"They hang the man and flog the woman that steal the goose from off the common, but let the greater villain loose that steals the common from the goose." (English folk poem, ca. 1764)

"THE COMMONS, n., gifts of nature and society; the wealth we inherit or create together and must pass on, undiminished or enhanced, to our children; a sector of the economy that complements the corporate sector." (The Commons Rising 2006, a report by the Friends of the Commons)

"The market needs a counterpoise with a different calculus. The ideal counterpoise isn't the state. It's the commons... The state's role is to nurture both the commons and the market, and to maintain a healthy balance between them." (The State of The Commons, a report by the Friends of the Commons)

From the State of the Commons report:

Key functions of the commons

1. Basic sustenance. For most of human existence, the commons supplied everyone's food, water, fuel and medicines.
2. Ultimate source. The commons is the source of all natural resources and nature's many replenishing services.
3. Ultimate waste sink. The commons recycles water, oxygen, carbon and everything else we excrete, exhale and throw away.
4. Knowledge bank and seedbed. The commons holds humanity's vast store of science, art, customs and laws, and is the seedbed of all human creativity.
5. Communication. Humans communicate through shared languages that are living products of many generations.
6. Travel. Humans use the commons for land, sea and air travel.
7. Community. The commons is the village tree, the public square, Main Street, the neighborhood and the Internet. Outside of families, it's the glue that holds us together.

The commons, the market and the state

Conventional thinking divides the world between the market and the state. The market is responsible for productivity, while the state is responsible for control.

In reality, the economy has another sector that's as valuable as the market and its necessary complement as well. This sector is the commons. The commons precedes and surrounds the market, is the source of most that enters it and the sink for all that leaves.

At one time the commons was vastly larger than the market. Today, however, the commons is in grave danger because the market relentlessly attacks it.

The market assault comes from two sides. With one hand, the market takes valuable stuff from the commons and privatizes it. Historians have called this 'enclosure.' With its other hand, the market dumps wastes and side-effects into the commons and says, "It's your problem." Economists call this 'externalizing.'

Much that is called 'growth' today is actually a form of cannibalization in which the market diminishes the commons that ultimately sustains it.

The state's role is to nurture both the commons and the market, and to maintain a healthy balance between them. This balancing role is essential to prevent humanity from devouring its own nest. Unfortunately, in recent years, the state has abandoned a balancing role and become a single-minded champion of the market.

So, how de we restore the balance? Are there examples of succesful attempts? The following readings provide further explanation and examples:

1. The State of the Commons by Friends of the Commons. Download PDF >>
2. The Commons Rising 2006 Report by Friends of the Commons. Download PDF >>
3. Revisiting the Commons: Local Lessons, Global Challenges by Elinor Ostrom, Joanna Burger, Christopher B. Field, Richard B. Norgaard, David Policansky. Read Key Findings >>
4. The Parallel Economy of the Commons by Jonathan Rowe. Download PDF >>

"We need to focus less on symptoms of corporate abuse and more on the underlying cause--excessive corporate power. We must recognize that ultimately our struggle is for power. It is not just to make corporations more responsible, but to make them our servants, in much the same way that elected officials are public servants."

"We need what the movement now lacks: a coherent vision of the role we want corporations to play in our society and a strategy for achieving that vision. It's about putting We the People back in charge of our future, rather than the robotic behemoths that set their sights on short-term growth and high profits, regardless of the consequences."

"Imagine... Responsible companies protect the environment as though there is a tomorrow, and they view worker knowledge and company's reputation in the communities where they operate as their greatest assets."

In this article by Michael Marx and Marjorie Kelly, the roots of many of societal and environmental illth is pointed at the excessive power of corporations. Their analysis of the situation made clear that it is we that had recklessly given that power, and only we can take it back and bring corporations back in the service of public good.

To do that, three major strategic tracks were highlighted in the article:

1. We need to restore democracy and rebuild countervailing forces that can control corporate power.
2. We need to severely restrain the realms in which for-profit corporations operate.
3. We need to redesign the corporation itself, as well as the market system in which corporations operate.

