Information

The New

Global Currency

In the beginning of the 60’s, Hazel Henderson was a young mother leaving the fresh air of a small town in England to live in New York. Like many other mothers, she was worried about the affect of pollution on their children. But instead of giving up living the polluted metropolis, decided to fight to change the city, or better, the world. Created an NGO to fight for a cleaner air, learned everything about the environment, discovered how to deal with the government and began to understand how the big multinationals operate. Four decades later, already a grandmother, Hazel became one of the most respected specialists in sustainable development of the planet. The author of eight books translated into a dozen languages, consults to organizations in more than 30 countries, publishes articles in 250 newspapers and magazines and teaches at the University of California, besides having worked for the United Nations. In this interview, Hazel Henderson explains why the Brazilians are among the richest people in the world.

Sustainable Brazil – Today there are infinity of indicators that measure from the GNP to the happiness of a country.
How to identify the ones that really matter?
Hazel Henderson – Each country has different values and goals, so the indexes cannot be the same for everyone. Some indicators are universal, how the life expectancy, the rate of infant mortality, violation of human rights and environmental indicators. But there are those specific ones of each culture. In Hawaii, for example, there is in index on the quality of life based the sale of clocks. A rise clock sales means that worrying about time is overcoming the local culture, and the Hawaiians do not want this. This type of indicator is very appropriate for Hawaii. What we need is that the statistics from all over the world get put together more often to decide which of the indexes are universal, so that these indexes become clearer and standardized.

BS – According to the indicators of quality of life Calvert – Henderson, Brazil has one of the largest income and wealth per capita in the world. How can this be, since a good majority of the Brazilian population lives with less than one dollar a day?
HH – The traditional economists say that Brazil has the fifteenth largest economy in the world. I believe they are not calculating correctly all the assets of the country, such as the investments in infrastructure or the cultural patrimony. Imagine, for example, how much the city of Brasilia is worth, and the architectural patrimony, built entirely with tax money. The other assets that do not get added in to the calculation of traditional economists are the creative and vital population that Brazil possesses. The Brazilian music is one of the most successful products in the lineup of exports of the country. The ecological assets, that are very vast, have never been calculated. There are thousands of kilometers of wonderful beaches. At the present, Brazil is self sufficient to produce energy and has several renewable energy opportunities that have not been explored, such as solar, wind generators and from hydrogen. If all the assets of the country were added and divided by the number of the population, the Brazilians would be among the richest people in the world.

BS – Based on the Calvert-Henderson indicators, how would Switzerland a small and rich country be classified?
HH – Right there is a good example of where the people get confused about the money. Switzerland has a strong currency; the population has had a good life and developed a social democracy very interesting. But in all reality Switzerland is one of the speculation capitals of the world. The country laundered money of ex dictators such as Mobutu, of Zaire (today Democratic Republic of Congo), and of Sani Abacha, of Nigeria. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD),¬ that unites the 25 richest countries, threatened to add the Swiss to their black list of countries that launder money. The world the needs some cleaning in this global casino. However the biggest battle is to make people notice, that in reality, the money is not worth anything. Money is a tracking and scoring system and is only worth what there real resources and human production underlying its value. The economy is no longer on the gold or coin standard, but on the information standards. Information and money are more and more equivalent, since it is the information that drives the global markets. The information is the new world currency, and it is not scarce.

BS – Is Brazil doing the right thing by claiming, along with the IMF, a change is needed in the calculation of the public Deficit?
HH – President Lula is in a very difficult position. He has to deal with the old system and with the perceptions of Wall Street, World Bank and of the IMF, that are erroneous enough, at the same time that the financial institutions are being taught that the world has changed. And why can the Brazilian President do this? Because every one understands Brazil is leading the integration of the south hemisphere. If President Lula can persuade the IMF that they are really wrong in the calculation of the public deficit, Brazil will have a lot more room to invest in infra structure, which really needs to be done. Europe and North America have had 300 years to build their infrastructure. So, the countries in development also have to have conditions to develop their infrastructure. 

BS – Will all the changes be able to be made with the present economic system?
HH – I believe that the system should be changed as well. We know that the old game of the GNP growth increases social inequality, and leaves millions of people in poverty and pollutes the environment. We have these evidences all around us. Therefore we need to make a big change in the game. And how do we change the game? We begin to change the way the game is scored. And that’s what we are doing with the new indicators.

BS – What is your opinion about the failure of the urgent agreements, like the Kyoto Protocol, is it because of lobbying on part of Industries?
HH – At this moment the United States are being governed by the Bush administration, a fossil administration. It is fossil because it receives so much financial support from the oil and gas companies. And it is fossil because it is formed by all of these old men, such as Dick Cheney (vice-president), Donald Rumsfeld (secretary of defense) and Paul Wolfowitz (deputy secretary of defense). But the problem around the Kyoto Protocol is that the companies of fossil and nuclear energy pay scientists so that they tell them that the changes to renewable energy source would be bad for the economy. In reality, other studies, like the of Skip Laitner, from the Environment Protection Agency (EPA) of the United States, show that the investments in renewable energy and the requirement that the automobile companies increase the efficiency of fuel in their cars would result in a big stimulus for the North American economy, that could create 500 thousand new jobs. The Kyoto Protocol will be one of the political points of discussion of the next elections in the United States, since the candidate John Kerry affirmed he supports the signature of the Protocol.

 

KYOTO PROTOCOL
Created in 1997, the Kyoto Protocol established that in the developed nations they limit the release of natural gases, which causes the greenhouse affect. For this to be in force, the protocol needs to become a law by, at least, 55 countries that add up to 55% of the release of CO2 (carbon dioxide) registered in 1990. At the present time, 122 countries already have adopted the treaty, but the cut in carbon dioxide has only reached 44,2%. Since 2001, the United States, that is responsible for 36,1% of the release in the world of carbon dioxide, refuse to sign the document, stating the proposed cut would affect the economy.

BS – How de we explain to the Brazilian CEOs that the corporate social responsibility goes way beyond the philanthropy?
HH – I like the way that Mr. Oded Grajew explains this matter. He says: “The mafia gives money to charity, they do philanthropy.” Usually, philanthropy is a manipulation. Social Responsibility does not have anything to do with philanthropy. What we seek for is a different way of what companies use to do in the past, when they would put a little money in to the poor part of the world. We really want for the process to change, maybe changing all of their production line.

BS – Does the Social Responsibility leads to a mandatory sustainability?
HH – I believe so. The most advanced thought in sustainability demonstrates that the companies really can become more efficient using fewer raw materials and less energy, and more wisdom and knowledge. They can also employ more people by shifting taxes from payrolls and incomes to waste and polluters. At the present time, we punish the companies with heavy tax rates and punish the people with high income taxes rates. I hope the world changes its politics on taxes to punish the waste, the pollution and the advertisements, that try to make people buy products that they do not use and do not need.