Author: ECOadmin

In the Book of Genesis, God created the first humans, Adam and Eve, and placed them in the Garden of Eden, instructing them not to eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. A serpent tempts Eve to eat the forbidden fruit, and she shares it with Adam. As a result, they gain knowledge of good and evil, realize their nakedness, and are subsequently expelled from the garden by God as punishment for their disobedience. As a foundation of the Abrahamic religions, this story introduces sin and mortality into how we perceive the human experience.

Recently, I attended a service at my home church where the minister deconstructed the Adam and Eve story through a series of thought-provoking “what ifs.”

The Adam and Eve story, among all the tales in the Genesis chapter of the Bible, has always struck me as tedious. So, it was quite surprising to find myself riveted by the litany of “what ifs” our pastor presented.

What if Eve hadn’t eaten the forbidden fruit? What if Adam had eaten the fruit first? What if the serpent had not tempted them? What if God had not placed the forbidden tree in the garden? What if Adam and Eve had repented immediately? What if multiple forbidden trees existed? What if the Garden of Eden had no boundaries? What if other beings existed in Eden?

These “what ifs” transform the story, altering the foundation of what we think we know about free will, knowledge, morality, and the human condition. The alternative scenarios reveal how fluid and arbitrary some of the rules we take to be self-evident truly are.

In Paulo Freire’s “Pedagogy of the Oppressed,” he emphasizes that the “True Word” is one of both reflection and action, inseparable from praxis. To speak a true word is to transform the world. This resonates deeply with me, especially in the realm of sacred texts. It suggests that what we are often taught about the human condition can be arbitrary, constructed, or even deceptive, shaped by the actions and decisions of political or economic power, and not as something inscribed in stone.

What motivates the Original Sin is not the logic of a divine being, but rather a specific tribe whose historical actions have utilized the construct of disobedience toward the justification of dispossession, genocide, and theft. This cleaving of good and evil has not only undermined civilizations, countries, and regions, but it also continues to treat our differences as a categorical imperative–an “us versus other” mentality–thus betraying our very existence by alienating us from nature.

In the face of rapid climate change, we must question the perpetuation of a status quo where Nature itself is devoid of the same rights we demand of ourselves. The continued marginalization and oppression of women, people of color, indigenous peoples, migrants, refugees, the homeless, and the incarcerated reflect a broader systemic injustice, one that overlooks the profound interconnectedness of ecological and social well-being. “Intemerate” describes our biodiversity, capturing the essence of immaculate conception and virgin birth—a creation of science, spirit, and the divine.

When we consider biodiversity, our oceans, and the entire interconnectedness of our planet, we see a creation that is wonderfully benevolent, violently robust, and immaculately conceived. Its very existence is the true work of the divine that we can measure. How we interact with our environment, recognizing its sacredness and inherent value is the true word we must speak and live by.

So, how then should we understand our economy? Should it be seen merely as a series of self-interested actions, or can it be something more? Our economy needs to address the fundamental: the inequality between the Global North and South and the inequality within countries. We need to ensure equal access to wealth and infrastructure. This is something tangible we can start with.

What if Adam and Eve cared for an Intemerate Apple…

In the archetypal narrative of the Garden of Eden, we encounter a primordial setting where the first humans, Adam and Eve, reside. This Garden epitomizes an ideal state of existence, wherein all coexist in interdependence, sustained by an intrinsic ecological and moral equilibrium.

At the heart of this garden lies the “Intemerate Apple,” hanging from the Tree of Knowledge. This apple, glowing brightly, signifies the Garden’s network between all things, symbolizing sustainability and resilience.

This luminescence not only signifies the balance of the natural world but also represents the foundational principles of communicative action and mutual aid that underpin the societal ideals of cooperation and coexistence.

This harmony was not merely a matter of divine intervention but was encapsulated in a special value, n=(x_i–x₀), representing the difference between ecological and anthropogenic conditions of the environment. The balance of the Garden was thus a dynamic interplay between various factors, a concept that Adam and Eve were entrusted to understand and uphold.