They also speak of how a global citizens' movement operating under a coherent strategy can bring corporations back under control within 20 years.

Read the full article at YES! Magazine >>

Related readings

1. Commerce, Culture and Nature - a Clash of Chronologies by Paul Hawken
2. Corporate Design: The Missing Business and Public Policy Issue of Our Time by Marjorie Kelly and Allen White
3. The Urgent Need to Redesign Corporation by Wibowo Sulistio
4. Toward a Global Citizens' Movement to Bring Corporations Back Under Control by the Strategic Corporate Initiative (SCI)
5. 7 Cool Companies: The Best Alternatives to Corporate Power by Gar Alperovitz and Steve Dubb & Ted Howard
6. B Corporations: a community of for-Benefits corporations

(Image by B Tal. Some rights reserved.)

An excellent insight on how our money system is failing us and some leads on how to fix it:

"The purpose of money was and should be to serve the human community as well as the Earth community. However, it appears that the original purpose has now been reversed. Instead of money serving people and planet, now people and the planet are put into the service of money. Natural resources are converted into consumables to make money. Whether these consumer goods are necessary or not is irrelevant. As long as money is made, all and everything is justified; the money machine has to be kept in motion at all costs." (Satish Kumar)

"Money is not a god-given fixture: it was designed by us, therefore it can be changed by us. Unless we reform and redesign our money system the idea of sustainability, social justice and spiritual renewal will remain a mirage. Therefore the reform of the money system is an urgent imperative." (Satish Kumar)

Read "The Money Delusion" by Satish Kumar >>

(Image by rbbaird. Some rights reserved)

"For many of us, design is invisible. We live in a world that is so thoroughly configured by human effort that design has become second nature, ever-present, inevitable, taken for granted. And yet, the power of design to transform and affect every aspect of daily life is gaining widespread public awareness." (Bruce Mau of Massive Change)

"If you keep your focus on the key design criteria -- building community resilience and reducing the carbon footprint -- you'll watch as the collective genius of the community enables a feasible, practicable and highly inventive solution to emerge." (Ben Brangwyn and Rob Hopkins in 12 Key Steps for Transition Towns)

"Collaborative design over the internet is tremendously powerful, and likely the best way forward."
Omar Yaqub from Nigeria commenting on Open Architecture Network)

"We need the moral resources to expect nothing less than design that will make this world safe for the next generation." (Jody Boehnert of EcoLabs)

If global problems like the inevitable peak oil, ongoing climate change, crumbling global economy, business as usual worries you, and you wish to do something about it from the local, or the cyber-global, Jody Boehnert pointed us to the solution: community collaborative design, which is based on systems thinking and the democratization of design.

In his paper, Should Change be Radical?, he explores three projects that tries to address the problems of the world by harnessing the collective genius of the community in designing and implementing solutions themselves.

Read the full paper at EcoLabs >>

Further readings

Here's a list of further readings for each of the projects featured in the paper:

Open Architecture Network

1. About Open Architecture Network | Read >>
2. What Housing Crisis? at ArchitectureForHumanity.com | Read >>
3. A TED Talk Video about Open Architecture Network | Watch >>

Massive Change

1. About Massive Change | Read >>
2. Stories from Massive Change in Action | Read >>
3. A Bicycle for Life. How a custom bicycle design is used to save lives in Africa | Read >>

Transition Towns

1. Natural Born Survivors by Harriet Green at The Guardian | Read >>
2. How to Wean a Town Off Fossil Fuels by Hana Loftus at WorldChanging.com | Read >>
3. 12 Key Steps to Embarking on Your Transition Journey at TransitionTowns.org | Read >>
4. Transition Initiatives Primer at TransitionTowns.org | Read >>
5. Kinsale Energy Descent Action Plan, a detailed plan on transitioning | Read >>

(Photo by by Thomas Hawk. Some rights reserved)

Quoted from the article:

"Postindustrialism is all about closing resource loops and directly meeting human need--for nutrition, access, shelter, illumination, entertainment, community, and self-actualization--in the most elegant and efficient ways possible."

