Because no one pays for the use of dissolved oxygen in a public waterway, that oxygen will be used wastefully. A number of economists have gone beyond analysis to advocacy. Recently a group called Redefining Progress circulated a letter advocating emission taxes to limit global warming. I have no quarrel with the logic of natural capitalism, but I wonder whether such a change will occur without extraordinary perceptual shifts. Natural resource extraction must be transformed from a multinational plunder and a consumer grab bag to a deliberate, wise, and ecological approach to the commons.
Natural capitalism is meaningless without ecological citizenship.
N.H. Paul Hawken makes a good case that we can increase the efficiency of our economy by modeling it on living systems, and by including natural capital on the balance sheet. But he seems to equate the good life with productive and profitable throughput of material flows without waste. To achieve the dignity of work, stable communities, and healthy relationships between society and the natural world, however, will require more than the increased efficiency of our economic system. Stable human communities require positive and engaged attention to human health and nutrition, eco-nomic security, human rights, reasonable levels of social and individual autonomy, elimination of violence, and constructive expression of identity. Sustainability requires healthy respect for activities such as raising children, taking care of old people, good conversation, laughter, and solitude, which are also gifts of creation.