A Summary of the Carbon Theory of Value - Carbonomics

The Carbon theory of value provides the geophysiological basis for Carbonomics - a new measuring system which evaluates the impact of environmental, ecological, and geophysiological phenomena on the Earth's Carbon spiral i.e. the Earth's life support system. This article attempts to explain how the Carbon theory of value could be used to create a sustainable planet i.e. where the Earth's climate has been stabilized.

The first is that the Earth’s manifold ecological processes compose one indivisible system. The Earth’s climate is a unitary entity .. “the atmosphere is a single coherent system, and to understand the weather in any one place you have to take the whole world into account.”[1]

A second geophysiological fact is that no life form on Earth could survive without the Earth. Without the Earth, life is nothing, humans are nothing.

Thirdly, Micro-organisms, Plants and Animals created the Earth’s habitability and Wildlife continue to protect the Earth’s life support system.

Fourthly, the Earth’s global average temperature has been fairly consistent throughout the Earth’s four billion year existence.[2] Over the last few million years, however, the Earth’s climate has oscillated between ice ages and interglacials. If it was evolving according to its own tendencies, the Earth’s climate should be moving into a new ice age. However, since the beginning of the industrial and agricultural revolutions, the over-industrialized nations have dumped increasing quantities of pollution into the atmosphere and deforested an increasing proportion of their lands. This is counteracting the Earth’s tendencies towards the next ice age and is boosting global warming.

The final geophysiological fact is the centrality of one element. The history of the Earth is the way in which Carbon has been removed from the atmosphere and transformed into a fabulous array of different life-forms from the smallest of organisms to oomans and the charismatic mega-fauna. This transformation started when Micro-organisms and Plants somehow acquired the ability to carry out Photosynthesis. These early life forms spread over the Earth and as they extracted more and more Carbon from the atmosphere they provided a food supply which fuelled the evolution of life on Earth and, through their death and decay, they not only laid down vast quantities of fossilized minerals (calcium carbonate [chalk and limestone], dolomite, graphite, diamonds, fossil fuels) which constitute some of the Earth’s major landscapes, e.g. the white cliffs of dover, they also spread a layer of Soil over the land surface of the Earth which vastly increased the Earth’s fertility. The amount of Carbon extracted from the atmosphere has been prodigous - one estimate puts it at 10,000,000,000,000,000 tons.[3]

The unitary nature of the Earth’s life support system means that all creatures have an impact not merely on their local ecology but on the Earth’s geophysiology. In turn, all creatures are affected by the Earth’s geophysiological processes. The main difference between humans and Animals is that only humans know they have an impact on the entire Planet and that they are capable of changing the Planet’s geophysiological processes. In other words, only humans are Planetary beings. The unitary nature of the Earth’s geophysiologyalso means that only Planetary policies can protect the Earth’s life support system. National/local green policies have no ecological legitimacy unless they are derived from geophysiological policies.

Since terrestrial life forms cannot survive without the Earth then all value must derive from the Earth. The contribution which species make to the maintenance of the Earth’s habitability could be deemed to be their Earth value. The more that a species helps to maintain the Earth’s habitability, the greater its Earth value. Conversely, the more a species destroys the Earth’s habitability, the greater its negative value. Bacteria, Ants and Worms currently contribute more to the Planet’s life sustaining processes than humans.

It was not god but Micro-organisms, Plants and Wildlife who created the Earth. It was not god but Wildlife who created humans. Humans owe a huge ecological debt to Wildlife because Wildlife created the Earth’s habitability, and they owe an existential debt to Wildlife because Wildlife created humans. Humans should repay these debts by creating Wilderness zones for the exclusive use of Wildlife. Wildlife created a home for humans on this Planet so humans should ensure it remains a home for Wildlfe. Unless humans recognize the immense value of Wildlife they will wreck this paradise and destroy themselves.

If humans did not exist, the Earth might already be in the early stages of an ice age. However, since the industrial revolution humans have been boosting global warming. There is little choice about the matter. Humans must regulate the climate to avoid either of these extremes. If humans take on this responsibility and ensure climatic stability they can increase their Earth value.

* which human activity poses the biggest threat to the Earth’s life support system;

* which country/multi-national corporation/species/individual is causing the most geophysiological damage;

* the scale of the damage being inflicted on the Earth’s life support system;

* the rate of ecological destruction;

* species’ Earth value;

* national and global geophysiological limitations;

* the proximity of the Earth’s life support system to a collapse and,

* the global policies to protect the Earth’s life support system.

The development of a geophysiological analysis, however, seems to present insurmountable problems. The Planet’s life support system consists of dozens of Planetary cycles so trying to measure the damage to each one would be a complex, difficult, and highly time consuming, endeavour. It might be possible, however, to obtain a good approximation to the Earth’s geophysiology by focussing on the most dominant Planetary cycle.

Hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen are more abundant than Carbon and all are indispensible to life. In the form of water, both oxygen and hydrogen are pervasive on Earth. However, hydrogen could not be used as the basis of a geophysiological analysis because, unlike Carbon and oxygen, it does not exist as a constant quantity on Earth.[6] Thus whilst an oxygen or Carbon theory of value is possible, a hydrogen or water theory of value is not.

Because global warming is one of the major threats to the Earth’s life sustaining processes, it is necessary that the Planetary cycle to be used as a geophysiological measure should have a close connection with this ecological phenomena. For example, there is no point in using the sulphur cycle as an ecological measure because it has a miniscule role in global warming. As regards global warming, the role of nitrogen is minimal, whilst oxygen has no direct role. Despite the fact that the main contributor to global warming is water and that the main greenhouse gas is Carbon dioxide, oxygen itself plays no role in global warming except through ozone. However, Carbon is a major component of global warming not merely through the supply side of the Carbon cycle, (Carbon emissions) but the demand side of the Carbon cycle (Photosynthesis). It would seem therefore that overall, the Earth’s Carbon cycle is the best approximation to a geophysiological analysis.

In order to use the global Carbon cycle as a geophysiological measure it would necessary to formulate an audit of the Earth’s stocks and flows of Carbon. A global Carbon audit would include the amounts of Carbon in the atmosphere, the Soil and the oceans as well as in Plants and Animals. It would also incorporate the various ways in which humans are interfering with the Carbon cycle e.g. the burning of fossil fuels, deforestation, and the suffocation of the Earth’s life sustaining processes.

The global Carbon cycle analysis shows that most ecological damage is caused by the exponential growth in the numbers of cars, kids, cattle, capital and carnage, and that the Animal exploitation industry is the most ecologically destructive industry on Earth.

A Carbon methodology can also be used to determine which countries/multinational corporations/individuals are causing the most ecological damage. It can determine not only species’ Earth value but individual’s Earth value. A Carbon cycle methodology would reveal that most people living in poor/industrializing countries are far less ecologically destructive than most consumers in the over-industrialized nations.

A Carbon cycle methodology would reveal that the five main causes of ecological destruction are growing at an exponential rate, and that the Earth’s life support system is being destroyed at an exponential rate. In effect, the overindustrialized nations are engaged in a war against the Earth.

It is not yet possible to determine the Earth’s proximity to an ecological collapse. It is believed that an ecosystem will collapse if destruction exceeds 65%. It is possible that this critical point also applies to the Earth’s life support system. Given that humans have reduced the Earth’s Forest cover by one-third since the end of the last ice age and have reduced terrestrial Phyotosynthesis by 13% since the second world war; and given the exponential growth in ecological destruction, then humans could end up destroying 65% of terrestrial Phyotosynthesis within the next fifty years. Humans are entering the final doubling phase of their cancerous expansion around the world.

The Carbon cycle methodology could be used to stabilize the climate. Once the concentration of atmospheric Carbon and the scale of the Earth’s Forest cover needed to stabilize the climate had been determined it would be possible to formulate a global Carbon budget to bring about these objectives. A global Carbon budget would determine national Carbon budgets for each country around the world and, in turn, each government would formulate local Carbon budgets.

Since the start of the industrial revolution the over-industrialized nations have released far more Carbon into the atmosphere and have destroyed a far greater proportion of their Forests than the poor/industrializing countries. The over-industrialized nations have made the biggest contribution to global warming and, correspondingly, must take primary responsibility for combating this ecological disaster. Poor/industrializing countries will never agree to global policies to combat global warming unless these policies are formulated on a just and equitable basis i.e. in which the different contribution each country has made to global warming since the start of the industrial revolution is taken into account. The basis of global ecological equity, therefore, is that each country must balance its historical Carbon budget so that Carbon emissions equal the amount of Carbon absorbed through Photosynthesis. This means that most of the over-industrialized nations, which are Carbon debtors, would have to carry out wholesale Reforestation, whilst most poor/industrializing countries, which are Carbon creditors, could continue releasing Carbon emissions whilst they developed and eradicated poverty. A transitional global Carbon budget could be set whilst countries are balancing their Carbon budgets so that the Earth suffers no further ecological damage. A global Carbon budget is the means of establishing global justice in the fight to avert a global warming disaster.

The proposal for global, national and local, Carbon cycle budgets may seem somewhat bizarre but, in a number of respects, it is merely a substitution for monetary-based budgets. The advantage of a Carbon budget is that whilst money is capable of astronomic growth which will lead eventually to the destruction of the Earth’s ecology, Carbon is rooted in, and thus limited by, the Earth’s natural processes. Whilst money is infinite, Carbon is finite. Whilst money knows no standards (whether gold, dollar, or yen), Carbon can be fixed by the concentration of atmospheric Carbon and the scale of Forest cover needed to maintain the Earth’s climatic stability.