Not surprisingly, the United Nation’s climate conference in the oil city of Doha failed. We still don’t have a plan for how to reduce the greenhouse effect and prevent the heating of the earth. Now we must realize that the UN is unable to make the required decisions. No existing organization can do it, because the environmental problems are long-time and global, while the world’s countries and global companies are ruled by short-time self-interest. We need to create a democratic organization that is authorized to legislate on a climate change agreement that all nations are bound to follow. Our mission is to create a directly-elected, representative, transparent and democratic world parliament with the right to pass global laws.
The world’s most important issues (war, environment, human rights, economy…) are all global. We will need a democratic world parliament so that the people of the world are able to influence these worldwide issues. Opponents to a democratic world parliament suggest that such an organization would limit a nation’s sovereignty. However, it is precisely this self-interested sovereignty that is at the root of the problem. Opponents also argue that it is impossible to have all nations cooperate peacefully. If the concept of democracy works at the city (municipal), state (province), and national levels – there is no reason why it can not work at the global level.
Avaaz has made global political engagement much easier. The next step is to give all Internet users a renewed political influence through a global referendum, see Rescue Plan for Planet Earth. Let’s organize the world’s first global referendum as a chain letter – meaning that once a person votes – that person makes sure that at least 2 other people vote. If a majority of the world’s citizens (over 16 years) participate in the referendum and at least 2/3 of them support the idea the resulting referendum will be legally binding, if not politically compelling. If we organize a huge global internet referendum we can really change the world. The plan is not at all hard to execute, it’s just big.
A failure or success? 