Planetary Rent: As an Instrument for Solving Global Problems

By Aleksandr Bezgodov

The research monograph Planetary Rent as an Instrument for Solving Global Problems is by Professor Aleksandr V. Bezgodov, Doctor of Economics, Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences and General Director of the Planetary Development Institute in Dubai, UAE. It is a logical follow-up to the humanitarian manifesto Planetary Project: From Sustainable Development to Managed Harmony. The second Planetary Project book focuses on the economic mechanisms of implementing managed harmony. The monograph spells out an innovative theory of planetary rent as an instrument for building a planetary budget, which would provide funding for addressing global challenges. It would lay foundations for a new economic system, which meets the standards of biocompatibility and the fair distribution of world income. A universal civilization would be created built on harmony between nature and society. Rent evolution and types are analyzed. The need to institutionalize planetary rent is advocated that would contribute to the universal unification of norms and regulations of resource management based on the principles of saving nature, optimization, equality and symmetry. Planetary rent is the next historical phase of the institution of rent in which its innate contradiction of excess income is removed. Several scenarios of global economic development are investigated. A model of the planetary economy is described that is the result of the transition to the biocentric paradigm of human activity and Sixth Techno-economic paradigm technologies. The place and role of planetary rent is examined in a new reality.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris UK
• Release date: Jul 25, 2017
• ISBN: 9781524597610

Aleksandr Bezgodov

The author of this research monograph is Professor Aleksandr V. Bezgodov, General Director of the Planetary Development Institute in Dubai, UAE and Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences. He holds a PhD in Political Science and a Doctorate in Economics. Over the last 11 years, he has been involved in interdisciplinary research in macroeconomics and social issues in which he has consistently used a system approach. Professor Bezgodov is not only a theoretician, but also a practical researcher and research administrator; and is involved in both developing and implementing research-based technologies. He is the author of over fifty scholarly publications proposing new original economic and sociological solutions to business administration. In line with its logo “Serving Humanity”, the Planetary Development Institute conducts research intended to provide solutions to the world’s pressing economic, social, environmental, political-legal and cultural problems. These solutions are based on global human integration and building a noospheric civilization that could ensure managed harmony between individuals, society and nature.

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Copyright © 2017 by Aleksandr Bezgodov.

Editors:

Prof. Dmitry Gavra, Doctor of Sociology

Dr Konstantin Barezhev, Ph.D. in Philosophy

Translators:

Dr Vadim Golubev, Ph.D. in Philology

Mr Peter Ellis, BSc in Engineering

Library of Congress Control Number:   2017902215

ISBN:      Hardcover            978-1-5245-9763-4

                Softcover              978-1-5245-9762-7

                eBook                   978-1-5245-9761-0

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Contents

Preface

Introduction

Chapter 1   Planetary Resources: Classifications, Types And Uses

1.1. Planetary Resources: Definitions And Classifications

1.2. Human Resources And Infrastructural Capital

1.3. Resource Reproduction-Based Approach In Economics

1.4. Economic Mechanism Of Planetary Resource Management

Chapter 2   Planetary Ownership: Economic And Legal Backgrond For Appropriating Planetary Rent

2.1. Planetary Ownership: Concept, Background And Prospects

2.2. Agents Of Planetary Ownership

2.3. Specification Of The Rights Of Planetary Ownership

Chapter 3   The Development Of Ideas About Rent

3.1 Preliminary Interpretation Of The Nature Of Rent

3.2 Rent In The Classical British Political Economy

3.3 Rent In The Economic Writings Of Karl Marx

3.4 Neoclassical Theories Of Rent

3.5 The 20Th Century Transformation Of Ideas About Rent.

Modern Ideas About Rent

Chapter 4   Rent As An Economic Institution

4.1. The Immanent Paradoxes And Controversy Of Rent

4.2. Rent As An Institution

4.3. The Assessment Of Rental Income

Chapter 5   The State As A Rent Receiver. Rental Economy In The Countries Of The Modern World