God assigned them the responsibility of tending to the Garden, ensuring its continuous flourishing. To aid them in this task, God provided the intemerate formula:

This formula was not merely a cryptic incantation but a sophisticated mechanism to measure and maintain the Garden’s equilibrium. In this narrative, the Garden of Eden was an early exploration of sustainable management, where the health of the environment is directly tied to the stewardship of its inhabitants. Adam and Eve’s role was not passive but active, requiring constant vigilance and understanding of the intricate balance that defined the Garden. This story thus underscores the importance of knowledge, responsibility, and the interdependence between human actions and environmental outcomes, themes that resonate deeply with the principles of ethical and sustainable development.

Explanation of the Equation

Each day, Adam and Eve would measure various aspects of the Garden’s well-being. This included the health of the plants, the purity of the streams, the happiness of the animals, and the quality of the soil. Each of these measurements was represented as x_i​, where each i represented a different aspect of the Garden.

x_i: Each data point x_i represents a specific measurement related to well-being or environmental conditions. For example, this could be an indicator such as air quality index, water purity levels, biodiversity counts, or measures of social well-being like happiness, health metrics, etc.

The Intemerate Apple glowed with the ideal value x₀​​, representing the perfect state of the Garden’s well-being.

x_0: The reference value x₀​ represents the baseline or target value that reflects a desirable state of well-being or environmental condition. This could be a historical average, an established target for restoration, or an optimal level defined by elders, experts, and the community.

Each day, Adam and Eve would calculate N to see how well the Garden was balanced. If N was small, it meant the Garden was close to the ideal state, and the Intemerate Apple glowed brightly. If N was large, it indicated bigger deviations, and the Apple’s glow dimmed, signaling areas that needed their attention.

Division by n: The total number of data points collected over a period or across different locations. For example, this could be the number of days over which data is collected or the number of locations being monitored.

By dividing the total relative deviations by the number of data points, we obtain the average relative deviation. This provides a normalized measure of how much, on average, the observed values deviate from the desired baseline. This single number N indicates how much, on average, the Garden’s well-being differed from the ideal balance.

One day they noticed that some plants were wilting (x₁), the stream seemed a bit cloudy (x₂), and the birds were quieter than usual (x₃). When they calculated N, it was higher than usual. This told them that the Garden’s balance was disturbed.

To restore equilibrium, Adam and Eve took specific actions: For the wilting plants they adjusted the watering schedule and added compost to the soil. For the cloudy stream they cleared debris and ensured it flowed freely. For the quiet birds they provided more food and created additional nesting areas.

After these efforts, they measured the Garden again, finding improvements. When they recalculated N, it was much smaller, and the Intemerate Apple glowed brightly once more.

Then, as the season changed, Adam and Eve faced new challenges. One summer, a drought threatened the Garden’s water supply. The streams dried up (x₄), plants began to wilt more frequently (x₅), and the animals grew thirsty (x₆). When Adam and Eve calculated N, it was alarmingly high, indicating a significant deviation from the ideal balance.

Once again, Adam and Eve took immediate action: They implemented water-saving techniques, such as mulching around plants to retain moisture and creating shaded areas to reduce evaporation. They dug new wells to tap into underground water and created rainwater harvesting systems. They set up water stations throughout the Garden to ensure all creatures had access to fresh water.

To prevent future imbalances, Adam and Eve even implemented several proactive measures. They diversified their planting to include a variety of crops and plants that were more resilient to different weather conditions, ensuring that some plants would thrive regardless of the climate. They adopted sustainable practices, such as crop rotation, composting, and natural pest control, to maintain soil health and reduce reliance on external inputs. They set up simple monitoring systems to more effectively track weather patterns, soil moisture, and animal behavior. This helped them anticipate potential issues before they became serious problems.

Summation :

Adam and Eve would add up all the deviations from the ideal balance. The absolute value of each deviation (so it didn’t matter if it was above or below the ideal) showed how far each aspect was from the perfect state.

