The Great Nature Sale Social Short (3:47)

Putting a price on nature is the only way to save it, we are told by banks, companies and governments. Only then we can measure its value and only what's measurable can be protected. That is perhaps the most imperative consequence of financialisation, it allows for only one pair of glasses to look at world and decide what is and what is not valuable.
Today and tomorrow (3 and 4 June 2014) all the big players are gathering at London Zoo for the 'No net loss to biodiversity and beyond' event to discuss how to put their ideas in practice. Also the European Commission will launch a public consultation very soon on the topic. Bankers and economists are breaking their heads over questions such as what is the price of a butterfly or bird? And how to rebuild an ancient woodland several hundred kilometers further on? Precision and accuracy seem less important than the principles. For measuring and price setting the market is the ultimate tool.
Local communities which are dependent on these natural areas for ages or which are resisting the large infrastructure projects that will replace them are largely absent when the do's and don'ts of valuing and offsetting nature are discussed.
This video calls on our leaders to think twice before passing flexible legislation putting the fate of nature in the hands of big capital and before the financialisation of nature becomes a reality we cannot wake up from. Nature is a common good and the market is not the right tool to protect it.