"... we want 'hot showers and cold beer' and not necessarily power plants and fossil fuels. The latter are just means-to-the-end, and usually not very sensible means... by focusing on real needs, and working backwards to find the most elegant and efficient ways of meeting those needs, one could routinely dispense with lots of unnecessary supply."

"... a core characteristic of green development [is] to substitute human creativity for resources. Some have described a green economy as labour-intensive. But "people-intensive" better suggests that green work is a very different, more developmental, kind of labour than the body- and soul-destroying cog-labour endemic to capitalism."

"A holistic focus on end-use takes us beyond simple efficiency to questions of the purpose of production... In the eco-service economy, manufacturing would be kept local and subordinated to service; stuff would simply be means to the end of satisfying needs for nutrition, shelter, entertainment, illumination, communication, etc."

"Postindustrial or qualitative wealth--in contrast of the quantitative industrial wealth of standardized mass production--is specific to place and circumstance... Community is the nexus through which a green economy's qualitative wealth, organizational efficiencies, and participatory democracy revolve."

"Just as a green economy features distributed or decentralized food, energy and goods production, so also it needs distributed regulation, expressed in finance, certification, communication, education, community design, civic culture, and many forms of participation. The scale of a green community-based economy is, in itself, a key factor encouraging democracy, participation and accountability. It is no panacea, but it makes most of the other positive elements more possible or effective."

"Small values-driven businesses, while they can put social and eco-values in command, need support networks, access to finance and information, and markets. Big business has more resources and access to information, but it is far more constrained by the single bottom line. So it too needs help from the outside--be it via regulatory rules, new enterprise networks, stakeholder pressure, or certification systems."

"Absolutely fundamental to creating ecological or knowledge-based economies are measures of qualitative value. It's an apparent paradox that qualitative development requires more quantification than old-line accumulation which was a pretty simple matter. Qualitative wealth requires complex information on ecosystems, communities and economies: from mass-balance accounts, to eco-footprints, genuine progress indicators, to life-cycle assessment, to social and educational indicators, to local economic multipliers, to sustainable community indicators, and many more."

Read the full article >>

Other writings by Brian Milani

1. From Opposition to Alternatives: Postindustrial Potentials & Transformative Learning (read >>)
2. Mindful Markets, Value Revolution and the Green Economy: EPR, Certification and the New Regulation (read >>)
3. Beyond Environmental Protection: Ecological Alternatives & Education for a Green Revolution (read >>)
4. (Book) Designing the Green Economy, The Postindustrial Alternative to Corporate Globalization (read review >>)

(Photo: Some rights reserved by kenwood)

GreenEconomics.net has this enlightening article on what constitutes a green economy. It begins with the following statement:

"Green economics is the economics of the real world--the world of work, human needs, the Earth's materials, and how they mesh together most harmoniously. It is primarily about 'use-value', not 'exchange-value' or money. It is about quality, not quantity for the sake of it. It is about regeneration--of individuals, communities and ecosystems--not about accumulation, of either money or material."

It then list the following interrelated principles that cover key dimensions of a green economy:

1. The Primacy of Use-value, Intrinsic Value & Quality
2. Following Natural Flows
3. Waste Equals Food
4. Elegance and Multifunctionality
5. Appropriate Scale / Linked Scale
6. Diversity
7. Self-Reliance, Self-Organization, Self-Design
8. Participation & Direct Democracy
9. Human Creativity and Development
10. The Strategic role of the Built-environment, the Landscape & Spatial Design

It also stresses the importance of community by saying "The basis for self-regulation in a green economy would be community, and intelligent design which provides incentives for the right things." And, in another article, "Community is the nexus through which a green economy's qualitative wealth, organizational efficiencies, and participatory democracy revolve."

