By William T. Hathaway
The financial wizards of Wall Street have devised a new way to profit from Mother Nature. They’ve created a class of stocks called Natural Asset Companies that will control the earth’s resources such as water, wildlife, forests, minerals, and farmland. The project was developed by the Intrinsic Exchange Group in partnership with the New York Stock Exchange, the Inter-American Development Bank, the Rockefeller Foundation, and the investment firm Aberdare Ventures.
According to the Intrinsic Exchange Group’ website, the purpose of these companies is the “conversion of natural assets into financial capital. … These assets make life on Earth possible and enjoyable. … They include biological systems that provide clean air, water, foods, medicines, a stable climate, human health and societal potential. … The potential of this asset class is immense. Nature’s economy is larger than our current industrial economy and we can tap this store of wealth and productivity.” They estimate the value of the “global ecosystem services market” at $125 trillion annually.
The Natural Asset Company will either own the land itself or will own the right to use and sell the resources of the land, including recreational access. For example, people could be charged for hiking and fishing on public land.
The USA will eventually be included, but cash-strapped countries in Latin America are being targeted first. The government of Costa Rica has already expressed interest. The Minister of Environment and Energy, Andrea Meza Murillo, stated the project “will deepen the economic analysis of giving nature its economic value.” Although this will be a windfall for their elite, it will probably be a disaster for the indigenous people who draw their sustenance from the land.
The board of governors of the New York Stock Exchange saw such potential for profit that they took the unusual step of becoming a partner in the venture themselves. According to NYSE’s Michael Blaugrund, “Our hope is that owning a Natural Asset Company is going to be a way that an increasingly broad range of investors have the ability to invest in something that’s intrinsically valuable, but, up to this point, was really excluded from the financial markets.”
Natural Asset Companies are a new way to turn public resources into private profits. They are another step towards what George W. Bush proudly touted as the “Ownership Society” in which everything becomes property. The juggernaut of capitalism is lurching closer to its endstation, where all life is commodified, reduced to money. Nature, including human beings, is being shrunken down to coins — the Beezosification, Gatesification, Muskification of the universe.
It’s time to overthrow this parasitical system that is grabbing up more and more of the world. Here’s an action plan to build something better: https://socialism.com.
William T. Hathaway was a Fulbright professor of American studies at universities in Germany, where he currently lives. He is the author of Radical Peace: People Refusing War, which tells the experiences of war resisters, deserters, and peace activists from the USA, Iraq, and Afghanistan and of Lila, the Revolutionary, a fable for adults about an eight-year-old girl who sparks a world revolution for social justice.
Meanwhile, standing watch, between the highway and the houses, is a thin margin of trees. No more than two or three wide, modest size, with sparse underbrush. They make no comment as I pass, on foot. Or I cannot hear them over the swish of tires, the hum of wires.
… a Jewish person took offense to the comparison, and then the silliness began.
me: “What a great example of gaslighting as a strategy to further divide victims of oppression. None have a monopoly on virtuous victimhood. The solution is not for marginalized subgroups to attack each other, but to find solidarity and mutual support in fighting all the forms of oppression against humanity.”
As polite Canadians and privileged Americans we are not used to the burden of social activism. We’d prefer to play by the rules, as we were instructed from day one of our school-regimented and media-indoctrinated youth. With government overreach tearing apart the tissue of our everyday lives, however, and meanwhile legislatures on hold and the legal system overwhelmed, we are left with no recourse but the proverbial torches and pitchforks. Here are a few exmples of grassroots action and personal courage in speaking out against tyranny:
The trees grow and bulge, pregnant with possibility. They hold utter silence. They abide the roar of a distant jet, tarnishing the soundscape of literal tweets. Yes, what a concept. Living birdflesh, now on a wash of tires on the road. The green light redeems. The palette satisfies. The insect undertones enlighten. Oxygen pervades the ineffable air. We need to know this. The wisdom of the native elders, seven generations before conquest. Before Vikings, Romans, Mongols, Huns. Not to go back there, but to find out and remember what we can give to the seven generations to come.
“And so begins the epic conflict; a tale as old as civilization itself. There are two types of people in this world: Those that want to control others, and those that want to be left alone…. At this point it is going to be us, or them. They will not stop their pursuit of dominion and we will not comply, so we are at an impasse. Our two tribes cannot coexist within the same society, maybe not even the same planet.
Playing or working with others, ideally we get to choose, among whom we can grow in respect and develop trust. Or such groups choose themselves, organically. Musical group or community, even a family we’re born to, requires that mutuality, ongoing. The roots of love and common trunk hold widening branches in one living tree.
Walking in nature, down a long trail or a country road, thoughts take the pace of the whole organism, who you are, in the sovereign moment. Thought by thought follows step by step… or you can pick up the pace, even try to outrun them. Thoughts will follow, but for a while you’re in the lead, running free.