Eco Currency

Cut down forest on Indonesian Borneo

In order to develop poorer areas, the Brazilian government has been stimulating agriculture in some remote and forested areas until recently. Although the education and healthcare facilities have improved the lives of the local people, it has come with great natural depletion. Deforestation accounts for 70% of Brazils carbon emissions today.

The richness of the soil in these areas make for attractive farming of soy and palm oil for which there is a high demand in American, European and Chinese industries. Because people cut down their trees for economic reasons, it is necessary to provide them with a financial alternative.

Chris Martenson gives a crash course of US Economic history, and an alarming statement on current trends.

This is a series of videos by Chris Martenson, explaining the basics of United States/global economy. In just under three and a half hours he goes through the basic factors that formed the economy of today. He also gives a view on possibilities how to handle the resulting crisis. It is a worthwhile sit if one wants to grasp a basic understanding and everything is presented in a way that is also understandable by the average Joe. Downside to this simplicity that the video sometimes lacks depth and gives some very simplistic examples.

In this prescient 2005 talk, Clay Shirky shows how closed groups and companies will give way to looser networks where small contributors have big roles and fluid cooperation replaces rigid planning.

To reach a certain goal, it used to be the case to create an institute which would find the right people and make sure the goal is met. An interesting development, with most of its examples online, is what Clay Shirky calls cooperatives. These are groups of people who reach a goal through cooperation.

Areas where high poverty and high population density coincides with high biodiversity may indicate areas in which poor people likely have no other choice than to unsustainably extract resources, in turn threatening biodiversity.  © 2006 UNEP/GRID-Arendal

Some of the poorest countries are actually very rich in biodiversity. The current imbalance in tangible rewards for preserving the forrest versus cutting them down to harvest crops makes it unpreventable that valuable nature is lost in favor of economy.

By piecing together a complex ecological puzzle, biologist Willie Smits has found a way to re-grow clearcut rainforest in Borneo, saving local orangutans and creating a thrilling blueprint for restoring fragile ecosystems.

Smits explains that local involvement is the key thing to make it work. Important aspects are transparency to prevent corruption and community building to make people feel involved and responsible. When corruption occurs, the community decides what happens. An important conclusion is that there is not one recipe for every place, it should fit local culture.