This part of the equation calculates the total relative deviation of each data point from the reference value. The absolute value ensures that deviations are considered regardless of direction (whether they are above or below the baseline). Essentially, this measures how much each data point differs from the optimal or desired state.

Through this continuous process of observation, calculation, and action, Adam and Eve learned to maintain the perfect balance in the Garden of Eden. They understood that monitoring their surroundings, recognizing deviations from the ideal, and taking appropriate actions were essential for preserving harmony. Additionally, they understood the importance of preparing for and adapting to changes in their environment. They realized that maintaining balance required not just reactive measures but also proactive planning.

The Snake

One afternoon, as Adam and Eve were diligently tending to the Garden of Eden, they encountered a viper coiled around the Tree of Knowledge. This viper, however, was no ordinary snake; he was an emblematic figure of eco-neoliberalism, known for his enticing yet deceptive promises.

The viper approached Eve with a cunning smile. “Why toil so hard, dear Eve?” he hissed. “Why struggle with endless measurements and adjustments? I have a solution that will make your life easier and the Garden more perfect without all the hard work.”

Eve, curious but cautious, inquired, “What is this solution you speak of Serpent?”

The snake unveiled a beautifully packaged potion called “NatureGuard Carbon Solutions™.” “This elixir,” he claimed, “is made from the finest ingredients and imbued with the secrets of nature’s true value. One sip, and you will gain the knowledge to make the Garden self-sustaining. No more daily measurements, no more adjustments. Just eternal harmony.”

Intrigued yet wary, Eve asked, “How does it work?”

The snake explained, “NatureGuard Carbon Solutions™ taps into the latent powers of the Garden, optimizing every aspect of it. Plants will grow abundantly, animals will be happier, and the streams will flow cleaner than ever. It’s a quick fix to all your problems, bypassing the need for constant effort.”

Sensing their hesitation, the crafty snake proposed an even more enticing offer. “Why not let me manage the Garden for you? I have extensive experience and know exactly how to maintain and even enhance its beauty. You can relax and enjoy the fruits of your labor without the daily grind.”

Adam, still suspicious, asked, “And what’s the catch?”

The viper, slithering closer, replied, “There is no catch. We have a 30-year plan, and I will ensure the Garden thrives. All you need to do is sign this agreement, granting me the authority to manage the Garden. In return, I will streamline the equation and make exclusive areas where only the best plants grow and the purest water flows. These areas will be managed to ensure their protection and optimal use.”

Adam pondered the offer. The idea of having a perfectly managed Garden without their constant efforts was tempting. But Eve recalled the lessons they had learned about balance and hard work. They turned to each other, sharing their concerns. “What if this leads to exclusion and inequality among the creatures of the Garden? What if the harmony we’ve worked so hard to maintain is disrupted by privatization and exclusion?”

Adam and Eve decided to seek counsel from the Intemerate Apple. They measured the current state of the Garden and recalculated N, the special value representing their balance. They saw the progress they had made through their efforts and the true equilibrium they were achieving. They realized the Intemerate Apple’s glow was a testament to their diligence and dedication.

Rejecting the Serpent’s offer, Eve said, “We appreciate your offer, but we trust in the guidance we’ve received and the efforts we’ve put in. True equilibrium cannot be bought or taken lightly. It must be earned through continuous care and respect for the Garden.”

The snake slithered away, hissing in frustration, while Adam and Eve continued their work. They understood that the path to true balance and harmony was not through quick fixes or easy solutions, but through ongoing diligence, learning, and adaptability.

This version of Adam and Eve illustrates that achieving and maintaining harmony requires more than mere effort—it demands the wisdom to recognize and reject false promises of easy solutions. The eco-neoliberal viper symbolizes the allure of shortcuts and the perils of forsaking sustainable practices for immediate gains.