Read the full article >>

(Photo by Thomas Hawk)

"In A Conservation Economy, Economic arrangements of all kinds are gradually redesigned so that they restore, rather than deplete, Natural Capital and Social Capital."

What does a sustainable society look like?

On ConservationEconomy.net, fifty-seven patterns provide a framework for an ecologically restorative, socially just, and reliably prosperous society. They are adaptable to local ecosystems and cultures, yet universal in their applicability. Together they form what we call a Conservation Economy.

Together, the patterns form a visual and conceptual framework that can be used to inspire innovation, focus planning efforts, and document emerging best practices. A conservation economy comprehensively integrates Social, Natural, and Economic Capital to demonstrate that a sustainable society is both desirable and achievable.

What is a pattern language?

A pattern language is a structured method of describing good design practices within a field of expertise. It is characterized by

1. Noticing and naming the common problems in a field of interest,
2. Describing the key characteristics of effective solutions for meeting some stated goal,
3. Helping the designer move from problem to problem in a logical way, and
4. Allowing for many different paths through the design process.

When a designer is designing something (whether it is a house or a computer program or a stapler), they must make many decisions about how to solve problems. A single problem, documented with its best solution, is a single design pattern. Each pattern has a name, a descriptive entry, and some cross-references, much like a dictionary entry. A documented pattern must also explain why that solution is considered the best one for that problem, in the given situation. When design is done by a team, pattern names will form a vocabulary they can share. This makes it necessary for pattern names to be easy to remember and highly descriptive.

A Pattern Language for Sustainability - Toward a Conservation Economy

In A Conservation Economy, Economic arrangements of all kinds are gradually redesigned so that they restore, rather than deplete, Natural Capital and Social Capital. While A Conservation Economy functions on a global scale, it can be imagined as a healthy mosaic of Bioregional Economies forged within coherent biological and cultural units. Even in a globalizing economy, diverse Bioregional Economies that are more self-sufficient in meeting their own needs will be more competitive and less vulnerable.

Pattern Index

A Conservation Economy

Social Capital

• Fundamental Needs: Subsistence Rights, Shelter For All, Health, Access To Knowledge
• Community: Social Equity, Security, Cultural Diversity, Cultural Preservation, Sense Of Place, Beauty And Play, Just Transitions, Civic Society

Natural Capital

• Ecological Land-Use: Connected Wildlands (Core Reserves, Wildlife Corridors, Buffer Zones), Productive Rural Areas (Sustainable Agriculture, Sustainable Forestry, Sustainable Fisheries, Ecotourism), Compact Towns And Cities (Human-Scale Neighborhoods, Green Building, Transit Access, Ecological Infrastructure, Urban Growth Boundaries)
• Ecosystem Services: Watershed Services, Soil Services, Climate Services, Biodiversity

Economic Capital

• Household Economies
• Green Business: Long-Term Profitability, Community Benefit, Green Procurement, Renewable Energy, Sustainable Materials Cycles, Resource Efficiency, Waste As Resource, Product As Service
• Local Economies: Value-Added Production, Rural-Urban Linkages, Local Assets
• Bioregional Economies: Fair Trade, True Cost Pricing, Product Labeling

"Our industrial-affluent-consumer society is extremely unjust and ecologically unsustainable. The argument [in this article] is that these problems cannot be solved in a society that is driven by obsession with high rates of production and consumption, affluent living standards, market forces, the profit motive and economic growth. A sustainable and just world order cannot be achieved until we undertake radical change in our lifestyles, values and systems, especially in our economic system."