5.1. Economy And Politics: Determination Dilemma

5.2. Types Of Economic Systems. Correlation Of Social And Political Determinants.

5.3. Resource Management And Rental Policy In The Economic Activities Of The Modern World

5.4. Resource-And-Market-Based And Rent-Oriented Models Of The Primary-Industry-Based Economy

5.5. Problems Of The Rental Economy

Chapter 6   Natural Resource Rent In The Modern World Economy

6.1. Land Rent: Types, Evaluation, Problems

6.2. The Sources Of Mineral Resource Rent

6.3. Forms Of Mining Rent

6.4. Mining Rent Appropriation

6.5. The Fate Of Natural Resource Rent In The Event Of Recession And Resource Wars

Chapter 7   Atmospheric Resources And Atmospheric Rent Assessment

7.1. Atmospheric Rent As A Necessity And Challenge

7.2. Atmospheric Air As A Limited Natural Resource

7.3. Establishment Of Rental Payments For Atmospheric Air Use: Purposes And Principles

7.4. Basic Approach To Atmospheric Rent Assessment

7.5. Main Types Of Atmospheric Rent

7.6. An International Fund For Atmosphere Protection As A Prototype Of The Institution Of Atmospheric Rent

Chapter 8   Social Capital, Labor Rent And Social Rent

8.1. Labor As A Factor Of Production And A Source Of Rent

8.2. Social Resources Of An Enterprise

8.3. Social Capital As A Source Of (Social) Rent

8.4. Competitiveness Of National Human Capital As A Source Of Social Rent

8.5. Transnational/Multinational Institutions Of Economic Cooperation And Internationalization Of Social Capital

8.6. The Problem Of Evaluating Social Rent

Chapter 9   Intellectual Rent

9.1. The Intellectual Component Of The Modern Economy

9.2. Intellectual Resources And The Rights Of Planetary Ownership Of Them

9.3. Sources Of Intellectual Rent

9.4. Potential Intellectual Rent

9.5. Intellectual Rent Institutionalization

Chapter 10   The General Concept Of Planetary Rent

10.1. The Concept Of Planetary Rent: A Brief Outline

10.2. Sources And Mechanisms Of Forming Planetary Rent

10.3. The Problem Of Determining The

Volume Of Planetary Rent

10.4. Types Of Planetary Rent And Obtaining Rent

10.5. The Appropriation And Distribution Of Income From Planetary Rent

10.6. The Institutionalization Of Planetary Rent And Its Economic Role

Chapter 11   Planetary Rent And The New Economic Reality

11.1. Contradictions, Restrictions And

Limits Of Industrial Growth

11.2. Problems And Crises Of Modern Economies

11.3. World Economy Development Trends

11.4. World Economy Development Factors

11.5. The Main Risks Of Current Global Economic Development

Chapter 12   Global Development Scenarios And The Planetary Model Of A New Economic System

12.1. Scenario Planning Of Economic Development

12.2. Comparative Analysis Of Scenarios Of The Future

12.3. The Phase Crisis And Its Prospects

12.4. The Portrait Of The Economy Of The Future

12.5. The Planetary Budget As The Basis Of The Economy Of The Future

Conclusions

PREFACE

Societies and states are always underpinned with certain sense making ideas. The most significant and relevant ideas are a form for the reflection of reality. The ideas accumulate the foresight of future changes in the reality and become ideology. The ideas therefore determine the main features and the development prospects of societies and states. In the 18-19th centuries, the ideas of freedom and equality inspired Europeans to radically change their world. In the early 20th century, the ideas of social justice and elimination of exploitation inspired Russian people to change their society.

Nowadays, the world enjoys the popular conceptions of creativity, innovation, technological breakthrough, globalization, and modernization. Are they able to lead society to a new economy? Does the logic of evolution require other sense making ideas? What is the new economic reality? What are the contours and features of the economy for the future? The answers to these questions are the essence of the book Planetary rent as an instrument for solving global problems by Dr. Aleksandr Bezgodov, Director of the Planetary Development Institute (Dubai, U.A.E.).

The past is made up of facts and their interpretation. The future is a matter of speculation. In the past, scientists often designed a future on the basis of extrapolating past trends. Today, in the volatile world, we are permanently reassessing values and challenges. In such a situation, a diligent researcher has to timely and accurately identify the emerging options for development. At the same time, only general structural changes can be forecast rather than specific events. The future, lacking facts, cannot be predicted. However, what the facts will be like depends largely on the original fundamental attitudes: theoretical and practical, intellectual and political. One of these attitudes is: the current way of development is leading the world to a standstill. It makes an inquisitive scientist analyze the driving forces, principles, and conditions behind the new economy.