By regularly assessing their environment, understanding deviations, and taking proactive and thoughtful steps to address issues, Adam and Eve created a sustainable and resilient world. Their journey reminds us that equilibrium is a continuous process, one that necessitates commitment, respect, and a mutual connection to the natural balance around us. Rejecting privatization and exclusion, they embraced the values of inclusivity and stewardship, ensuring that the Garden of Eden remained a paradise for all its inhabitants.

This equation provides a useful summary measure of how well current conditions align with desired goals, whether in terms of social well-being or environmental health. By averaging the relative deviations from a baseline, it offers a clear, interpretable metric for assessing progress and identifying areas needing improvement.

Workshops on Environment, Sustainable Development and Religious Engagement, Co-Sponsored by G20 Interfaith Forum, Brazilian Center for Studies in Law and Religion, Federal University of Uberlandia. Manaus Brazil June 17-21, 2024

The Relevance of Indigenous Knowledge and Rights of Nature for Responding to Climate Change

Workshops on Environment, Sustainable Development and Religious Engagement June 18, 2024. G20 Interfaith Forum

I’d like to welcome you all this morning with a deep breath and a stretch and thank the IF20 organizers for inviting me to participate and to introduce myself and the work that I am doing with the Pacific Theological College on resilience and ecological accounting.

Last week, the Pacific Festival, the largest celebration of indigenous Pacific Islanders, took place for the first time in Hawaii. In a side event, the Protecting Oceania conference took place, addressing issues around militarization, indigeneity, and struggles against extractive industries, resource depletion and neoliberal privatization. It was organized by friends and colleagues, including PTC, Pacific Theological College.

I was planning on addressing the Pasifika issues here, but I suspect that in the context of the Amazon, you will already know them. Even though I am in a different place with a different name, I think it is the same struggle against the same face.

I am the director of Intemerate Earth, a non-profit that is addressing national accounting issues from the perspective of ecological economic accounting and local data sovereignty.

People ask what is Intemerate? What is intemerate accounting? I’ll talk about this more later, but the word intemerate means sacred or sacrosanct, and I chose that world because of its association to describe immaculate conception and the miracle of the virgin birth. Intemerate is something you cannot put a monetary price on, and this is how we should value nature and our ecological biodiversity, treating it as sacrosanct.

I am also a curriculum writer and teaching at the Pasifika Communities University in Fiji. This course is part of an accredited degree program in the School of Sustainability and Resilience Development, and it intersects community consultation with indigenous and customary Pasifika epistemologies deeply rooted in decolonization and self-determination. This program was developed to prepare graduates with a professional degree that will help transition Pasifika economies towards Resilience and Sustainability.

I’ve been asked to talk about the Rights of Nature, Ecological Accounting, and its Relevance to Indigenous Knowledge. 

In yesterday’s “paths to prosperity” panel was excellent in that there was a recognition of the need of data and its relationship to the bio economy. Patricia Gomes said it was impossible to have investment without data, but my presentation demands that we recognized who the stewards of this data should be. So, to some this presentation might be very disruptive. And if it is, I hope this presentation expresses why it should be.

National accounting systems influence global economics, yet activism against these systems has been minimal. The UN Statistical Division’s lack of Global South representation must change.

Historically, national accounting evolved to justify the expansion of Empires; it was national accounting that justified the oppression of women, slavery, and genocide. National accounts were used in trade statistics, currency valuation, war statistics, weapons development, and it should be common knowledge by now that those who control national accounting systems control the global economic system.

What I propose is that by integrating well-being, environmental sustainability, and social equity into national accounts, we can transform both ecological and economic systems. How we account for our ecology is as much about ecological justice as it is about economic justice.

This realization was a revelation. It underscored the profound influence of national accounting systems on global power dynamics and social injustices.

Yet, despite the critical importance of these systems, there was not a lot of activist campaigning directed at the UN System of National Accounts where this system is harmonized.

PTC and the senior advisor at Pacific Island Forum Secretariat both responded to this accounting disconnect and we began developing this program. At that time, the ecological accounting program was central to the development of the Blue Pacific Framework. However, shifts towards neoliberal data accumulation have since emerged.