"The alternative we must work for is the Simpler Way, based on frugal "living standards", co-operation, high levels of local economic self-sufficiency, and zero economic growth. There is now a Global Alternative Society Movement in which many small groups are building settlements of the required kind. The final section below argues that the top priority for people concerned about the fate of the planet should be starting to build these new lifestyles and systems within existing towns and suburbs." (Ted Trainer)

Read the full article >>> (Central theme: local cooperative and participatory economic self-sufficiency)

For a more detailed account of the rationale for, and the probable shape of such alternative sociey, read:

1. The Problem of Affluence and The Values and Worldview of Consumer Society - The Biggest Problem
2. Saving the Environment - Do You Realise What It Will Take?
3. Renewable Energy Can't Save Consumer Society
4. Capitalism: A Brief Critical Outline, Is a Humane Capitalism Possible? and Why Marx Matters
5. Our Empire, It's Nature and Maintenance
6. Our Economic System - Why It Must Be Scraped
7. Conventional Development vs. Appropriate Development and Appropriate Third World Development
8. The Alternative Sustainable Society - the Simpler Way
9. The New Economy for the Simpler Way
10. Can We Set Up a Community Cooperative Firm?
11. The Radical Implications of the Limits to Growth Analysis for the Design of Settlements
12. Agriculture: Conventional vs. Alternative and Can Permaculture Save the Planet?
13. How Cheaply We Could Live and The Way I Live
14. Spiritual Significance of the Simpler Way
15. Education: A Radically Critical View and Education in the Alternative, Sustanable Society
16. Cartoons Dealing with "The Simpler Way" Themes
17. The Transition is Underway and Thoughts on the Transition to a Sustanable Society
18. The Way It Could Be: A Visit to a Sustainable Society. This is a 250 page novel by Ted Trainer describing the experiences of a person who visits a fictitional settlement that has adopted Simpler Way principles. It is in 12 parts, all of which are available online free to read. (Part 1. Part 2. Part 3. Part 4. Part 5. Part 6. Part 7. Part 8. Part 9. Part 10. Part 11. Part 12)
    

W. Warren Wagar, who first sounded the call for a world revolution in his book Building the City of Man: Outlines of a World Civilization, explained the need for a large-scale movement in his chapter entitled "The Policy of the Whole Hog":

Unfortunately master strategists of world revolution are in chronically short supply. It is easier to attend to selected small problems ready at hand. The general public, and most intellectuals as well, dither from one issue to another. Now it is Korea, now Algeria, now Vietnam. Petitions for world government are followed by civil-rights demonstrations, which in turn give way to bomb-shelter building and emigration to New Zealand. Everyone rallies around the Common Market; next the Peace Corps; then campus revolution. Every year brings its new approved activity: marches on nuclear installations, silent vigils, ghetto riots, draft-card burnings, ecology crusades. The current persuasion or obsession of every man, woman, and child over the age of nine is readily identifiable by his dress, hair, ornamentation, and insignia, which undergo complete stylistic metamorphoses at least wice a decade. But nothing every really changes. We do not give one hour or one dollar in a thousand to the solving of world problems, and only one of every thousand that we do give is dissipated in haphazard, uncoordinated, miscellaneous philanthropy.

All the movements taken to task in this chapter have something to contribute to the search for a new world. I lament only their lack of broader visions and more versatile strategies. We must pull ourselves together, in spite of everything. Developing a master strategy for world revolution means a drastic simplification of purpose, and at the same time a drastic complexification of effort.

Our goal must be, quite simply, a new organic world civilization, a new sociocultural, economic, and political environment for the species Homo sapiens, with a new organic relationship to the larger environment of earth and cosmos. Such a goal simplifies our world view, but it does not make our task any easier or smaller. Just the opposite. The search for social justice, personal freedom, truth and meaning, peace, well-being, and the good life are not superseded by the search for a new civilization, but are assimilated directly into it. Civilization building requires disciplined attention to all the needs of progressive mankind. In coming chapters, therefore, we shall have to discuss politics, law, religion, philosophy, culture, human rights, economics, education, ecology, the universe itself--all in relationship to our vision of the desirable future of mankind.