The innovative research by Aleksandr Bezgodov embraces the important social and humanitarian components and determinants of modern economic development within global development. The researcher proposes and justifies the model of the economy for the future. It is based on the planetary budget raised from planetary rent. In the nearest future, the economy is to solve global problems; it is to be an anti-crisis and, in a sense, transition economy. We are still passing through the global financial and economic crises that began in 2008-2010. The transition is necessary from deglobalization, caused by the crises, to reglobalization to open horizons for universal integration. It is vital to create planetary civilization able to achieve a controlled harmony of man and nature, social development, and evolution.

In recent years, rent has become a popular issue for discussion in the scientific community and among politicians. The research of rental perspective requires consideration and reflection of the new economic reality. The reality diversifies rental income and influences rental relations in terms of the globalization of the world economy. The economic basis of social relations undergoes fundamental changes caused by the complexity of the social reproduction structure at the national and global level. These changes expand the list of rental resources, which predetermines the emergence of new types of rental income.

Other aspects represented in the book are: the assessment, apportioning, and appropriation of natural rent; and new forms of rental income connected with financial transactions and innovative technologies. Unfortunately, the assessment and appropriation of rental income do not always become a source for socio-economic development and innovation activity. They often expand the scale and forms of rent-oriented behavior, and provoke negative socio-economic effects that distort the economic relations system and block the normal development of society.

The author believes that the idea of planetary rent can and must become the sense making idea for the development of humanity at its present stage. Planetary rent is a radical institutional and economic innovation designed to address global problems and lay the foundations of the economy for the future. It will be the economy of an optimal resource allocation and fair apportioning of the world income. The researcher identifies the contours and features of the new economy through forecasting the trends in the current economic, social, and biological reality. He tests them for compliance with the requirements of technological progress biocompatibility that is capable of ensuring the harmony of nature, society, and the economy.

However, when we talk about sustainable development we should focus on ourselves. Global problems can be resolved through people’s self-restraint, and their willingness to change their lifestyle and sacrifice material comfort. Contemporary people consider personal comfort as part of their inalienable rights and the basic achievement of civilization. To what extent are they ready for self-restraint? The industrial-market civilization is focused on steadily growing consumption; it stimulates growth because it makes profit. It is unlikely to be compatible with overcoming global challenges including environmental crisis. The author argues that there is now a real need for a prompt transition from the anthropocentric to the biocentric and then the cosmocentric paradigm of civilization and its material and spiritual foundations.

Planetary Rent as an Instrument for Solving Global Problems by Aleksandr Bezgodov is a serious prologue to further research in the area of the reglobalization of the economy, the reformation of the institution of rent, and the modeling of biocompatible civilization. In this capacity, we would like to present this book to the author’s discerning colleagues familiar with his previous research.¹ We also recommend this fascinating study to all readers who will definitely appreciate its innovativeness and the author’s daring scientific thinking.

Mikhail Zalikhanov,

Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences,

Academician of the Islamic World Academy of Sciences

INTRODUCTION

Planetary Project: From Sustainable Development to Managed Harmony discussed basic principles of a new human civilization and a new economic system. Since its publication the world has seen the emergence of new challenges, risks and threats. All of them are expected effects of globalization. They reflect the weaknesses of the Western globalist scenario and, paradoxically, embody a historical inevitability.

Social practice shows that even the need for economic cooperation and joint efforts to resolve global issues has not brought about the kind of international integration that could eradicate ideological, philosophical and moral contractions. On the contrary, these contradictions are aggravated by the asymmetry of wealth distribution between countries with different economic, political, technological or social needs and capacities. Some nations have managed to retain superpower status; others have strengthened their position as satellite nations; while others have increased their international influence based on their ‘economic miracles’.

Yet, most countries are lagging behind in their development and have to help themselves to what is left on the dinner table. This stimulates aggressive behavior in some of these countries’ elites. It can take different but equally destructive forms: from revanchism to ‘restoring historical justice’ to a priori adventurist projects of building quasi- and pseudo-nationhood. These extremely dangerous projects are in essence scenarios of alternative globalization. They often take place in countries living through a period of internal instability or even humanitarian disaster.