PTC and the Pacific Conference of Churches that really embraced this work and included it in the Reweaving the Ecological Mat program, and it was through a series of intensive discussions with regional and community leaders that this work was supported.

They published my book Ecological Economic Accounts: Towards Intemerate Values, which I plan to rewrite to include the village consultations and the curriculum.

In one of the remote village consultations we discussed the value of ancestral bones. It was inconceivable that anyone would try to put a value on their bones or try to own them or manage them. Bones are sacred, they have an intemerate value. Recognizing that there is a deep cumulative knowledge—a past, present, and future—going back to their own creation stories with genealogies that are so rich in data that protecting this data had to become the primary focus. 

Losing Indigenous data to data transparency initiatives being written into legally binding trade agreements could lead to over a hundred trillion-dollar theft if we consider that is what the World Bank has valued Natural Capital at. 

When I say a hundred trillion, I must let that sink in. If one trillion is a thousand billion then a trillion is also a million million.  S0 if we consider Natural Capital as being valued at a hundred trillion that is I think a hundred thousand billion, and after that I lose count. And while this number is so big and incomprehensive what happens when we apply this number to debt?  

The United States has a 36 trillion dollar public debt, the combined OECD economies have a 64 trillion dollar debt. The rest of the G77 have a combined debt of maybe 45 trillion dollars and the Africa, Caribbean, Pacific region with the lowest development index have a combined debt of under 2 trillion dollars. These are the kinds of trillions we are talking about and so when it comes to ecological accounting and the value of natural capital, I cannot help but wonder if Natural Capital estimates are being measured against our national debts.

It’s okay if it is, as long as we understand the valuation process, but if we do not know that data accumulation is equal to wealth accumulation, then we are prey to become victim of yet another resource theft.

When we consider that Data, especially in ecological economic accounting, should be entered and counted only once to ensure accuracy and reliability, we must understand that this principle prevents inflation or distortion of values, which is crucial for creating a true representation of ecological and economic interactions.

Double counting can occur when the same data point is recorded multiple times across different categories or sectors. For example, if carbon sequestration by forests is counted in both the forestry and carbon offset sectors, it can lead to an overestimation of carbon sequestration capabilities. So if we do not own our data, and national accounting systems adopt the Natural Capital program, we will quickly be priced out of benefiting from our ecological stewardship and our access to wealth and infrastructure and development capabilities will be no different from what they are now—except worse—because we lost the opportunity to equalize how we value our environmental data. Hence the G20 is precisely the forum to be discussing this.

When we consider the biodiversity of the Amazon, like our own Pasifika region, and the entire interconnectedness of our planet, we see a creation that is wonderfully benevolent, violently robust, and immaculately conceived. Its very existence is the true work of the divine that is measurable but resists monetary valuation. The Amazon rainforest, for instance, is a testament to nature’s ability to create and sustain life in its most diverse and complex forms. Our oceans, covering the majority of the Earth’s surface, are teeming with life and are critical to regulating our climate and supporting marine ecosystems.

How we interact with our environment, recognizing its sacredness and inherent value, is what we must speak and live by. This means advocating for policies that protect and preserve our natural world and rethinking our economic systems to prioritize sustainability and ecological health. It requires a fundamental shift in how we view our relationship with nature, from one of domination and exploitation to one of mutual aid and reciprocity.

Since 1972, the concept of the Rights of Nature has been incorporated into legislation, court rulings, and constitutional amendments in several countries. Ecuador was the first to constitutionally recognize these rights, stating that nature has the right to integral respect for its existence and maintenance of its life cycles.

I’m not an attorney but I often hear about court rulings that favor the environment but that there is a lack of enforcement that renders decisions ineffective, highlighting the need for robust mechanisms to uphold these legal victories. We also hear about binding trade agreements where states can impose sanction power to enforce the rights of corporations over the rights of people and the environment.

