We live in an age of defiance to the recognition in which we obtain sustenance to carry on with our capitalistic measures. This disconnect stretches through every thread of professional enterprise. Whether we’re talking about the GDP of a nation, or the human rights to clean potable water it is the duty of the people to recognize this environmental wealth and act accordingly in a systems-oriented coexistence of operation.
Here is what the people at Climate and Capitalism said about this:
April 27, 2010
This Declaration was adopted by the World People’s Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth, in Bolivia. The Bolivian government has submitted it to the United Nations for consideration.
Universal Declaration of the Rights of Mother Earth
Preamble
We, the peoples and nations of Earth:
considering that we are all part of Mother Earth, an indivisible, living community of interrelated and interdependent beings with a common destiny;
gratefully acknowledging that Mother Earth is the source of life, nourishment and learning and provides everything we need to live well;
recognizing that the capitalist system and all forms of depredation, exploitation, abuse and contamination have caused great destruction, degradation and disruption of Mother Earth, putting life as we know it today at risk through phenomena such as climate change;
convinced that in an interdependent living community it is not possible to recognize the rights of only human beings without causing an imbalance within Mother Earth;
affirming that to guarantee human rights it is necessary to recognize and defend the rights of Mother Earth and all beings in her and that there are existing cultures, practices and laws that do so;
conscious of the urgency of taking decisive, collective action to transform structures and systems that cause climate change and other threats to Mother Earth;
proclaim this Universal Declaration of the Rights of Mother Earth, and call on the General Assembly of the United Nation to adopt it, as a common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations of the world, and to the end that every individual and institution takes responsibility for promoting through teaching, education, and consciousness raising, respect for the rights recognized in this Declaration and ensure through prompt and progressive measures and mechanisms, national and international, their universal and effective recognition and observance among all peoples and States in the world.
As a practicing Industrial Designer, I understand the implications that my profession has had on the Earth. As a product designer one might bow to planned obsolescence, or annual incremental aesthetic changes to the same environmentally detrimental electronic guts. By in large keeping the wheels of frantic triage based consumerism in motion and the landfill luster in proliferation.
I have gone to lengths for clients teaching them about environmental impacts through CO2e’s (Carbon Dioxide equivalence)/unit trying to connect the environment in which their organization survives on . This Natural Capital is inferred through the abovementioned declaration and similarly through my design philosophy and it is the understanding of how these intricate systems of capitalism and natural capital can concurrently exist in balance. We must rewrite the code of conduct for business operations, recognize that our system is finite, and reflect this in our economic machine.