Economy Webpage

and

Ecology Webpage

ECO: Ecology-Economy

"eco":
"eco" is the root word of both ecology and economy. "eco" means home, in the Greek language.
Ecology is learning about your home in nature. Economy is taking care of your home in nature.
A good economy takes care of people and nature together. People are a part of nature. A good economy sustains and enriches natural habitats, wildernesses, ecosystems, clean air, clean water, fertile soil, the environment, and the climate. A good economy makes sure that people have enough supplies and enough nature and natural resources for many generations into the future. A good economy helps people and nature to thrive together.

ecology:
Doing ecology - learning about nature - includes learning about local natural habitats (wildernesses), and global ecosystems; it includes learning about local native plants and animals, as well as exotic plants and animals; it includes learning about the food web and food chains (plants get eaten by some animals, which get eaten by other animals, etc.); it includes learning how people can live in harmony with nature; and, it includes learning how people can help to sustain and enrich local natural habitats, native plants, and native animals.

economy:
An economy is people having stuff, how people get their stuff, and how people take care of nature as they get materials from nature and make their stuff. In an economy, people need to use a combination of their hearts (caring), heads (minds), and hands (labor) to take care of the ecology / nature, such as by distributing seeds.
An economy includes people's stuff, supplies, and necessities. An economy is based on nature, which is the source of materials for people's stuff, supplies, and necessities. The air we breathe comes from nature. The water we drink comes from nature. The soil, in which we grow our food, comes from nature. The wood, which we use to build houses, comes from nature. The cotton, with which we make clothes, grows in nature's soils. The wool, with which we make clothes, comes from sheep, which eat grass, that comes from nature and grows in soil. Nature and ecology is the base of our economy.

The pursuits of ecologists and economists should be the same: to support people and nature together. We need ecologists who talk about the economy and help to run sustainable communities economies. We need economists who talk about and help to take care of nature. No one should ever be an economist, unless he first spends at least a few years working full time, in the dirt, doing ecology, stewarding the land, and growing a garden. If an economist doesn't mention how the economy can take good care of nature, he is a lousy economist.

A whole economy includes taking from nature (getting our stuff) and giving back to nature. Taking from nature is only half of the economy. In an economy, people need to use a combination of their hearts (caring and morals), heads (minds), and hands (labor) to take care of ecology / nature, such as by distributing seeds.

 

economy - 4 types:

There are at least four types of economies,
including the following four.

● ● 1st economy:
hunter-gatherer economy
no money used, no trading out of necessity
This economy has existed for over 100,000 years.
A hunter-gatherer society is a wilderness-society of tribal camps. Typically, a tribal camp has 2 to 150 people.
In general, people were generalists and each family hunted, gathered, and handmade all of their own stuff. They had enough stuff (water, food, clothes, shelter, soap, basic tools, etc.) and they did not need to get stuff from other people. Hunter-gatherers were very aware that ecology (nature) and economy were strongly tied together. Hunter-gatherers knew that they used materials (wood, plant fiber, stones, etc.) from nature to make their stuff (wooden bowls, plant fiber rope, stone tools, etc.). Hunter-gatherers directly handpicked materials from nature and they used those materials to make their stuff (wooden bowls, plant fiber rope, stone tools, etc.)
Handmaking every necessity took a lot of time, but, commonly, people handmade all their stuff fast-enough and well-enough to meet their needs. Typically, hunter-gatherers met their weekly needs by working 30 hours per week (about 4 hours every day). Plus, often, there was community cooperation and community sharing: people shared stuff with everyone within the tribal camp community. On rare occasions, there was casual trading of items between people for the fun of it.
Numerous sources report a hunter-gatherer lifestyle of meeting human needs. Hadza: Hunter-Gatherers of Tanzania, by Frank Marlowe, 2010. History of the World in Seven Cheap Things, by Jason Moore and Raj Patel, 2017. The Tracker, by Tom Brown Jr., 1978. My Indian Boyhood, by Luther Standing Bear, 1931. Jared Diamond's thesis, in the 1980s. And many more books.
No poverty. In general, hunter-gatherers had
no poverty (no absolute poverty) in that they had enough vital material stuff: housing, water, fire food, clothes, soap, and basic tools to live above poverty.
They had no money, but they had enough stuff.
Meanwhile, primitive hunter-gatherers were poor in that they did not have excessive stuff: huge houses, numerous clothes, lots of gadgets and gizmos, etc., like in the high standard of living in the modern USA.
In general, hunter-gatherers did NOT live in poverty (poverty = absolute poverty = lack enough vital basic stuff: housing, water, food, etc.). In general, hunter-gatherers had enough vital basic stuff (housing, water, food, etc.) and were rich with priceless things: family, friends, vast pristine wildernesses, healthy community landscapes, clean water, clean air, and functional communities. Plus, they had elaborate cultures, art, music, stories, and festivals.

