For almost all of my adult life, I’ve been an ardent opponent of capitalism. It rapes the land, displaces families, tears apart our communities with nary a thought, so long as it improves the bottom line. Sure, there’s innovations, many of which I adore and couldn’t imagine living without, but always with a sense of guilt: love my cell phone, and know that it was made in part with virtual slave labor in the cobalt pits of the Congo. It’s roughly analogous to how I feel eating meat–I feel vague dis-ease, but not enough to change my habits.

But I’ve recently had a profound change of heart. Capital isn’t evil by nature, indeed it has no nature, other than to self propagate. Whether it’s selling old growth trees, or hemp bracelets, capital doesn’t care, it only wants to grow. Give it a positive outlet with a decent rate of return, and it’ll run it to ground.

As proof, I offer this. Goldman Sachs doesn’t want to do the right thing, they want to do the thing that makes money. And if squeezing a tree shakes loose the cash, well then they’ll squeeze em.

Capital. It’s what makes the difference. What we need to do, rather than complain about it, is support mechanisms ( like carbon trading credits ) that monetize solutions. Do that, and we’ll change the world. Don’t, and we’ll kill it. It’s really as simple as that.

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