Today, tension, conflicts, and latent and local wars tend to mark the borderline between different cultures, belief systems, lifestyles and spiritual principles. It is increasingly hard to see an economic agenda behind the ideological antagonisms of different political systems, ethnic groups, and nations. It is much easier to detect the ideological positions of followers of various national, socio-legal and religious doctrines that serve as a trigger for certain economic and political activity. It seems that the 19th and 20th century historians, philosophers and sociologists such as Nikolay Danilevsky, Oswald Spengler, Arnord Toynbee, Thorsten Sellin and Samuel Huntington were right in warning us that this could happen. Besides, a post-modernist paradigm of interpreting history is now more justified. It implies that the Weberian rather than Marxist model is more suitable for understanding the social and political realities of everyday life. In any case, we must conclude that the classical Marxist concept of historical objectivity has been diluted or even seriously deformed in recent years. It requires considerable academic review or even total revision.

Since 2014, the world has gone back to the state of the Cold War. From the macroeconomic point of view, it is characterized by recession. The next wave of financial-economic crisis will be more destructive, and is expected to take place in 2017–18. A drop in oil prices and the development of alternative energy promise new, unpredictable surprises. It is also evident that while some global industries meet the requirements of the Sixth Techno-economic Paradigm the general energy and transportation infrastructure as well primary industries remain underdeveloped. They cause damage to the environment and lead to the depletion of natural resources. These and other events, trends and processes manifest the deepening of the global systemic crisis affecting our entire civilization. It pursues the strategy of galloping economic growth and professes a linear understanding of scientific and technological progress totally controlled by capitalist interests. This crisis will inevitably lead to a global catastrophe that is capable of putting an end to life on Earth.

Social issues are gaining extra importance in this global context including: hunger, poverty, unemployment, global epidemics, high child mortality levels, low life expectancy, violation of human rights, exploitation, terrorism and organized crime.

The Planetary Project looks at this situation from two angles. On the one hand, we must recognize that today, more than ever before, humanity recognizes the need to unite to tackle challenges of hitherto unseen levels. This is because these challenges can only be tackled through the joint efforts of everyone on this planet. On the other hand, our optimistic ancestors had envisaged the early 21st century to be an era of enlightened collective reason. The reality was a return of obscurantism, bigotry, and barbarism akin to the Middle Ages. Many international political, business, and cultural alliances and projects have not survived the test of time. Currently, mankind seems to be farther from the stage where it could grow out of a quantitative concept to a qualitative one than it was 20 or even 10 years ago.

There is an urgent need to transform the Earth’s population into humanity as a single entity of world history with a higher level of self-organization than it had before. It implies a new phase of planetary evolution at the centre of which must be the integral person. Using the synergy of collective reason, the integral person would be able to become the force of co-creation in union with the creative forces of nature. These forces would be aimed at restoring the Earth’s environment and expanding organic life into outer space. However, the first test of humanity will be to implement a program of planetary anti-crisis management aimed at resolving global issues.

Currently, the global community has made little progress in this important task. This is despite the continued work of global institutions, the adoption in the 1990s of the doctrine of sustainable development, and the signing of the Kyoto Protocol.

It all means that there is a clear understanding of the nature and scope of global problems and the urgency of resolving them. There is a whole range of internationally legitimate instruments designed to do that. Why then are the problems only getting worse? What is the real reason for human inactivity, procrastination, and low efficiency in saving its own species and habitat? Is it just a lack of financial resources? It is clear that poorer countries just do not have the money to clean the environment and resolve social problems. Most of them are plagued with epidemics and have a huge national debt. They experience marked dependence on superpowers, transnational corporations, their former colonial powers, or stronger neighbors in terms of resources, technology or political leverage. Nevertheless, we must recognize that even well-established international organizations are experiencing funding shortages. This includes the United Nations whose mandate is to save the world from war, nature from destruction, and human rights from violation.

