By: Harold Forbes

My problem with dreams and visions is that they will always be limited in their effect by the number of people who “buy-into” them when with climate change we need action by virtually everybody, everywhere.
In my analysis, the root of the problem (and the solution) lies in the most powerful and universal tool devised by humans: money. The capitalist system has been an effective (though not perfect) system for delivering present day pleasures but it has done so by fooling us into thinking that destroying the future is “rational behaviour” through the simple error of omitting to place any cost on using the Earth’s resources and services. The source of that error is partially our shared imagination of what our relationship to the rest of the planet is (dominant) and partially time related. Capitalism only became possible following the invention of double entry booking in 15th century Italy. Unfortunately, at that time there were many fewer humans around and they had not discovered how to use fossil fuels in any great way. So, the system that seeks balance is, in fact, tilted. Businesses are well used to the idea that capital items used for production need to be depreciated to provide for their replacement at the end of their productive lives but the destruction of natural capital is ignored. We use the natural world because it is valuable and destroy it because it is free. There are some people working in this area like the Prince of Wales (and some nice “sizzle” at http://bit.ly/susacctg) and the Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity but what we really need is for restocking oceans, protecting biodiversity and taking carbon out of the atmosphere to become economic activities.