ABSTRACT
The behavior that drives this growing disparity between aspiration and action lies firmly rooted within our economic system. Developed in an earlier time, our modern economic system is implicitly based on assumptions of inexhaustible natural resources, labor scarcity (not resource scarcity), and an unlimited capacity of the planet to assimilate waste and pollution. To this day, we continue to place no economic value on the natural world or any of the materials and services that it provides. These “externalities” remain almost exclusively unpriced, and because they appear to be free, we treat them as worthless-to be wasted, thrown away, consumed, burned up, and used without a thought. Even when we know, morally and ethically, that behavior should change, the day-to-day signals are not there to allow change to occur on a scale sufficient to make a difference.