So while the Rights of Nature have been recognized legally in various jurisdictions, why is there a lack of enforcement to bring violators to justice? Without governmental commitment and robust enforcement frameworks, court rulings in favor of nature seems to be easily ignored, undermining the very purpose of these progressive laws.

While I want to say that the true potential of the Rights of Nature can only be realized when legal victories are supported by strong, enforceable actions, enforcement will only occur when there is economic incentive, and a pathway for economic justice. The same needs to be said about indigenous people’s hard won right for the legal recognition of Free, Prior, and Informed Consent. Until there is a strong enforcement mechanism to bring violators to justice, these rights remain aspirational.

So, how should we understand the Rights of Nature? Are there mechanisms of enforcement that can recognize these rights?  

What if there is an economic accounting equation and financial index that accounted for the interactions of our survival, solidarity, and stewardship, an accounting framework that measures our human interactions?  What if there is a framework that gives value to our knowledge and action, rather than on commodity prices that will create further displacement? What if we could account, manage, and steward our ecological data with our own methodologies and work with indigenous or local auditors to keep our data private, out of the hands of international investment consortiums?  What if we can utilize free, prior, and informed consent to determine how we participate or not participate in trans-local data markets that encourage communities to truly practice mutual aid and assist in the use of financial instruments to assist at-risk communities?

What if there was a bank that underwrote this index and helped to provide a facility where local data sovereignty can become a system for global equity in the Global South as well as an instrument for indigenous, migrant, poor or other at-risk communities to access wealth and infrastructure? What if we could develop and use our own tools to measure, analyze and quantify our data according to our own development priorities rather than rely on expensive surveillance and monitoring technologies developed by Departments of Defense?

While Ecological Accounting opens opportunities for the economies of the Global South, it is not an automatic win, but rather a strategy to level the playing field. Recent revisions to the U.N. National Accounting System have shown that adding or revising aggregates—such as the inclusion of Military Systems, Research and Development, and the Digital Economy, along with efforts to incorporate Environmental and Sustainability Factors into economic measurements create significant economic advantages over the Global South.

To be clear, Intemerate accounting doesn’t seek to disrupt the bioeconomy. What it addresses is the need to revise how we account for our interactions with the environment, against the production, consumption, distribution and exchange of goods and services.

Yesterday, Fabiola Barros gave a wonderful example highlighting the kind of stewardship in her Agroforestry presentation, integrating short-, medium-, and long-term cycles while providing food for markets.

 I made a few copies of the Intemerate Earth White paper that outlines the accounting plan in more detail. We compare what we call Environmental Default Swaps with several other data financing models, like Cost-Based Valuation, Income Approach, Market-Based Valuations, and some others, and hopefully we will soon launch a proof-of-concept program to show how this would function as claimed.

The White Paper addresses how intemerate accounting values Local Data Sovereignty, provides for trans-local and interglobal data markets, collective mutual accounting, how Environmental Default Swaps can integrate with Debt Suspension or Deferment, Mitigation projects, Food and Water security, cross border collaborations, and more. 

What we did was invert the traditional approach of using a baseline as a reference point from which we measure deviations that move away from a given value. Instead, we measure towards this baseline. The baseline represents the target values or the ideal state we aim to achieve. This approach shifts our perspective when it comes to measuring values, because it creates an index where people can plot their own values according to their own needs rather than trying to harmonize variations from a pre-set standard.

From a monetary perspective, it is this baseline that can financialize our interactions with the environment rather than commodify nature within the capitalist mindset of wealth accumulation and privatization. Intemerate accounting—rather the intemerate baseline provides a tangible shift in the way we think about value.

The White Paper also addresses how Insurance issuers like the New Development Bank can underwrite programs—not through conflict models like Lloyds of London, for example—but by aligning with good, practical applications of Environmental and Social Governance and Responsibility, paving the way for a new paradigm in development.

Whether ESG investors will support local practitioners and communities to be the holders of this equity has yet to be seen, but geopolitically, if we are to take seriously our motivations to restore our ecological biodiversity and provide communities to mitigate against climate change impacts on their own terms, environmental markets need coherent and strong regulatory governance, and that is not something that can happen under an accounting framework driven by data wealth accumulation.

