Nature as the Capitalist

I was reading about PointReturn, an experiment of D V Sridharan from GoodNewsIndia. There is an interesting observation about how capitalism has prevailed. Well worth sharing.

"In capitalism, there is an owner of capital -the capitalist- to whom the user of capital is in some way accountable. Either the capitalist gets a good return on his investment or he switches to another user of his capital. If there is willful default, he invokes powers in the system to punish the defaulter.

The capitalist arranges to provide our food, water, roads, heating or cooling, education, fitness and entertainment. We shall receive employment and wages with which we shall pay the capitalist for our needs. We shall be occupied, pre-occupied, entertained, retired, cared for and cremated.

When it comes to natural resources however, modern man has failed to develop an enforceable system."

We treat nature as an infinite resource. It isn't a surprise that per capita land for each person in India is only 1/3 acre. That makes nature all the more precious. The new idea being tried is: make the nature capitalist. Resources like water, energy and the means to grow food and materials. What we consume, we repay with interest, treating nature as the capitalist.

This idea is not new since several societies (Ladakhis in most recent times) have followed such a path till the modern civilization kicked them out of it. What makes it interesting is the modern context in which it is being implemented. It will be 2012 by the time D V Sridharan's experiment is done and that will show the world yet another way of sustainable living with almost no external inputs. Effective water harvesting, bio-fuel, food grains, solar power will lead to surplus of water, energy and food.

Timbaktu Collective is one such success story.