Why do we need purple?

Nearly three years ago now, which is a scary thought in and of itself, I was travelling in Morocco. While in Marrakesh I was fortunate enough to see the aerial photography of Yann Arthus Bertrand, displayed in the Arsat Moulay Abdessalam Cyber Park. The captions were in French and Spanish so my interpretation of the photographs may have been off in some instances. One photo in particular however caused me to write a phrase in my notebook which has floated back into my mind now and again over the last three years and shows no sign of going away. That phrase?

Why do we need purple?

I’ll explain.

There was a beautiful photo of a hundreds of purple flowers in a woodland, the caption underneath suggested that there were vast reserves of radioactive material in the ground beneath the flowers, radioactive material which will at some point be mined. Now here’s the thing, there are two possibilities for what I meant when I wrote that.

1. Why do we need purple? There is immensely valuable rock under those flowers but so what. They’re beautiful, and peaceful and wonderful, and preserving that is more important than continuing our cheap energy feeding frenzy.

2. Why do we need purple? We don’t. There is immensely valuable rock under those flowers and while those flowers are beautiful they’ll die along with all life on the planet if we don’t achieve the continuing progress and development that using those resources could bring. The potential benefits far outweigh the existence of some small purple flowered glade.

I don’t know which I thought at the time, and thinking about them now both still have merit. At various points in the last three years I'm sure I have strongly believed in both. Fluctuating Opinions anyone? Or perhaps the answer lies somewhere in between. What will be done with the energy from that radioactive material? If it’s just used for creating short satisfaction in the form of cheap toys that last a week then break, upgrading an iPhone 18S into an iPhone 19, and funding wars around the world then maybe the world if the better place if we just kept and appreciated the beauty of that purple glade.

On the other hand, perhaps the energy from those rocks and all the other untapped resources around the world are what we need to achieve a transition onto sustainable fossil fuels, power development, scientific advances that can tackle issues around the world, provide people with food and jobs, support environmental work, perhaps propel us off the planet to spread purple flowered glades across the cosmos. Surely one purple glade right here right now is a small price to pay for all that?

The world is packed full of resources, and those resources can be used for a multitude of reasons. Some will surely always argue that the natural beauty of the world should be preserved at all costs, others that there loss is worthwhile. And yet more would take the cop out line of “oh but market forces”. I’d say the relative value of that glade and those rocks is down to what we use it for, and that’s our choice. Either we squander the worlds resources destroying peaceful beauty for disposable rubbish, or we use what we've got to make something even more wonderful. And if we do that second option to the best of our ability, maybe we won’t even need those rocks under that beautiful purple glade anyway. I know which option I’d go for.

What would your answer be? Why do we need purple?

Ice Cream and Aid

“Here’s what we can do to change the world, right now, to a better ride. Take all that money we spend on weapons and defence each year and instead spend it feeding clothing and educating the poor of the world which it would many times over. Not one human being excluded and we can explore space, together, both inner and outer, forever, in peace.”

William Melvin "Bill" Hicks (December 16, 1961 – February 26, 1994)

Now, is that possible? Are there really the finances available to make the world such a better place if only they were distributed better?

Well here’s some data from the 1998 UN Human Development Report:

It would take $12 billion extra each year to provide reproductive health care for all women in developing countries. That’s the same as Europe and the US spend annually on perfumes.

It would take $9 billion extra each year to provide water and sanitation for all people in developing nations, well $8 billion of that could come from the US’ expenditure on cosmetics alone.

That other billion?

It would take $13 billion extra each year to universally provide for basic health and nutrition needs in the developing world, yet Europe and the US alone spend $17 billion a  year on pet food, enough to feed the developing world, make up the shortfall in water provision and still have $3 billion left over.

And that’s just the start. We spend more nearly twice as much on ice cream in Europe ($11 billion), as it would cost to provide basic education for all in developing nations ($6 billion).

Worldwide military expenditure is $780 billion.

In fact if you took 4% of the combined wealth of the richest 225 people in the world ($1 trillion, of which 4% is only $40 billion) you could cover the additional cost of “achieving and maintaining universal access to basic education for all, basic health care for all, reproductive healthcare for all women, adequate food for all and safe water and sanitation for all with money left over.

Now those figures were from a report published in 1998, so 15 years old now. They will all have increased since then but I’d expect the ratios would be even more embarrassing. Because that’s what this is, it’s an embarrassment. The 2011 report states that a financial transactions tax of only 0.005% could yield that $40 billion alone without any additional administrative costs. That’s between the low and high estimates of the funds now required for water and sanitation to be sorted by 2015, not a yearly maintenance cost, the cost to have it all set up by 2015. The figure comparable to the one from 1998 would then be a yearly value much lower than $40 billion.

Now don’t get me wrong, the issue is a lot more complicated than just moving money around. But in answer to the original question I think it is safe to say that yes, there is enough money to make the world a massively better place and go out and explore the universe as one humanity; together.