Opinion - Welcome to the Biocene: How ‘natural capitalism' can save America and the world

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2 days ago

Something much deeper than the price of eggs was at work when voters re-elected President Trump last year.
Most Americans were unhappy with the country's direction; they still are. Last month, 59 percent said they were dissatisfied with 'the way things are going in the United States.'
It's not just that people have very different opinions about the day's pressing issues. We lack a national vision or mission that transcends our differences. No one has articulated a compelling alternative to the country's unease, ennui and anger. We had purpose in the past. What is our purpose now? Trump's version of America definitely is not it.
If most of us are unsatisfied, perhaps it is because America is not living up to its image as an opportunity society. The 90 percent may feel that their physical and economic security is less certain than it used to be.
Science tells us, and weather disasters confirm, that civilization is careening toward a dystopian future. Trump is pressing the accelerator. However, the climate is only one of nine 'safe operating spaces' for life on the planet. We have already left the safety zones for six.
What might our mission be? I'll suggest one for the sake of discussion. Its dual objective would be to (a) give everyone the tools to be the best they can be and (b) return society to safe operating spaces in this century.
Regarding the first objective, let's assume we have a choice between three economic and social systems.
The first is Darwinian capitalism — a dog-eat-dog economy that results in a permanent wealth gap between the haves and have-nots. Success in the Darwinian economy often is not based on merit. The rich get richer by controlling and rigging economic policies. They buy influence and pay accountants to find loopholes that allow them to avoid taxes. They oppose government regulations because they want unhindered profiteering. They believe it is their manifest destiny to rule.
Meanwhile, less fortunate Americans remain that way because of inferior education, unaffordable health care, institutional barriers, less intergenerational wealth transfer, the inability to escape 'sacrifice zones,' uninsured losses to weather disasters, and a tax system that shifts wealth upward. It is exceedingly rare that any of them find, let alone climb, ladders to the top. If there are geniuses, artists, scientists, educators, saints and potential philanthropists in their midst, we will never know.
The alternative is social capitalism, similar to systems found in the Nordic countries, whose people consistently rank as the happiest in the world. It combines a market economy with government services that offer everyone the basic tools for success: universal health care, free quality education through the post-secondary level, equal pay for equal work, child-care assistance for working families, social safety nets for people with genuine disabilities, and so on.
Social capitalism ensures equal opportunity but not equal results. Each person's success depends on their willingness to use the tools and work hard. And yet social capitalism would be intergenerational, with each generation handing the next a world of ample natural resources and ecosystem services, a stable climate, and a robust economy. The U.S. Constitution would codify this obligation by recognizing the rights of future generations.
A third economic alternative would return civilization to the planet's safe operating spaces. It is 'natural capitalism,' an economy 'in service to life,' as Hunter Lovins, one of its leading advocates, describes it. Its objective is society's productive harmony with nature
Its goals would include the following:
Decouple economic progress from environmental degradation and resource exhaustion.
Use renewable rather than finite resources. Any unavoidable use of finite resources would be made circular — in other words, the resources would be recycled, reused or repurposed.
Use true-cost, life-cycle accounting to determine the market prices of goods and services. This would allow market forces to guide consumers to the goods with the lowest actual cost and greatest good for people and planet.
Expand America's restoration economy to revive damaged ecosystems and their services. In 2016, the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston estimated that ecosystem restoration employed more than 200,000 people and generated nearly $25 billion for the economy. However, analysts say the current rate of ecosystem damage will still cost the U.S. economy more than $80 billion annually by 2050. America's losses would be the highest in the world.
Acknowledge that nature is much more than a service provider for humanity, amending the Constitution to establish nature's inherent right to exist.
Integrate nature into cities (a practice called biophilia) to give urban residents the physical, psychological and educational benefits of close contact with nature. Use natural assets (shade trees, green spaces to absorb stormwater, coastal wetlands, etc.) to mitigate the risks of extreme weather.
Move shoreline property and infrastructure out of the path of sea-level rise and land subsidence. Otherwise, $35 billion worth of real estate could be underwater by mid-century. Turn the ocean, Gulf, and Great Lakes shorelines into a continuous coastal commons, fully accessible to the public.
Reenroll the U.S. in international environmental agreements and organizations, because modern ecological challenges are global in scope and impact.
Revive the ethic that each generation will leave the Earth in better shape for its children. Author Robert Macfarlane explains that human progress suffers from a 'shifting baseline syndrome' where 'ongoing damage to the natural world becomes normalized over time, as each new generation measures loss against an already degraded benchmark.' He proposes a 'lifting baseline' where we normalize ecological improvement rather than loss.
With these and other steps, the U.S. would model an evolutionary shift in humanity's relationship with the rest of the natural world. The Anthropocene era, a mea culpa on humanity's mistreatment of the biosphere, we would progress to the Biocene, where we recognize and respect our symbiotic relationship with the rest of the biological world.
Then, if we choose to transcend the surly bonds of biology, we might know enough to do no harm.
William S. Becker, a former U.S. Department of Energy central regional director, is executive director of the Presidential Climate Action Project. The project is not affiliated with the White House.
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