Aligning Ecology and Economy

1. PROVIDE JOB TRANSITION SPACE for people to leave jobs in companies which are based on producing more unnecessarily. Provide space for companies to reorient more ecologically

2. TRANSITION TO NEIGHBORHOOD COMMONS. Shifting childchare, eldercare, sickcare, food cooking back into the commons, shifts money from runaway capitalism system into the commons, it recenters life in our neighborhoods so theres less travel and less gas use, and it leads to more sharing of goods which lowers consumption.

3. RELOCALIZE OUR ECONOMY :Producing things locally uses much less oil. It helps build resilient local communities. Lessens inequality. Local supply chains dont crash as much as global supply chains in crisis situations (there are a lot of companies are dependent on chinese parts and ingredients, and are faltering during the Coronavirus episode)

4. PRACTICE COSMO-LOCALISM The Cosmo part of the above term means that we can open source and share knowledge freely. Designs for tech and products are shared without patents so people in each locale can make and repair the products locally. Maker spaces grown in number. This cuts down on our dependence on multinational corporations and the way their marketing influences what we buy. We then evolve to making products more eco oriented. There is less building products for quick obsolescence. See Michel Bauwens work on cosmo-localism

5.LOCAL ORGANIC FOOD. Transitioning farms to organic regenerative agriculture techniques makes the soil healthier and able to bring down more greenhouse gases. It also helps the water cycles. Local food through farm food delivery programs like community supported agriculture, means less oil use for global transport, less refridgerants (one of the worst greenhouse gases), less packaging and less overly processed food. It means healthier people, and less money on healthcare. It strengthens our immune system , which is helpful in times of epidemics

6. COMMUNITY OWNED LAND . Rent increases faster than inflation rate because its turned into a cash cow for corporations and serial landlords. Local governments helping the poor with section 8 funding, helps them find housing, but keeps rents high still. Funneling the money instead into community land trusts can keep rents down. Ecovillages and intentional communities provide communal places to transition people to a more eco-oriented lifestyle. Lower rents allow people to transition out of eco-unfriendly corporate jobs. See George Monbiot’s work on reformation of land property rights and ownership

7. CREATE ECO AUTOCATALYTIC LOOPS . These are self-sustaining loops in the eco-economic system. For instance if you have a local food forest in your town, and community gatherings where food is cooked for community, this is an autocatalytic loop that is self sustaining.

8. USE THE DRIVING FORCE AND RHYTHMS OF NATURE TO POWER OUR ECONOMY : Eg.houses can be designed to be passively heated from sun. Shade from trees can lessen our airconditioning use. Wetlands, plants and soil can be used to clean our water instead of factories . See the field of permaculture

9. TRANSITION TO A DECONSTRUCTION & REWILDING ECONOMY: This is about depaving our roads and concrete and putting back soil. Its about taking down buildings and allowing nature to grow. Depaving roads and putting nature in, would protect cities (like New Orleans and Houston) from flooding as water seeps into soil. Bringing back urban soil and trees would help with the water cycles that come in from the ocean and replenish the ecology further inland with water. This can make less likely fires (like happened in California and Australia). We can depave roads and put in food forests that create local food commons

10. TRANSITION TO A CIRCULAR ECONOMY : create an economy that takes of products from production to biodegrading and going back into earth. See William McDonough’s work.

11. CREATE SELF-ORGANIZING ECO-BUSINESS NETWORK: Eco businesses can have incentives and contracts with other businesses that incentivises being more ecological. They can also create a participative commons that links different eco-businesses with a volunteer force that work trades for services and products.

12. INVEST IN COMMUNITY AND ECO Instead of investing so much in stocks invest money where the return on investment is community and eco. For instance many people can invest money to support Community Supported Agriculture, turning monoculture farms into permaculture farms, and their roi can be several years of food deliveries.

13. CREATE A NATURE CONNECTION ECONOMY which brings people back into listening to nature and being in nature. Being more in nature allows us to deprogram from a lot of marketing and consumption culture induced needs. Nature can also guide us out of the climate crisis if we listen to it.

14. GROW THE ECO-COMMUNITY INFORMATION ECONOMY by switching our focus from GDP to metrics that measure community wealth and eco wealth.

POSTED BY

Daniel Pinchbeck

Author of ‘Breaking Open the Head’, ‘2012: The Return of Quetzalcoatl’, and ‘How Soon is Now?’. Founding member of The Assemblage. Founding Editor and Creative Director of Liminal News.

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Posted By

Daniel Pinchbeck

Founding Editor @ Liminal Magazine. Daniel is the author of 'Breaking Open the Head', '2012: The Return of Quetzalcoatl', and 'How Soon is Now?'. Founding member of The Assemblage.