● ● 2nd economy:
bartering economy
no money used, early trading, in early farming villages and in early civilizations
This economy has existed for perhaps 10,000 years.
A farming village may have 50 to 1,000 people. A civilization is a city-society. Each civilization has one or more cities. Usually, a city has over a 1,000 people.
In farms and cities, people are more specialized and make only a few types of stuff. Thus, people needed to trade some of their stuff to get other stuff that they needed. For instance, one person traded his cow to get a few blankets from another person. Later, as money came into existence, people could barter for how much money a commodity was worth.

● ● 3rd economy:
money economy
simple money economy of ancient civilizations
This economy has existed for at least 2,600 years, in Europe. About 2,600 years ago, along the Mediterranean Sea, the Kingdom of Lydia invented metal coins, about 630 BC. China used metal coins even before that. Plus, China invented paper money roughly 1,000 years ago.
Money represented value and gave people more shopping flexibility. For instance, a person, who had a cow, could use money to buy a few blankets from a person, who did not necessarily want a cow.
In early money economies, simple money economies, it was kings, queens, emperors, and popes, who had the most money and biggest treasuries.
➤ Before 500 years ago, usually, very few people had and used money: typically, only the very wealthy people, royalty, nobility, priests, and merchants, frequently had and used money. Meanwhile, most people were peasant farmers who rarely and sparingly had and used money. They handmade most of their own supplies and bartered their excess stuff for types of needed stuff that they could not make themselves.

● ● 4th economy:
20th-century-style
"modern global economy" of capitalism, communism, mixed economies, cheap fossil fuels, and the automobile.
This is the complex, global, money economy of today, although it has somewhat existed for 500 years, since about 1500 AD. 500 year ago, European nations kick started the "modern global economy" by sailing ships across the oceans and around the world to distant places to get precious metals (gold, silver, etc.), traded goods, resources, and supplies and to bring them back Europe.
➤ Before 500 years ago, usually, very few people had and used money: typically, only the very wealthy people, royalty, nobility, priests, and merchants, frequently had and used money. Meanwhile, most people were peasant farmers who rarely and sparingly had and used money. They handmade most of their own supplies and bartered their excess stuff for types of needed stuff that they could not make themselves.
➤ To the contrary, during the recent 500 years (and especially during the 20th-century), as capitalism spread and intensified the around the world, the "modern global economy" intensified and an increasing higher percentage of people moved away from self-sufficient farms and moved into cities. As they moved into cities, they got specialized jobs (and could no longer make most of other own stuff). Therefore, the city dwellers needed money to use money to buy basic vital stuff (housing, water, food, etc.).
➤ Concurrently, factories increasingly produced more stuff and at cheaper costs. In the 20th-century (the 1900s), especially in the USA, a majority of people got used to working to earn money to go shopping to buy a lot of stuff, even nonessential stuff. 20th-century USA became a hyper-consumer society.

5 Disasters of the
Modern Economy

● As businesses produced more products, businesses had to consume more natural resources and to clear more natural habitats to get materials for their products to sell. Disaster 1: Modern businesses increasingly ignored and destroyed nature, ecologies, and the environment in the pursuit of profit. The modern global economy and businesses sought profit more so than the well-being of people, nature, communities, and local economies. Although, remember the point of the economy and business is to help both people and nature, to both take from nature and to give back to nature. The economy and businesses can't continue once nature is destroyed.

