Yuval Harari – Fictional Entities | Monbiot – Capitalism Destroying Earth | Kate Raworth – Circular Economy

Yuval Harari discusses in his TedTalk the reasons humans are the most successful species on Earth is because of our imagination. Along with an objective reality which we share with other creatures involving rivers, clouds, soil and the need for nutrition, humans live in a subjective, fictional reality. These fictional stories that we share and communicate to one another have become over the last few centuries, more and more powerful. He talks of lawyers as the wizards of these fictional realities.

Basically, all of the natural world depend on decisions made by fictional entities such as countries, religions, banks and corporations regarding fictional entities, like money, shares, production and GDP. Harari states unequivocally that “Money is the most successful story that everyone believes in.”

In Heating the Planet is an Ecocrime, George Monbiot writes that the “belief that growth will continue indefinitely, modern industry treats nature as a store of commodities, or as a source of funds to pay for services rendered by the world’s ecosystems.”

In Monbiot’s recent article Capitalism is destroying the Earth, he mentions that when you peel away the laws of an economic system in which people can own private resources, “you see that the whole structure is founded on looting: looting from other people, looting from other nations, looting from other species, and looting from the future.”

Monbiot declares that “No non-renewable resource should be used that cannot be fully recycled and reused.”

This leads inexorably towards “two major shifts: a circular economy from which materials are never lost; and the end of fossil fuel combustion.

I talk of both Harari and Monbiot mentioning the need for an economy of the commons in my carolkeiter.wordpress blog.

Kate Raworth describes a circular economy in her TEDtalk, an Economy Designed to Thrive not Grow. She explicitly talks of a circular design with an ecological ceiling and a social foundation, in which the waste from one process becomes food for the next.

There are certainly local communities and businesses that involve themselves in the direction of sharing local resources.

Kate Raworth Economy Designed to Thrive not Grow – Ecological Ceiling Social Foundation

We can do a lot by paying attention to our intention, in how we cooperate with other people and nature. I have personally stopped eating meat, I primarily bicycle for transportation, I live with an economy of what I purchase. If you do own property or are involved in a community, you can plant milkweed and other plants to attract pollinators, creating bee highways, and put out the word to allow safe passage and habitat for animals that are indigenous to your region. Pay attention to the source of what food products and materials you purchase, to trace where it is derived in order to ensure that the product is not destroying natural systems elsewhere on the planet. Changing habits is a challenge, yet a decision from the heart is good for you and for whatever other creature you are indirectly beneficially influencing.