Natural Capitalism

A summary of:
Paul Hawken (2004). Natural Capitalism: Brother, Can You Spare a Paradigm? In Ausubel, K. & Harpignies, J.P., eds., Nature’s Operating Instructions: The True Biotechnologies. Sierra Club Books: San Francisco.
&
Amory together with Hunter Lovins (2004). Natural Capitalism: Where the Rubber Meets the Road In Ausubel, K. & Harpignies, J.P., eds., Nature’s Operating Instructions: The True Biotechnologies. Sierra Club Books: San Francisco.

I read Hawken’s (with the Lovins’) book, Natural Capitalism. It was quite long, together with a fiddling fight tedious. The center of it, what redeemed it, tin last institute inwards these much shorter chapters, summarized here.

First, a definition, from the Lovins’ chapter: “Natural capitalism doesn’t exactly hateful reducing waste; it agency eliminating the whole concept of waste materials through amend design, blueprint that adopts biological patters, processes, together with frequently materials. This approach implies eliminating whatsoever industrial output that represents a disposal toll rather than a salable product” (169). The Lovins’ argue: “We believe the leaders inwards waste materials reduction are going to last inwards the somebody sector, but at that spot remains a vital component division for governments together with civil society. It’s of import to yell upwards the purposes together with limitations of markets. Markets brand a keen retainer but a bad master copy together with a worse religion. Markets create value, but alone communities together with families create values. And a guild that tries to substitute markets for politics, ethics, or faith is seriously adrift” (174). (To me, this suggests that the whole gratis marketplace ethos that underpins the Internet – e.g. Net Neutrality – needs to last reconsidered.)

Hawken’s Definition is this: “Natural capitalism equally a metaphor is an endeavour to depict an integrated application together with programme of the economies of restoration. Rather than beingness an (149) approach to sustainability, natural capitalism attempts to depict a practical human relationship betwixt human beings together with the biosphere that volition improve the lineament of life for all spell dramatically reducing our comport upon on living systems together with eventually increasing ecosystem viability together with productivity” (150). Hawkens draws on the wisdom of C.S. Lewis, who wrote inwards The Abolition of Man, “What nosotros telephone band Man’s might over Nature turns out to last a might exercised past times some men over other men amongst Nature equally its instrument.” Hawkens responds: “It is the might of corporations over people together with place. The world’s tiptop 200 companies convey twice the assets of lxxx per centum of the world’s people. This might was never granted” (149).

Another fundamental chemical component of natural capitalism is that, “in the developed world, the limiting cistron to human well-being together with evolution is no longer human-made capital; it is life itself. As to a greater extent than people house greater strain on living systems, (152) limits to prosperity are coming to last determined past times scarcities of natural systems rather than industrial prowess. …Unlike traditional economical factors of production, these biological limiting factors are non fungible; inwards other words, they can’t last replaced” (153). And what of our human capital? “We convey the highest rates of abortion, drug use, violence, gangs, together with teen pregnancies of whatsoever industrial nation. The listing goes on. So what does that state us? What immature people are proverb to us is that they don’t desire to last here. At all. On earth. In the United States, also injury, the greatest displace of mortality amid teenagers betwixt 10 together with 14 years quondam is suicide. Not drugs, non violence, non AIDS. Suicide” (156). Surely this is a threat to the natural working capital missive of the alphabet of humans – together with our mental wellness is a necessary consideration of whatsoever responsible action. And anyway, fifty-fifty if nosotros fence that humans are amend off amongst certainly technological advances, is this actually worth it inwards the grand scheme of things? Hawken asks the most perfect question: “Consider the persuasion of route warriors rushing onto the red-eye amongst their Palm Pilots, their laptops, their prison theater cellular telephone phones – what’s that all about? So nosotros enquire the question, Do nosotros actually desire to last to a greater extent than productive? Do nosotros actually desire to swap to a greater extent than productivity for the loss of our forests, our riparian systems, our resources? I don’t think so” (152)….“So the existent inquiry is, What are nosotros doing? We’re creating a public inwards which nosotros cannot pass plenty fourth dimension amongst our children. To hit that, nosotros are sacking the planet” (152).

Another chemical component is: “if we’re going to do an economical organisation that has whatsoever semblance or resemblance to biological systems, nosotros tin no longer think of ourselves equally episodic manufacturers of goods but must recast ourselves equally deliverers of a menstruum of services. After all, that menstruum of services is what nosotros have from nature. The materials, molecules, together with compounds themselves must last carefully marshaled together with monitored. Either they must last made from living systems together with last capable of beingness biodegraded or reconstituted, or they must last technical nutrients that are returned to industrial systems inwards a unopen loop. There are no exceptions. There is no landfill inwards this society” (155).

And Hawken also argues that nosotros must restore natural capital, (although he doesn’t phrase it similar this) equally an indicator of progress: “We cannot but organize ourselves to last effective, efficient, or productive. We convey to organize our industrial systems inwards such a manner that our oceans, our soil, our waters, our riparian systems, together with our climates are restored, pace past times pace past times step. Restoration has to last a natural result of what nosotros do, non an altruistic of a legislated outcome” (155).

This is Hawken’s grand, inspiring vision:
“What is possible inwards 50 years is a public that is wonderfully messy, shockingly magical, together with deliriously creative. It doesn’t lucifer a unmarried scenario written anywhere past times anyone. It is non a public defined past times technologies, tools, together with products. It is non a public that tin last measured past times money. It is non a public that tin last reduced to demographics. It volition last a public defined past times the acts of restor-(159)ing life on earth, a public that celebrates dance, costume, song, ritual, magic, prayer, worship, together with play. It volition last a public that cares for its quondam people, its children, together with its storytellers. This is the operate of carefully reconstituting what has been lost past times creating weather conducive to life on earth. It is born of a civilization inwards which no materials used inwards manufacture displace impairment to anyone, immediately or later. It is created past times a guild that imitates together with emulates the blueprint brilliance of nature that nosotros reside inside together with walk upon together with convey never fully appreciated. Ours is a fourth dimension of extraordinary work, because it is non the operate of a decade or a century, but the operate of a millennium” (160).