Nothing can be left out, because everything is collapsing. Proposals to repair the old civilizations, or replace them piece by piece, are madness in reason's mask. H. G. Wells relates an appropriate parable in one of his last books on world order. The survivors of a vessel lost at sea have found refuge on a desert island, where the most likely source of food is a wild pig. The pig, of course, objects. Despite their great hunger, the survivors put forward reasonable suggestions for satisfying their needs without causing too much discomfort to the pig. One man will be content with a loin chop, another with the left ham, a third will settle for chitterlings. The cabin boy, however, points out that the animal is unlikely to agree to any diminution of himself whatsoever. In such a situation, the only policy that makes sense is to kill the whole hog and be done with it.

~~ From http://www.worldrevolution.org/WRNewFiles/IntrotoWR.htm

(Photo by salama)

Here's an excellent definition and explanation of the concept "Sustainability":

"Sustainability is a systemic concept, relating to the continuity of economic, social, institutional and environmental aspects of human society. It is intended to be a means of configuring civilization and human activity so that society, its members and its economies are able to meet their needs and express their greatest potential in the present, while preserving biodiversity and natural ecosystems, and planning and acting for the ability to maintain these ideals indefinitely. Sustainability affects every level of organization, from the local neighborhood to the entire planet."

Accompanying this description is "a number of common principles [which] are embedded in most charters or action programmes to achieve sustainable development, sustainability or sustainable prosperity", synthesized by Hargroves, K. and M. Smith (2005) in their book "The Natural Advantage of Nations: Business Opportunities, Innovation and Governance in the 21st Century". These include:

• dealing cautiously with risk, uncertainty and irreversibility;
• ensuring appropriate valuation, appreciation and restoration of nature;
• integration of environmental, social and economic goals in policies and activities;
• equal opportunity and community participation;
• conservation of biodiversity and ecological integrity;
• ensuring inter-generational equity;
• recognizing the global dimension;
• a commitment to best practice;
• no net loss of human or natural capital;
• the principle of continuous improvement; and
• the need for good governance.

Read more at PermaWiki >>

(Photo by bb_matt)

"If you combine the increase of the oil prices and the increase of food prices then you have the elements of a very serious [social] crisis. . . ." (Jacques Diouf, head of the FAO)

Our global food system faces a crisis of unprecedented scope. This crisis, which threatens to imperil the lives of hundreds of millions and possibly billions of human beings, consists of four simultaneously colliding dilemmas, all arising from our relatively recent pattern of dependence on depleting fossil fuels.

• The first dilemma consists of the direct impacts on agriculture of higher oil prices: increased costs for tractor fuel, agricultural chemicals, and the transport of farm inputs and outputs.
• The second is an indirect consequence of high oil prices - the increased demand for biofuels, which is resulting in farmland being turned from food production to fuel production, thus making food more costly.
• The third dilemma consists of the impacts of climate change and extreme weather events caused by [fossil]-fuel-based greenhouse gas emissions. Climate change is the greatest environmental crisis of our time; however, fossil fuel depletion complicates the situation enormously, and if we fail to address either problem properly the consequences will be dire.
• Finally comes the degradation or loss of basic natural resources (principally, topsoil and fresh water supplies) as a result of high rates, and unsustainable methods, of production stimulated by decades of cheap energy.

Each of these problems is developing at a somewhat different pace regionally, and each is exacerbated by the continually expanding size of the human population. As these dilemmas collide, the resulting overall food crisis is likely to be profound and unprecedented in scope.

I propose to discuss each of these dilemmas briefly and to show how all are intertwined with our societal reliance on oil and other fossil fuels. I will then argue that the primary solution to the overall crisis of the world food system must be a planned rapid reduction in the use of fossil fuels in the growing and delivery of food.

As we will see, this strategy, though ultimately unavoidable, will bring enormous problems of its own unless it is applied with forethought and intelligence. But the organic movement is uniquely positioned to guide this inevitable transition of the world's food systems away from reliance on fossil fuels, if leaders and practitioners of the various strands of organic agriculture are willing to work together and with policy makers.

