Green economy is about cheating nature while making profit out of it
Humanity is at the edge of a cliff. Instead of recognizing that nature is our home and that we must
respect the rights of all beings of the Earth community, transnational corporations are promoting more
capitalism under the ambiguous name of “green economy.”
According to proponents, the mistake of capitalism, which led us to these current multiple crises, is that
the free market had not gone far enough. Thus, “green economy” capitalism is going to fully incorporate
nature as part of its capital. They are identifying the specific functions of ecosystems and biodiversity
that can be priced and then brought into a global market as “Natural Capital.”
In a report by Ecosystem Marketplace, we can read a brutally frank description of what is motivating
Green Economy advocates:
“Given their enormous impact on our daily lives, it’s astounding that we don’t pay more attention,
or dollars, to ecosystem services. Ecosystems provide trillions of dollars in clean water,
flood protection, fertile lands, clean air, pollination, disease control - to mention just a few.
These services are essential to maintaining livable conditions and are delivered by the world’s
largest utilities. Far larger in value and scale than any electric, gas, or water utility could possibly
dream of. And the infrastructure, or hard assets, that generate these services are simply:
healthy ecosystems.
So how do we secure this enormously valuable infrastructure and its services? The same way
we would electricity, potable water, or natural gas. We pay for it.”
The goal is not just to privatize material goods that can be taken from nature, such as wood from a forest,
but also to privatize the functions and processes of nature, label them environmental services, set a
price and then bring them into the market. In the same report, the contributors already have estimated
annual values for these environmental services.
To illustrate, take a look at the leading example of “green economy,” the program