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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.
译文: 生活在经济全球化之中
地球上的一切生命都是靠一种方式生存, 那就是靠这颗行星提供的东西谋生。人类也不例外。同狼和乌鸦一样, 我们生存所必需的一切都来源于自然界, 包括空气、水、土壤、矿物质和其他生命形式。但是, 供应是有限的, 而不知怎的我们却忘记了这一点。
我们建造的世界使我们以为可以自给自足, 以为我们的经济能永远发展下去, 远远超过自然界给我们设定的限制。我们已经学会把自然界仅仅看作是原料, 是供我们的工业使用的燃料。我们的经济体制已经把整个世界变成了市场, 地球上的每一样东西, 甚至我们这个星球的未来, 都是花钱买到的。
人类经济的支柱是市场, 就是我们有史以来进行交换的方式。这是我们找到用以确定价格和生成财富的最佳方式。自由运营而不受干扰的市场观念更是我们这个体制的核心。
市场生成财富, 但是它也有缺点, 别的不说, 就说一条: 它根本不问外部世界有什么局限. 北大西洋的鳕鱼濒临灭绝, 但是市场并没有反映这件事, 价格仍然不变。市场价格部反映实际付出的代价, 这又是一个缺点。汽油价格并不包括污染在内, 也不包括地球油藏的枯竭。
危机是全球的、 整体性的, 可是解决办法可以成千上万, 针对各地不同的需要, 解决具体的问题。这些方法已经开始出现, 下面举几个加拿大的例子。
在新不伦瑞克科恰尼地方的老渔业加工厂现在改成了一家环保企业, 销售市场遍布全世界. 它自己设计的装备专门回收冰箱和空调器里的制冷液, 以防止氟里昂破坏臭氧层。订单已经定到好几个月以后去了。
多伦多的圣约瑟夫印刷公司做出了正确的决定, 采用再生纸和植物墨汁，并且决定贯彻到各个方面去。他们的新厂是专门设计的，能耗低，效率高，没有废料。责任心带来了好处，现在还没有人能同他们竞争。环保型的选择已经被证明是成本效益很高的一种选择。
我们归属的地方、我们依赖的收成、我们热爱的人以及我们所作的工作—这才是我们需要的那种经济，即照顾对于我们重要的东西，保卫我们的未来。
(CCTV-1, “Global”, Dec. 12)
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