Autorentext

Maude Barlow is the bestselling author of 21 books. She co-founded the Council of Canadians, chairing its board for over three decades, sits on the board of Food & Water Watch, and the board of advisors of the Global Alliance for the Rights of Nature. She served as senior water advisor to the UN General Assembly and was a leader in the campaign to have water recognized as a human right. She is the recipient of 17 honorary doctorates and many awards, including the 2005 Right Livelihood Award. She lives in Ottawa, ON.

Klappentext

An urgent warning about the financialization of nature and the quiet rise of corporate control over the planet’s resources

Most agree on the urgent need for climate action, yet we are often divided on how to stop the destruction of the natural world. Earth for Sale exposes the danger of governments giving over this responsibility to powerful private interests, namely the same energy, chemical, agribusiness, and bottled water corporations that brought us to this ecological brink.

Their answer? Put a price on nature and bring it into the market. Under the inviting language of “nature-based solutions” and “ecosystem services,” this financialization and commodification of nature takes many forms: carbon trading; debt-for-nature swaps; water pollution trading; biodiversity credits; green, blue, and wildlife conservation bonds; plastics offsets; water futures; and more.

Renowned activist Maude Barlow, who sounded the alarm decades ago on the corporate assault on water, argues the financialization of nature is dangerous and surprisingly few understand the implications, including many in environmental movements. With detailed examples and meticulous research, Earth for Sale unmasks this insidious new form of corporate plunder. We must not allow the movement to protect nature and biodiversity to be handed over to private interests whose driving motive is, and always has been, profit.