Buying The Environment To Save Capitalism

Buying The Environment To Save Capitalism
by Michael Barker


(Swans - June 29, 2009 ) Neoliberal environmentalists see two ways to save the planet. The first involves purchasing tracts of land to remove it from the marketplace (temporarily anyway), and the second requires the attachment of a monetary value to environmental goods and services to ensure that they are profitably and efficiently utilized. Both non-solutions locate the answer to environmental destruction in the most unlikely place; that is, in hands of an ideology that is committed to sustained growth on a planet with finite resources. This should not be the case; capitalism is not a sustainable world order, it must be replaced with a system that rejects the individuality of the marketplace and embraces communities and collective humanity. Consequently, seriously approaching the issue of environmental protection requires a consideration of solutions that lie outside the capitalist box and offer ideologically-inspired alternatives that can address the root causes of unwarranted environmental destruction. This line of pragmatic thinking has been evolving within socialist and anarchist circles for decades. (1) The capitalist system, however, has, naturally, worked to privilege the solutions provided by elite environmental movements, and the resulting marginalisation of alternative voices has meant that most members of the public remain unaware that such alternatives exist. This has caused concerned citizens to mistakenly equate corporate environmentalists as solution-providers rather than earnest greenwashers. This article demonstrates this domination of neoliberal ideology within the environmental movement by examining the background of just one group whose founder has attempted to set it apart from and above other elite conservation outfits. This group is called the World Land Trust.

Founded in 1989 and based in the UK, the World Land Trust is an international conservation charity that works "to preserve the world's most biologically important and threatened lands" by helping groups purchase and protect habitats rich in wildlife. However, the World Land Trust's founder, John Burton, is adamant that they are not like other elite environmental groups, and earlier this year he wrote on his blog that "stopping it becoming another 'corporate conservation organisation' is the challenge ahead." Alex Carey has described such an unwitting "disposition to develop theories and conclusions congenial to power and orthodoxy" as the Lysenko syndrome.

The World Land Trust's mission statement demonstrates that it is a corporate conservation organisation, and a further examination of its governance structure confirms it. Using information made public on the World Land Trust Web site it can be ascertained that their board of trustees is headed by Albertino Abela, an "international businessman, working mostly in airline catering"; while other trustees include Sir Kenneth Carlisle (who used to be a Member of Parliament and a council member of the Royal Horticultural Society -- which is currently headed by a former managing director of the now-defunct American investment bank, Lehman Brothers), Gil Child (who formerly held senior positions within the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation), Simon Lyster (who is the chief executive of LEAD International, an elite group whose advisory board includes Maurice Strong), and Mark Leaney (who is finance director and co-owner of Discover the World tour operator).

Notably the board chair, Albertino Abela, "helped fund the purchase of" the World Land Trust's Ranch of Hopes (Estancia la Esperanza) site in Patagonia (Argentina). This is significant because the Ranch of Hopes site, which is composed of 15,000 acres of coastal steppe habitat, provides a prime example of the elite conservation projects supported by the World Land Trust. Thus the Trust's local partner organisation that manages the Ranch of Hopes site is Fundación Patagonia Natural, a group whose work is supported by the most powerful elite conservation bodies (e.g., the World Bank and the Global Environment Facility), and works closely with the equally elitist Wildlife Conservation Society. (2)

Similarly, numerous council members of the World Land Trust maintain close connections to other elite conservation groups. These include:

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http://www.swans.com/library/art15/barker23.html

This should not be the case; capitalism is not a sustainable world order, it must be replaced with a system that rejects the individuality of the marketplace and embraces communities and collective humanity.

Now, this is where words need to be made plainer. Does the author mean that as long as you need a rich person to buy up land, you will doom serious environmental efforts, OR does it mean individuals need to be phased out in favor of some yet to be defined "collective humanity."

It's one thing to say that Capitalism has enriched certain individuals too much, it's another to phase out individuals entirely. Communities may sound Utopian, but consider that every prejudice, from Antisemitism to Slavery to Hatred of LGBT, had the rousing support of a "community" behind it.

There is also one thing never addressed, that part of the reason Capitalism has been so destructive is that it allows for a means where a group identity can be formed and exploited, in the form of a corporation. A local shopkeeper can only do so much damage, but a corporation can be more powerful than a small state.

is like putting a value on the Vatican, or the Kaaba, or the Bodhi tree, or the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, or the Dome of the Rock, or the Temple Mount. Or for atheists, assigning a value to a work of art such as the David, Starry Night, or the Mona Lisa, or archaeological sites such as the pyramids, Chichen Itza, or Angkor Wat.

Clearly the value of the Vatican is more than just the value of the land, the buildings, and the art. Clearly the value of the David is more than just the value of the marble.

How can you assign a value to an ancient redwood tree? There's the value of the wood versus the money spent by tourists to see the tree, but I think ancient trees have a value that goes beyond any of that.

Michael Barker's comments, are a tad wide of reality, and the sort of creative writing that anyone can do to make 2+2=5; it is easy to rant about capitalism; and as someone with left of centre leanings I don't have any time for most aspects of capitalism either, but I am not going to be able to change it; I have to live in the real, post Thatcher, post Bush world. And how Lysenko came into the argument, beggars belief, when I am a fairly unreconstructed Darwinist.
My underlying question is always the same, " What am I supposed to? I am living in a world that is on the brink of an environmental disaster of an unprecedented scale. Doing nothing, or ranting on about capitalism, doesn't actually achieve anything (I have tried ranting and it really doesn't achieve much). So, the challenge is there to the Michael Barkers of this world: Instead of creating conspiracy theories , make some concrete suggestions for actions that might actually achieve something. Something an individual like me can do. I honestly believe that the individual can make a difference. And in my case, have the evidence to demonstrate it -- Barker may not like what I have done, but at least I have done it. But please, no more rants and conspiracy theories, some suggestions for alternatives. Surely this forum is Democracy underground, not Nihilism Underground?