer lies in territories such as Barbados and the Solomon Islands. Those on the front-lines of the impact of current climate change.

Allow me to pose this question… why not “hack” the global economy until it becomes green? Many persons are not aware of this fact, but Barbados is used to taking a leadership role amongst small island developing states on a range of issues. Perhaps this uniquely qualifies the island to lay out the road-map for a new global economy.
At the end of all of this dear reader, you must know that I wish to propose the solution or at least part of it … I hope. The world is moving to a more liberal minded, self regulated future. This presents an opportunity in several spaces including those currently taking place — big data, the internet of things and artificial intelligence — and others which are arguably a few years away — decentralized systems and enhanced global connectivity which promotes greater planetary relationships.

I prefer to think that the latter is perhaps what the early internet pioneers envisioned — a future where information sharing enables greater awareness of the world around us and the global impact of our decisions. As one author, Patrick Tucker, wrote, “When the cost of collecting information on virtually every interaction falls to zero, the insights that we gain from our activity, in the context of the activity of others, will fundamentally change the way we relate to one another, to institutions, and with the future itself. We will become far more knowledgeable about the consequences of our actions; we will edit our behavior more quickly and intelligently.”
I stand to think Mr. Tucker and I share a similar vision, and perhaps, this is just what the green economy needs.

Now, I want you to imagine a world, one where we know whether a product has been produced ethically or with environmental standards in mind without ever reading a label or conducting any research.
Perhaps you may imagine a spiffy startup, global foundation or even an NGO controlling these standards. What if your currency performs this role in the future? Just picture it for a second, your money, in this case a cryptocurrency or digital national currency, will be programmable and ‘talk’ to you.

This is my vision for the future. A future where each individual is knowledgeable of the impact their individual economic activity and choices have on the planet and its inhabitants — whether in the present or the future.

I know this might seem far-fetched to some of my readers for now, but for those in the cryptocurrency space it certainly is plausible. Presently, some crypto“currencies”, and I use that term loosely, are indeed programmable. I daresay we are on the eve of living in such a world, one which is taking small steps to the future I envision. However, I note that such a vision takes time especially one which encompasses all currencies, whether cryptocurrency or digital national currencies; USD, Euros, Yen etc.

To get the ball rolling, I am proposing this process be coordinated in two main stages.
Stage 1:
The funding of innovative and groundbreaking green tech entrepreneurs and projects.
Stage 2:
The creation of green/ethical standards developed by working with NGOs and other global bodies etc to progress the overall vision. You may ask why stage 1 is necessary and the reason is twofold. Stage 1 will assist in development of grassroots support by the global, green community. Additionally it will provide a use case to the public on how the standards can be implemented via entrepreneurs while offering an example of the real world impact.
My team and I have taken the first steps to actively engage with several entities towards achieving the first stage of this process. In time we will provide further insights and results as we progress towards stage 2.
I look forward to further engagement with readers and leave you with the words of Neil deGrasse Tyson who stated, “Boldly going where hundreds have gone before does not make headlines.”

Craig Harewood is the author of this article and was originally published on medium.com.

Published here to generate more discussion in the cryptocurrency community.
To learn more about the project you can visit https://www.ourinterest.org/ico