Only economic Justice can save our future & restore nature...

My talk to the Coalition for Economic Justice last Saturday. http://www.c4ej.com/

In this talk, I explore what nature is, the history of its destruction, and how economic justice will lead to its restoration—sucking carbon back into the ground, reducing carbon output, and rewilding our world. All this is possible within a vibrant, environmentally friendly economy, achieved through some simple changes to our tax system.

These changes, though simple in concept, would have profound effects, changing all our lives for the better. But make no mistake: our current economic system is designed to prevent such solutions, all for the greed of a few.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BU_DPdyvJG4

In many ways, nature needs no wildlife charities, natural resource economists, or government laws to thrive. It just needs people to stop abusing it and to have the space to recover. The rewilding movement has shown that government policy and established environmental NGOs are achieving little in tackling nature’s destruction or combating climate and ecological breakdown.

This fundamental truth has rocked nature conservation. Established NGOs and government bodies, who wish to be seen as having a monopoly on protecting nature, are struggling to cope with this social movement. Rewilding has enthused people with the idea that wildlife loss is not inevitable, and that we can bring back the wildlife and natural systems—on which all human life depends—in abundance, without spending a penny of taxpayers' money.

We can eliminate poverty, reduce population pressures, and protect our planet from climate catastrophe with some simple changes to how we raise taxation. By shifting our taxes off incomes and trade and onto land values and environmental externalities, we can ensure that every person, business, and government body values nature in every decision they make.

A change to our tax structure would allow a natural compensation system to happen automatically between the winners and losers when land is rewilded, based on an understanding of land values and taxation. Such solutions would protect nature and stimulate human progress. By getting to the very economic roots of the problem, we can see how simple economic steps, such as a Land Value Tax and green taxes, can efficiently internalise the costs and benefits of nature. This would create the ecological renaissance many people wish to see, allowing everyone to share the prosperity.