Divestment of natural capital

George Monbiot published a piece, The Great Imposters, in the Guardian of 7th August 2012 in which he describes the trend to commodify natural capital so market forces will determine their usage.The argument in favour of this approach is coherent and plausible. Business currently treats the natural world as if it is worth nothing. Pricing nature and incorporating that price into the cost of goods and services creates an economic incentive for its protection. However, it does not take into account the fact that many components of natural capital, such as oil, soil fertility, phosphorus, the marine ecosystem and the climate are being irreversibly degraded by the operations of the systems of civilization. Incorporating the ecological cost into business plans is a logical improvement on what has been done in the past but it still does not take into account the divestment of the natural capital. It is an unsustainable process so future generations will learn the hard way how unwise their forebears were.

Denis Frith
 

Senescence of the Anthropocene era

Humankind has made decisions that have had a major impact on Earth's ecosystems in recent geological times by making unwise use of irreplaceable natural material resources. Climate change and the pollution of land, sea, air and organisms, including humans,  are some of the unintended consequences.

This unsustainable process is being termed the Anthropocene era. The exponential growth of Tityas, materialistic civilization - the machinery, cars, ships, aircraft, buildings, roads, railways, ports, airports, cities - to provide humankind with goods and services is out of control by humans but not of natural forces. This unsustainable tangible process has been driven by the delusions of the powerful in society with the aid of intangible money, damaging science and technology together with the support of the unknowing consumers. They are all in denial of the reality of how materialistic systems really operate. They glory in financial wealth as their mechanistic systems irrevocably destroy natural material wealth.

Tityas is an organism that is now entering into its senescence. Its components are irreversibly aging under the impact of natural forces as their sustenance, particularly those supplying energy, becomes scarcer. The hallucination about the ability of life-limited technological systems to tackle emerging problems will become a nightmare. The future demise of Tityas in the geological short term is certain. The power of the elite will decline as their money and tools becomes impotent. Developing countries will emulate the senescence of developed countries. The Anthopocene era will end with the surviving, bewildered humankind wondering what went wrong.