Read the full article at richardheinberg.com >>

(Photo by trazmumbalde)

"Today's organizations face complex challenges in fast and global environments. Knowledge and excellence based on past experiences have lost their valid promise for future success. What we learned about organizations, systems, management and processes and what worked for us up till now does not necessarily give answers to the diverse problems of today and less so of tomorrow. And although managers and leaders world wide try to face these challenges, usually with costly organizational changes on structure and process levels and with a high investment in training and human resource development measures, they still draw from the (known) past - for an unknown future."

"Letting go of the past and the patterns in which one is thinking and acting and creating the future from how it emerges is the maxim of Theory U. Leaders, argues organization research shooting star C. Otto Scharmer, are like artists in front of a pure canvas - they must sense the painting long before the brush touches the varnish. They must feel and see it emerge, long before it is put on the fabric. Only then it can turn from a mere drawing into a piece of art. Good leaders are creative artists, they know, see and sense by more sources than the traditional ways what is emerging. They can sense the presence (presencing) holistically and can draw from knowledge beyond the past and learn from the emerging future for their strategy and actions." (Barbara Schratz-Hadwich)

(Click title or "read on" below to read the full summary.)

(Photo by somewhereinak)

Humanity is living one of its most crucial moments. The time of the great empires is in decay. There is no specific culture or country arising as a new empire, but instead there is a Global Emerging Culture. It seems that the planet is growing a new social body where all humans are connected giving birth to a global brain.

We are living in the peak of an evolutionary leap. The past century we started riding horses and ended riding to the moon. We have reached a high level of development in technology, but we haven't evolved in the same proportion in the development of our consciousness. That is indeed a dangerous formula for our planet.

Taking that in consideration the guidelines I suggest for the Emerging Global Civilizations are the following:

1. Personal Mastery
2. Social Technologies
3. Global Collective Intelligence
4. Citizens of the World

(Click "Read on" below to read the full message. Photo by big-e-mr-g)

Ideas about how the world works that don't accord with reality can be unhelpful. That's especially true about mainstream economics, which is based in part on ideas that made a lot of sense at some point in the last 250 years but that have outlived their time and usefulness. These ideas--such as the reliance on GDP as the key index of general wellbeing--still dominate assumptions and thinking about economic matters in the media, governments, businesses, and popular consciousness.

But in recent decades, economics theoreticians and researchers have suggested a variety of reforms that would make economics truer, greener, and more sustainable:

1. Scale. How big is the global economy relative to the global ecosystem?
2. Stress development over growth. That is, make the economy better at satisfying human needs, not simply bigger.
3. Make prices tell the ecological truth. For instance, climate change is arguably the result of failing to charge for dumping carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
4. Account for nature's services. Pollination performed by honeybees, air and water purification, soil generation, pest control, seed dispersal, and nutrient recycling, are among the many other services that nature provides.
5. The precautionary principle. Ordinary risk analysis asks, "How much environmental damage will be allowed?" But the precautionary principle asks, "How little damage is possible?"
6. Commons management. People generally believe that there are only two workable regimes for managing resources: private property or government control. But commons management regimes are a third way, one that taps the strong human impulse toward cooperation and the common good.
7. Value women. Economic systems ought to be gender-blind but they're not.

Read the full article at WorldWatch.org >>

(Photo by opaqueEpiphany)

"Don't expect to see a bird or a bear testify in court anytime soon, but there is a growing body of opinion that animals, birds, rivers, forests -- nature -- should have greater standing before the law. The concept has been around since 1972 when a professor at the University of Southern California, Christopher Stone, first hypothesized the notion; he asked in an article, Should Trees Have Standing? But legal scholars say we are still far from giving nature a solid legal voice."

"If I've got a right to life, you have a duty not to kill me. If one thinks of other species in the same way -- they wouldn't have the same rights as humans, but they would at least have the right to exist, and therefore a fundamental right to play their part in the evolutionary story."

Read full article at theStar.com >>

(Photo: Methuselah, the oldest living thing on earth by harold_davis)