We do not agree that the modern world cannot provide enough funding for planetary needs. A source of this funding simply must exist since: industrial production continues; mineral resources are exploited; and the efforts of billions of people supply surplus value and encourage the growth of all types of capital. Obviously, many nations are behaving selfishly. They are ready to pick up the tab to fund global anti-crisis measures only if these projects address issues that concern them directly. The same is true of ratification of international agreements that limit intervention into ecosystems, mineral resource extraction, manufacturing, agriculture and the defense industry. Most countries are not in a hurry to limit their expenditure - they donate to resolve global problems following the principle of not burdening themselves too much. Any risk of surpassing these comfortable payment levels is considered a violation of national interests or national sovereignty.

Is it possible that the main problem is how to define a funding source and develop wealth distribution mechanisms?

The purpose of this book is to find answers to these questions. We believe that to resolve global issues and become a united planetary civilization the first task we as humanity must fulfill is to ensure a financial basis of global, anti-crisis, reforming and modernizing activity without doing damage to the existing economic systems. We are confident this possibility exists in the area of global economic phenomena, and it has the effects that were pointed out in the previous Planetary Project book². These phenomena include rational planetary resource management, planetary property and planetary rent.

Characterizing planet Earth as a habitat of organic life, the famous Russian natural scientist and philosopher, member of the Russian Academy of Sciences V.I. Vernadsky said, In the geological history of the biosphere, man has a great future if he understands it, and does not use his mind and his labor to destroy himself³.

To follow the great cosmist’s advice to use people’s reason and labor for the purposes of salvation and creation, we need to make sure that we have: the right ownership conditions for planetary resources; legitimate procedures for calculating and appropriating planetary rent; and appropriate institutions for implementation. We must be able to include planetary rent into the economic cycle and distribute the rent revenues fairly as special income belonging to the entire humanity. We are confident that by investing all possible financial sources into new economic activity areas across the world, environmental protection, emergency humanitarian aid in disaster areas as well as encouraging innovations could alleviate major global problems. The authority of international institutions would increase, especially including the United Nations with its special agencies and programs.

In this connection, the academic community has a major task to fulfill, which is to overcome economocentrism, defined as viewing economic factors as primary vis-à-vis any other social spheres⁴. These considerations highlight the importance of analyzing economic models and processes. More importantly, they emphasize the urgency of comprehensive political, social, culturological, historical and economics research that goes beyond mere economic factors of social life. A progressive route of development implies that all the subsystems of our civilization (economic, political, social and cultural) should work in harmony with each other and with the natural environment. From the Planetary Project perspective, this harmony cannot be an ad hoc achievement, but rather a product of purposeful activity. It can be reproduced as a managed system.

How can we, in a just and effective way, distribute income (e.g., the world GDP) and use the investment potential of all types of capital including: social, intellectual, entrepreneurial and natural? What role can and must we attribute to the planetary ownership of all nations of the global resources that contribute to creating and appropriating planetary rent? It is extremely important to address these and other similar issues if we are to implement the concept of managed harmony in the development of our civilization. We hope that this book will start a wide and open discussion of these issues.

CHAPTER 1

Planetary Resources: Classifications, Types and Uses

In the twentieth century, economic prosperity was founded on technological progress and the efficiency of labor in producing materials. At the time, the mission of capitalism was to create an abundance of material wealth and increase people’s incomes, and the mission of socialism was to overcome poverty and social inequality – relying on new production technologies. Despite the two world wars, numerous crises and upheavals, the last century saw an enormous increase in production potential in industrial countries. For some years, many philosophers, ecologists, sociologists and even economists have challenged the very idea of progress in its humanistic sense.

Their pessimism is based on two factors. The first is the negative social effects of globalization including financial and economic crises, which reveal the uncontrolled nature of the free market. Neither science, nor technology or management experience have proved to be able to reign in this devastatingly wreaking force of chaos.

The second factor has to do with a ubiquitous consumer society created by progress. Consumer society is characterized by: social atomization; the degradation of traditional forms of social organization and social institutions such as the family and the State; the commercialization of culture; and moral and aesthetic pluralism. All of this threatens ethnic and cultural identities.

Nevertheless, we strongly believe that one need not be a technocrat to be able to find a humanistic vindication of progress. The Planetary Project provides such vindication through its interpretation of scientific and technological progress.