In conclusion, as I mentioned in my introduction, our issues are in different places and have different names and different processes, but it is the same struggle against the same face. Together, let us revise the accounting framework by building market solidarity with our own accounting protocols and methodologies. This is the nugget that we hold. It is more valuable than gold, it is intemerate.

“ I want to talk about ancestral bones as more than historical artifacts; something that is cumulative—a past, present, future—something that has cultural and spiritual legacy connecting us to our ancestors, as well as I would argue, to our future generations. Our ancestral bones symbolize deep-rooted knowledge and ecological insight and for some, the bones of our ancestors provide us with a kind of invaluable spiritual guidance. This reverence for our ancestral bones in interfaith parallels the sanctity of religious relics. These are sacred—sacrosanct– and we cannot put a monetary value on them or capitalize upon them in financial markets. How should we approach the pursuit of Natural Capital or Carbon Market schemes that seek to monetize that which is sacred or sacrosanct?” 

So let me begin, In today’s world, where data is often termed the “new oil,” the handling and control of data can significantly influence social, economic, and political landscapes.

However, the governance of data frequently lacks the moral framework that interfaith dialogue can provide, particularly in protecting the interests of marginalized communities.

This oversight can lead to the exploitation of local data without the consent or benefit of the people it represents.

So today’s discussion on local data sovereignty— is about the right of communities to control their data.

This is not merely a technical matter but one of fairness, respecting cultural, environmental, and spiritual values fundamental to these communities.

We reside in an epoch of seemingly eternal warfare driven primarily by geopolitical economic greed. The system of destabilizing countries and exploiting communities for access or resource theft is as much a part of our evolution as a species as supply chains, markets, and governance.

But the world has changed. We have an expiration date on our evolutionary clock, and I believe that we have known this to be true since the atomic bomb. This ticking clock is evident not only with climate change or the collective trauma of our global pandemic but also in the alignment of our military with Big Conservation to perpetuate economies that privilege the worst abuses of capitalist greed with the promotion of Natural Capital schemes as the only solution for financing climate adaptation and mitigation.

Warfare is global, and it takes place in all communities, it is beyond haves and have-nots, beyond the divisions of our cultural or gender identifiers, and the demarcations of indigeneity, settler colonialism, or citizenship. What defines this warfare are not simply the opinions and actions of neighbors and passersby or the banal and incessant dirge of TV anchors and radio broadcasters drowning out the resonant whisperings of animals, plants, and rocks emerging into our collective consciousness reminding us of potential or impending extinctions.

What is in your heart matters. What you value most determines whether your gut is sick or clean. It is the clean gut and clear heart that will empower our collective defense against the disease that emanates from the very pores of privatization and capitalization regimes. Public relations and marketing departments may embrace a kinder and gentler emoji yet perpetuate the very system that remains tethered to genocide, slavery, dispossession, and fraud.

Spiritual warfare is the struggle within individuals and societies between values and principles that promote compassion, empathy, environmental stewardship, and social justice on one side, and those that prioritize hatred, greed, and exploitation of our planet on the other.

This inner conflict reflects the moral and ethical choices we make in our daily lives, as well as the broader societal choices that impact our planet and its ecosystems. It’s not limited to any particular religious or secular framework; rather, it transcends these boundaries to address our core mutual values and behaviors.

Choosing to love over hate and planetary well-being over greed are shared by many who advocate for a more just and sustainable world. Addressing these challenges requires a collective effort that focuses on shared values of empathy, cooperation, and ecological responsibility.

Addressing spiritual warfare involves shifting our consciousness over how we value a more sustainable and resilient way of living on our planet, one that recognizes our interconnectedness and responsibilities to each other and the environment. This country—this economy embraces capitalization, and the very industries promoting this are as deaf to the voices of this planet as those promoting genocide, obstruction, and containment.