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Natural capitalism is the key that unlocks the reversal of that waste. A manifold reduction in resource use can increase the overall level and quality of employment while dramatically reducing harm to the environment. The economy can grow, use less material, free resources for those who need them, and start to restore living systems. We should be laying off not productive people, but rather the wasted barrels of oil, gallons of water, pounds of metals, and acres of forest, thus regenerating natural capital, hiring more people to do so, and cutting total cost. Gradually and fairly rebalancing factor inputs to substitute increasingly abundant labor for increasingly scarce nature will help to heal society and Earth.

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Daly HE. 1994 Operationalizing sustainable development by investing in natural capital. In: Jansson A and others (eds). Washington DC: Island Pr.

Hawkens P, Lovins A, Lovins H. 1999. Natural capitalism: creating the next industrial revolution. New York: Little Brown.

Hays CL. 1998. Now, liquid gold comes in bottles. New York Times: Jan 20.

Hillel D. 1991. Out of the earth, civilization and the life of the soil. New York: The Free Pr.

San Francisco Chronicle. 1998. Accidental fishing called huge threat. May 21.

UNEP [United Nations Environment Programme]. 1996. Poverty and the environment: reconciling short-term needs and long-term sustainable goals. Nairobi: Mar 1 press release.

Yoon. 1998. A “dead zone” grows in the Gulf of Mexico. New York Times: Jan 20, p F1.