We view scientific and technological progress as a condition for social, civilizational and evolutionary progress rather than an end in itself. Scientific and technological progress is justified if it can serve as an instrument for solving the global systemic crisis and resolving global problems threatening all life on this planet. Thus, the aim of progress in the context of contemporary science, technology and technocratic elites is to develop: material and technological infrastructure; and an enlightenment ideology for global anti-crisis management that would involve resolving and preventing global issues including radical improvement of the environment.

Obviously, only a technological leap and scientifically-grounded macroeconomic and macrosocial policies as part of a planned and controlled anti-crisis management policy could prevent cataclysms, which may destroy the biosphere or throw humanity back to the Stone Age - with the only difference that it would be a Stone Age with a seriously damaged environment. At the same time, we must be able to meet the requirements of the Sixth Techno-economic Paradigm that would involve restructuring global institutions to fulfill this task.

The first book of the Planetary Project argued that considerable resources would be needed to put this civilization on a harmonious development track that involved creating a new type of economy. No country, including those with a superpower status, or global institution like the United Nations possesses such resources today. No company budget could become a source of raising such funds especially because this may infringe on some national interests or national sovereignty. In other words, there must be a resource base that would go beyond the ownership jurisdictions of individual economies.

Indeed, any activity, including one involving reforms, is based on the following:

• resources;

• an established form of ownership of these resources;

• the implementation of ownership rights in the economy;

• resource processing technology;

• workforce;

• financial resources.

These factors ensure that the ownership rights are endorsed, profits are made and the cost of labor is covered. In turn, technology, labor and financial means could also be treated as resources of different types: intellectual, corporate or public, social, and financial-economic. Thus, resources become the focus of our attention, because we view them not only as a condition and a necessary element of an activity (production cycle), but as a source of funding for the activity.

1.1. Planetary resources: definitions and classifications

Classical economic theory understands resources as factors of production: land, labor and capital. Economic entities use these factors in varying degrees. Agriculture was the main type of production before the 20th century; therefore, land was considered the main resource. With industry gaining more weight, manufacturing equipment and technology as well as industrial and banking capital acquired more value. In post-industrial society the focus is on the services sector with such resources as information, communication, knowledge, technologies, intellectual and infrastructural capital, and, finally, human capital.

The traditional breaking of resources into the three groups of land, labor and capital should be considered obsolete. It may be sufficient for macroeconomic purposes as it can explain how people choose an industry for their business. However, this oversimplified approach is not enough when we describe a national economy, let alone a global system of production – distribution – consumption. We need a more detailed and systematic concept of the planet’s resource potential as well its objective assessment.

The contemporary notion of resources includes substances, materials, forces and energies that are capable of:

• participating as input links and integral elements in natural or anthropogenic cycles;

• being useful to nature and people;

• being measured in quantitative and qualitative terms of the physical content (volume, density, concentration, mass, power, intensity, conductivity, energy consumption etc.) and the economic content (accessibility, quality, cost, price and liquidity).

Resources also have such qualities as the interrelation with each other and with the environment as a whole, as well as complementariness and limitation (depletion).

There is a whole number of resource classifications based on various criteria. We have amalgamated some of the most common typologies in the table below.

⁵ ⁶

Table 1. Resource Classifications

A question arises: what is the reason for differentiating the notions of planetary resources and natural resources? And why do we introduce the notion of planetary resources at all? Will the neologism of planetary resources not end up an empty or artificial concept, thought up and used solely with a view to form and strengthen a special ideological discourse?

First of all, it must be said that the term ‘planetary resources’ is used in one of the above classifications. The environmental-economic classification divides resources into cosmic and planetary based on their exhaustibility and renewability. In this case, planetary resources include atmosphere, hydrosphere, geo-thermal energy and climatic resources.

Second, we believe it is possible to expand the notion of planetary resources. However, before we do this we would like to define planetary resources using their essential qualities:

• the notion of planetary resources is inclusive in that it includes various classifications;

• planetary resources serve as the basis for any other resources - it is not possible to maintain the Earth’s sustainability and reproduction as a holistic system;

• planetary resources are inalienable and not appropriable, because they exceed the norms, claims and limitations of any national jurisdiction due to their scope and fundamental character.

No doubt, this definition implies the need to expand the notion of planetary resources. We will represent it in table format and then provide some explanations.