● Additionally, in the 20th-century, in the USA and elsewhere, the automobile and fossil fuels made it very affordable to travel vast distances at very fast speeds. Disaster 2: In the 20th-century, the USA designed and built its cities, suburbs, countrysides, roads, and many residential areas to suit people getting to places via an automobile and with cheap fossil fuels and to suit a vigorous global economy to transport many goods and foods, quickly, across vast distances, around the world. The USA built houses, schools, and businesses far from each other, so that automobiles were needed. Since the 20th-century (and still today), typically, the USA economy and USA citizens use an extravagant amount of energy from fossil fuels to do daily tasks and to get vital basic stuff (food, clothes, soap, etc.), although many of the daily tasks could be done and vital basic stuff could be gotten in ways that use much less energy. Furthermore, many of the daily tasks could be done and vital basic stuff could be gotten in ways that take much better care of people, ecology (nature), and communities. The USA is addicted to the automobile, using a extravagant amounts of energy, transporting people and products vast distances, on a daily basis, and greatly ignoring nature and ecology.

● Disaster 3: The modern global economy made it easy for USA citizens to buy lots of globalized stuff from far, far away, which requires the use of copious energy. The modern global economy made people and communities to be helpless — as in to be no longer locally-self-sufficient. Neither the modern global economy, nor the USA government, state governments, etc., nor any other agency in GREEEPCH (government, education, economy, peace, culture, health, etc.) made it easy for people to support functional communities with local economies and local businesses and people shopping for local stuff.

● Disaster 4: Also, the modern global economy and the USA government support an unsustainable type of agriculture that created a monoculture of crops that covers millions of acres of land and the crops require a heavy and frequent use of manmade fertilizers and pesticides that are made with fossil fuels. These fertilizers and pesticides degrade the soil's ecology and fertility. Plus, the land's ecology and biodiversity is destroyed by farmers installing a monoculture of crops. A monoculture of crops attracts pests. Moreover, most modern farmers till the soil. Tilling the soil releases vast amounts of carbon into the atmosphere. Soil sequesters carbon, and it's good and helpful that some modern farmers use no-till tractors to plant seeds and to keep the carbon in the soil.

● Disaster 5: Furthermore, the modern global economy (and other agencies in GREEEPCH) allowed businesses to funnel extravagant wealth to very few people, while many USA citizens succumbed to poverty and big businesses sucked the wealth out of local communities so that communities became dysfunctional with nonexistent EEE Systems.

Recap of
5 Disasters of the
Modern Economy

There are at least five disasters of the "modern global economy" that our current society must solve and overcome in order to establish a sustainable eco-economy that supports both the world's many ecologies and the world's many local economies. A summary of the two disasters, mentioned above:

1. Economy ignored Ecology. Modern businesses increasingly ignored and destroyed nature, ecologies, and the environment in the pursuit of profit. Yet the economy and businesses cannot continue once nature is destroyed. The economy needs ecology.

2. Cars, Lots of Energy, Far Distances.
USA communities designed to suit: the Automobile (houses, schools, and businesses far from each other),
Cheap Fossil Fuels, Usage of Extravagant Amounts of Energy, and Transporting People and Products Vast Distances.

3. Easy to Globalize and to Use Energy. The modern global economy made it easy for USA citizens to buy lots of globalized stuff from far, far away, which requires the use of copious energy.
The modern global economy made people and communities to be helpless — as in to be no longer locally-self-sufficient and no longer aware of local ecologies and local nature.

4. Unsustainable Farming. The modern global economy and the USA government support an unsustainable type of agriculture.

5. A Few Rich, Many in Poverty, and Dysfunctional Communities. Furthermore, the modern global economy (and other agencies in GREEEPCH) allowed businesses to funnel extravagant wealth to very few people, while many USA citizens succumbed to poverty and big businesses sucked the wealth out of local communities so that communities became dysfunctional with nonexistent EEE Systems.

