Surviving Capitalism (Not) : Values versus prices at the Rio+20 Earth Summit

We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Tuesday, June 19, 2012

Values versus prices at the Rio+20 Earth Summit

Click here to access article by Patrick Bond from Climate Connections.

The author strikes at the heart of capitalist logic and world view by deconstructing their conceptualization of nature as capital. He argues that...

by relegating our environment to mere natural capital, the next step is to convert value into price and then sell chunks of nature on the market. All manner of financialisation strategies have emerged to securitise ‘environmental services’, most obviously in carbon markets which continue failing miserably to deliver investor funds to slow climate change.

The author warns on the eve of the June 20-22 of a key United Nations Summit due to take place in Rio De Janeiro that efforts to promote green capitalism will be advanced once again; and that, if not stopped, will result in attacks on the defenseless poor, their access to water, evictions from their lands, deforestation, and destruction of habitat.