Table 2. Planetary Resources

1. The first group of planetary resources could be united in one notion of near space, implying the concrete part of the solar system that influences all the processes on Earth. Constituent parts of this group of resources are celestial bodies (the Sun, planets, meteorites, comets etc.), their orbits and energies (gravitational fields, magnetic fields, solar radiation, radiation and electromagnetic radiation). The Earth as a planet exists and moves in space. It is an element of the solar system.

Since the late 20th century man has been exploring space and interacting with various cosmic processes. Hundreds of man-made, remotely controlled satellites are revolving around the Earth. This requires proper international legislation covering the use of near space.

Light, heat and solar energy are the most valuable resources the Earth receives from outer space. These resources support organic life on the planet. The intensity and strength of these resources determine the Earth’s conditions including atmospheric temperature, climate, seasonal weather changes, and biological rhythms. Harnessing solar energy has been one of the main tasks of the energy sector since the late 20th century.

2. The Earth’s atmosphere is a source of subsistence for the planet’s plant and animal life. The need for oxygen is absolute: absence of air leads to near instant death from suffocation. Oxygen is consumed by living things and the technosphere: manufacturing and agriculture, power generation, city infrastructure, and transportation by road and water. Atmospheric space serves as an important resource for air transportation, radio and telecommunications. Despite the fact that oxygen is constantly produced by plants, environmentalists have long pointed out that its amounts are diminishing due to the oxygen misbalance and a rise in hazardous atmospheric emissions. We will discuss in detail the oxygen issue later in the book.

We should also bear in mind the importance of the ozone layer as a constituent part of the planet’s atmosphere protecting it from solar radiation. It is well known that the ozone layer is also being destroyed by technogenic impacts including jet and space flights.

3. Solid and liquid substances of the Earth’s surface are land and the water of the world’s oceans and internal reservoirs. These are the source of resources for the life and reproduction of people and other living species as well as human economic activity including: agriculture, industry, transportation and construction. Fresh water and fertile soil are the most valuable resources among them.

4. Climate, as a combination of the Earth’s climate zones existing as a result of the presence of atmosphere, is a system of conditions of maintaining various forms of life. In this sense, it is a resource base of geo-biochemical processes on Earth. Climate is a natural resource, which is vital for our wellbeing, health and prosperity. Climate influences the life and subsistence of people around the world. Climate makes it possible to use renewable and environmentally friendly sources of energy, e.g., the power of the Sun and the wind⁷.

At least two global issues are discussed today in relation to climate: global warming, and the use of climate weapons that lead to climate misbalance and cause natural disasters such as floods, tsunami, hurricanes, excess precipitation, etc. Despite the fact that no country has ever admitted having climate weapons, ecologists, environmental activists and journalists have repeatedly drawn public attention to evidence of such weapons.

5. The Earth’s crust includes the following components: mineral resources, continental crust, ocean crust, upper mantle, lower mantle, outer core, and core. The crust is a source of exhaustible and non-renewable mineral and biotic resources that are used in industry and the energy sector.

6. The biosphere is an integral resource system that serves as an evolutionary product of cosmogonist, geological and climatic conditions in which the biosphere originated and which continue influencing its development. Biota is the most important of the biosphere resources. All living organisms of an area considered as a unit, biota is not only a resource for itself but for the whole of humanity. It supplies the most important elements, materials and energy, and creates and regulates the environment⁸.

Man has actively exploited the resources that flora and fauna have provided ever since he ceased being part of nature with human socialization making resource management a systemic and constantly evolving endeavor. With the advent of biochemistry, microbiology and genetics, people began to transform and use useful qualities of microorganisms more effectively. They have learned how to protect themselves from viruses and bacteria. However, the problems of food shortages and its poor quality, as well as undernourishment and hunger are still with us in the 21st century. Moreover, they could become a reason for socio-political cataclysms and even wars in the near future. This is caused by: the poor economic level of some developing countries, especially former colonies; decreasing areas of fertile land; arable land depletion; water pollution; and the destruction of entire ecosystems.

