The Two $20 Trillion Opportunities
Part 3 Of Building The Climate Change Bridge Series Planning The Selfless Economy Fixing Our Financial Mess
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Chapter 21 of Book 2: Reject Self-Serving Power, Book 3: Building The Climate Change Bridge, and Book 4: Defeating The New Axis Powers collectively set forth my research, analysis, conclusions, and recommendations as to why 5% usable fresh water should be our top climate change goal. Implementing the 5% usable fresh water goal can pay for itself, pay for global warming, and pay off our Nation's massive debts and unfunded Social Security and Medicare liabilities. The 5% usable fresh water goal infrastructure as set forth in this book can pay for eliminating the risk from rising ocean coastlines. It can pay for reversing biodiversity loss and pave the way for unprecedented gains in biodiversity for future generations. It can pay for a ten times increase in fresh water inventories. It can pay to clean up the oceans. It can virtually eliminate destructive inflation. The 5% usable fresh water goal can also help eliminate our Nation's societal problems. And, last but certainly not least, the 5% usable fresh water goal can provide that centuries long runway and bridge for climate change to allow green energy technologies and shifts to cool the planet to optimal levels.
Federal, State and Local Governments are going to need to agree on a final framework, adopt the necessary laws and provide seed financing. I offer the following data points and action items to kickstart these discussions.
Simply adopting a national plan to implement the 5% usable fresh water goal will have an immediate positive impact on national and likely global hope that our Nation's economy and the Global economies do not need to be sacrificed to pay for climate change or global warming.
Adopting a national plan will have an immediate and positive impact on National and Global insurance markets, which will in turn have immediate and positive impacts on global lending for coastal real estate.
Applying an average value of say $5,000 per acre would imply a future value of created farmlands and forestry lands on the 20.5 million acres set forth in Chapter 10 would imply a starting value approximating $102.5 Billion. Assuming say, a 10 times increase in value shortly after land rushes, purchases and settlement, this would imply a near term future value approximating $1 Trillion.
The amount of climate change lake (ocean front equivalent) shorelines could easily exceed 5,000 usable miles of climate change lake front shoreline. Assuming an average lot shorefront of say 500 feet (5.28 million lots) and an average value of climate change lakefront lots at say $500,000 per shoreline lot, this could yield real estate sales exceeding $2.6 Trillion. Applying a 10 times growth in valuation shortly after settlement could yield climate change lake shoreline valuations exceeding $25 Trillion, just for the land. Assuming the buildings and other improvements to be built on those shorelines approximate 10 times the land value, the total shorelines property values to be subject to near term future property taxes would likely exceed $250 Trillion.
Assuming the Federal, State and Local Governments would continue to own the constructed pipelines and other infrastructure, climate change lakes, and climate change islands, these Governments could derive future income, taxes, and fees from at least the following:
Leases to fisheries
Leases and/or land sales to construct and sell products and services for utilities.
Property taxes – including a Federal property tax to fund Social Security, Medicare, and other social needs in the future.
Income taxes
Sales taxes
Land sales
Land leases
Assistance to other countries outside North America to adopt their own 5% usable fresh water goals and plans.
Workforce Migrations
Building and maintaining climate change lakes and islands will require domestic and foreign immigration. I could easily see each of the five desert areas recruiting and supporting 10 million new residents each. Climate change islands could easily recruit hundreds of thousands more. The total population shifts could easily exceed 50 million people. Assuming an average income of say $80,000 per person, this population shift would create additional GDP approximating $4 Trillion annually.
History has many examples of countries immigrating, emigrating, exiling and other forms of moving populations for both settlement purposes but also for social purposes. For example, exiling prisoners to Georgia and Australia. Unforced mass migrations including the Gold Rush, Dust Bowl emigration to California and migration to large manufacturing cities in the North to fill manufacturing facilities in World War II.
Federal, State and Local Governments could literally empty their jails, prisons, homeless shelters, and other care centers and emigrate those populations to climate change lakes and islands. These people would get a fresh start in life and become productive members of society again, and in many cases for the first time in their lives. Companies locating operations to climate change lakes and islands could be required to include a quota of these populations in their workforce recruiting. Assuming say 10 million people currently at the bottom of the wealth inequality pyramid and costing Governments say $100,000 per person were emigrated, this would save Government budgets approximately $1 Trillion per year.
Financing Early Stage Construction and Cash Flows
Even with these amounts of future revenues and cash flows, financing the early stages of pipeline construction along with digging the climate change lakes would be necessary. This early stage financing would likely require the establishment of some kind of Federal asset based lending authority, perhaps similar to GNMA and FNMA. A sunset of say 10 years could be established in the enabling legislation and funding. These loans could easily be repaid soon as the previously discussed revenues and cash flows are built. Other potential sources of early stage financing could include the following.
World Bank financing for Mexico to develop the Mexican part of the Chihuahuan Desert.
State and Local Municipality Revenue Bonds.
Advance sales and deposits for land and water rights.
Advance lease deposits.
Advance and ongoing sales of desalinated freshwaters.
Advance deposits from other countries to replicate climate change lakes in their countries.
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About the Book
The Two $20 Trillion Opportunities is the third and final part of a series dedicated to offering innovative solutions to ease problems tied to global warming, climate change, rising ocean coastlines, biodiversity loss, desertification, ocean pollution, and the depletion of fresh water.
The first book in the series—Building the Climate Change Bridge—explored how we can transition from relying on fossil fuels to green energy. More importantly, it proposed a bridge for getting from here to there.
The second book—Defeating the New Axis Powers—focused on the geopolitical issues related to climate change.
This final book in the series lays out a plan to create what author James Michael Matthew calls “the selfless economy.” He reveals how to pay for both building a climate bridge and creating a selfless economy.
As our collective concern about the future of our planet grows, there has never been a more critical time to explore how humanity can pursue responsible and practical strategies to move forward and ensure our future.
About the Author
James Michael Matthew is an award-winning author, financial executive and, industrialist with more than forty years of experience. He is the founder and chairman of JM Prophecies Corp., which focuses on tackling the major challenges of our times, building the selfless economy, and inverting the global wealth inequality pyramid. He graduated from The Johns Hopkins University with a master’s in biotechnology enterprise and entrepreneurship, an MBA from Michigan State University, and a bachelor’s in accounting and auditing from the University of Illinois-Springfield. He completed post-graduate studies at Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment, the University of Oxford.