 

Future
Eco-Economy
includes the:

5 Solutions to the
5 Disasters of the
Modern Economy

A 21st-century Eco-Economy supports people, nature, local economies, and community functionality with an EEE System per community. Furthermore, a 21st-century Eco-Economy reverses the above 5 disasters. As the 21st-century Eco-Economy follows the 10 Joint Goals of GREEEPCH, it succeeds in reversing the above 5 disasters with following 5 benefits.

1. Economy helps Ecology. By following the 10 Joint Goals of GREEEPCH, modern businesses increasingly help and grow nature, ecologies, and the environment, while they make a profit. The economy and businesses continue in the long-run only while nature is doing well. The economy needs ecology.

2. Walk, Less Energy, Shorter Distances.
By following the 10 Joint Goals of GREEEPCH, USA communities change their design to adapt existing buildings into houses, schools, and businesses that are close together and to an ABC Garden — they are close together, so that people may walk or bicycle to them, instead of drive an automobile. People get good local jobs and walk between their place of residence and their place of work, school, and ABC Garden. Plus, local small businesses produce local products and local food for local people to buy (within 100 miles or less of people's residences). (Maybe electronics are the only products that are left globalized, but there should not be a business that has a global monopoly of electronics.)

3. Easy to Localize and to Conserve Energy. By following the 10 Joint Goals of GREEEPCH, the economy, the USA national government, state governments, etc., and all other agencies in GREEEPCH (government, education, economy, peace, culture, health, etc.) make it easier for people to support functional communities with local economies, local businesses, and people shopping for local stuff. The agencies of GREEEPCH support people and communities in being helpful and capable with a local economy that is largely locally-self-sufficient and aware of local ecologies and local nature.

4. Sustainable Farming. By following the 10 Joint Goals of GREEEPCH, the economy, the USA national government, state governments, etc., and all other agencies in GREEEPCH support sustainable agriculture.

5. Distribution of Wealth, No Poverty, and Functional Communities. By following the 10 Joint Goals of GREEEPCH, the economy, the USA national government, state governments, etc., and all other agencies in GREEEPCH support communities to be functional with an ABC Garden and EEE System per community. Plus, agencies of GREEEPCH promote a better distribution of wealth by promoting local small businesses, so that more wealth stays within local communities (instead of sucked away to a distant headquarters of a big business), so that each community can end poverty within its own community.

Whatever economy we make next, and whatever we call it, an Eco-Economy, a Nested Economy, a Sustainable Economy, etc., we want it to be sustainable and for the wealth to go to communities and evenly throughout the people within each community, and not again for most of the wealth to go to only a few people, such as emperors, popes, kings, queens, and those in the upper rungs of ruthless centralized governments and large globalized corporations.

 

ABC Garden Ecology-Economy

At the ABC Gardens, students learn the ABCs - simple, small, basic, early steps - of a simple, small economy. Students start learning about the economy by learning and practicing aspects of the 1st economy. At the ABC garden, later, they learn about the 2nd economy, 3rd economy, 4th economy, as well as the future / 21st century eco-economy.

 

ABC Garden
ABC Holistic Education Garden of Three Oaks, Michigan, USA. Students learn about ecology, economy, and more. See some other class lessons learned at the ABC garden.
See ABC Garden
at www.z-hub.org/ABCgarden.html

 

Galien Valley Nature and Culture Program (GV-NCP).
Galien Valley Nature and Culture Program runs interdisciplinary classes about nature and culture. Classes are informative and fun. Students learn how culture and nature relate to each other and how science, art, health, economy, etc. relate to nature too. Furthermore, classes include a few lessons on holistic skills as well as the ABCs of community, ecology, economy, science, art, and more.
See Galien Valley Nature and Culture Program website at www.z-hub.org/galienvalleyncp.html

 

Blog of Zoe at Galien Valley, about practicing holistic skills, science, art, teaching nature classes and the ABCs of 6 holistic skills, local wildlife, local native flowers, ecology, economy, stewardship and landcare of local habitats, etc.
●See Zoe's Daily Blog at
www.z-hub.org/zle-blog.html
●See Zoe's Monthly Blog at
zoemonthlyblog.blogspot.com

 

z-hub homepage. See more information about every basic thing that is important to the well-being of people - and how everything links to everything else. See www.z-hub.org