While man plays a special role among living organisms, human society fulfills the same function among other forms of biological organizations. Our statement is based on the transforming effects of anthropogenic activity on nature. Currently, the fate of the Earth and all living organisms depends on humanity: its activities, its behavior, and the understanding of its responsibilities, planetary and cosmic missions, and development priorities.

7. The noosphere is a treasure box of resources, which we may not even be aware of with today’s level of science. It is comforting to know that the knowledge about a cosmic, global and higher intelligence is not considered to be part of solely a religious or mystic domain; the data contained in this knowledge now receives rational treatment as part of various hypotheses and concepts. If we accept that information is a common quality of elements in the Universe and can turn into different types of energy as well as objectify in material and ideal forms, then the assumption about the intelligence of the Universe becomes quite reasonable. Indeed, intelligence is not limited to man or social phenomena. Man and products of his activity are but phases, stages or products of the evolution of a universal (cosmic) intelligence. It manifests itself on the micro-level in the genes of livings organisms and in the macro-level in the logic of natural and cosmic phenomena and processes. It is not implausible that Homo Sapiens is not the apex of evolution, but rather one of its stages. History, culture and science tell us that we can qualitatively develop even further. Ultimately, it all depends on us.

Therefore, the noosphere is not a product of human activity but rather an integral part of nature and belongs to the whole planet. Man plays a key part in the evolution of the noosphere as a system. The classical definition of the noosphere belongs to Academician Vladimir I. Vernadasky who called it the mind-sphere or the Earth’s mental sheathe. As a new stage of the development of the biosphere it is characterized by a close relationship of natural laws with the laws of thinking and social-economic laws. The noosphere is a single system that is the result of the interaction of nature and society, natural and man-made worlds, a living and inert substance, which is a historically inevitable stage of the development of the biosphere. As an active element of the noosphere, humanity becomes a transforming geological force, a special factor of evolution capable to making it manageable. This is the most important fact from the perspective of the Planetary Project.

All known resources, at least those that people use in their life, could be conditionally divided into renewable and exhaustible. Renewable resources are substances and forces that are generated on Earth with the involvement of solar energy. They include: heat, atmospheric moisture, precipitation and fresh water, river currents and hydropower, wind, waves and currents, soil and some minerals, all living organisms, ecosystems, the biosphere, and finally, humans themselves. However, a law of limitedness (exhaustivity) of all natural resources operates under the historical and especially technospheric conditions of the 21st century. This is because humans have dramatically changed the balance of resources through transforming the environment (e.g., the composition and distribution of water, the composition and spectral transparence of the atmosphere, the thermal regime of geospheres, etc.). In this connection, the level of resources may turn out to be dramatically lower than what seemed to be inexhaustible⁹.

However, it is worth paying attention to the distinction between the notions of limitedness and rarity. From an economic point of view, they are not synonymous. Limitedness is an absolute notion while rarity is a relative one. As economy develops we face the problem of resource rarity. The notion of rarity is used to characterize a situation when the need for something exceeds the limited reserves of it. In other words, limitedness is not a problem in itself; the problem is with our needs and ways to satisfy them.

It should be emphasized that while people lived off what nature offered them without disrupting the balance of natural processes there were no significant problems with the environment on a planetary scale that would be caused by anthropogenic intervention. Consequently, there was no need to talk about the crucial role of planetary resources. The 20th century became a turning point. It saw the growth of the concentration and scale of hazardous production and its waste; an increase in mineral resource extraction; the emergence of mass communication systems; the globalization of transport logistics and transportation flows; and the first space flight. The two largest wars in human history took place in this century World War I and World War II. Weapons of mass destruction were invented that included nuclear, chemical, bacteriological and climatic weapons. A fourfold population growth accompanied by an accelerated birthrate led to an increased level of consumption of material and non-material wealth.

As early as 1971 Jay Wright Forrester in his book, World Dynamics, was the first to draw public attention to the objective and fundamental factor such as the limitedness of mineral resources and the limited ability of ecosystems to absorb and neutralize human waste. His conclusions would find proof later in the Meadows Report to the Club of Rome (The Limits to Growth, 1972) and the Mesarovic and Pestel Report (Mankind at the Turning Point, 1974).

Resource amounts depend on the economic uses of a given resource. We are witnessing a shortage of agricultural land; fresh water reserves are nearing their limits; and logging is almost at the level of an