Browsing through the latest Wired online, my eye caught an headline, “Eco-Capitalists Save Mother Nature By Charging for Her Services.”

“The eco-capitalists are coming, and they aren’t wielding Thoreauvian platitudes about the sanctity of nature. Their jargon is far less lyrical: ecological assets, environmental markets, ecosystem services, natural capital.

David Wolman, the author, speaks of the upcoming carbon credits markets. Many environmentalists have pled for a more ecological capitalism where the cost of environmental damage is included. International regulations might well push these costs into Western capitalism when offsetting carbon emissions becomes a requirement. This will make protecting the environment profitable in the future.

However, the danger is in how to measure the carbon credits so that the environment benefits as much as the pockets of these new ‘ecological’ investment funds. Protecting the environment is, at the same time, less an issue of control as it is letting Mother Nature do what she can do best, offsetting carbon emissions. I believe that this is where green and sustainable investing is heading, so all the conservation and wildlife protection organizations, better take notice.

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