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Private property and public commons each represent strongly felt concepts of society but in very different ways. While the protection of private property is at the heart of the capitalist system and deeply embedded in our laws, the protection of the public commons is a mere subset of government policies and often lacks regulation. Critically, natural commons such as air, water, biodiversity, and a habitable earth, are hardly protected at all. Environmental laws regulate use and protection of natural “resources” in a strict instrumental fashion, ignoring the intrinsic value of Nature and taking the integrity of Earth’s ecological systems for granted. They ignore complexities of human-nature relations and overlook the importance of ecological integrity for all efforts towards creating sustainable societies. Not just environmental laws, but laws regulating private property and public commons must all be grounded in ecological sustainability as a fundamental norm.
Roots of (and Solutions to) our Ecological Crisis. A Humanistic Perspective
11 May 2023
Research into the sources of contemporary ecological crisis as well as ways to overcome it has been conducted for several decades. Rich academic liter...