Are you tired of green washing and the over use of the words ‘green’ and ‘sustainable’? Try using the word environomical instead. Environomics marries economic principles with environmental principles. By so doing we are able to strike a balance and quantify performance of the two collectively. This will give credence to the climate change movement and may just slow climate change critics down to a panic. So where do we humans fit in? Well we are in between the two practices and responsible for the marriage. There also needs to be an impartial centre in administration and currency, one that is not influenced by anything, and I mean anything. That is the Earth Bank.
Think about it, traditionally economic development has always taken precedence over all other demands of sustainability, like nature. The circular flow model in economics focuses on the exchange between various economic centres; it does not capture or quantify how socioeconomic relations and the environment are affected by these exchanges. As a finite resource, the omission of the earth’s natural resources as a fundamental component in economic modelling is arguably the biggest failing by economists. By respecting the earth’s supply of natural resources and dispensing natural resources only if a return, is achievable, economist may have prevented the set of global problems we face today. It is not too late.
While an earth bank is a great idea to administer and practice environomics, the practical implementation is challenging because there is too much centralized power and self interest in the world economies. Nevertheless, there is compelling evidence that we face the biggest crisis in human history and we urgently need to address the clash of perspectives between economics and environmental needs. The traditional discipline of economics is giving way to new economic thinking which attempts to put forward new ideas about how to organise the foundations of a sustainable economy. Evironomics may be the answer.
The challenge is how do we unlock the potential of the practice of environmics on a global scale? There answer may be in an earth bank crypto currency and the use of block chain technology to manage it. It is apolitical, decentralized, non-racist, agnostic and most importantly, it is secure. The people will run the movement or rather it will run itself with the support of the people, not politicians or governments. Its currency will not be regulated or interfered with. Many consider the decentralised block chain technology to be ‘natural’ and a great invention to forge the gap between socio-economic needs with environmental needs. More importantly it could bring us closer to working with our environment so that future generations can experience nature as we do. One thing is for sure, the existing models don’t work.
Author: Bryan Groenendaal
