The origin of the word “economy” can be traced back to the Greek word “oikonomia” meaning “household management”. But what when the economy we’ve adopted is not managing the household, but tearing it apart? PART 1 I cannot watch nature documentaries anymore. Worthwhile ones either state or it is implied, that the world I am seeing in the film is under threat… from relentless human expansion. It’s just too sad. To me, my home must include nature. This is not only what fits with my uncompromisable moral standards in relation to the rights of other life, but it’s also the world where I feel most happy and secure. I cannot abandon my morals, my quest for true happiness, and forsake the rights of future people to that same happiness, just because I am told that it is necessary to do so to keep the economy growing. Abandonment of morals is the first step on the path to sickness and decay. There is an old saying “Do as you will, so long as no other is harmed”. This is one of my favourites as it simultaneously captures individual freedom and community responsibility. But, forgotten in these times of selfish anthropocentrism, is that the “other” must include non-human life. Non-human life does not vote, it does not buy flat screen TVs. In its natural state it contributes little or nothing to the short-term GDP figure and economic growth (or at least its contributions remain unmeasured). But all life does have rights, and no human system has the right to trample those rights in its quest for eternal growth! What remains of nature now must justify its existence via its contribution to the human growth economy- or be destroyed. Nature now increasingly segmented up and privatised so someone can make a buck from the hordes of tourists who’ve paid big money to witness and experience monetised pockets of nature. Those poor sad people’s last-ditch attempt to reconnect with their lost home exploited- pay per view nature. The home growth has stolen from them, parcelled up and marketed with the aim of fleecing as many wallets as possible, the wildlife just unsuspecting carnival attractions. “Move ’em through! Get the next busload in!” …the cry goes up. And while those visitors may experience that brief high of reconnection with their lost home, they leave with a hollow feeling in their hearts, a feeling that something is not quite right here. A gut feeling that they’ve been disconnected, unplugged from their true home. They return to their increasingly densified urban living places, to their cold hearted, sterilised and crowded world of economic growth, their lives once more to be harnessed… to keep that economy growing. Sadly today, the rights of other life do not fit within the economic growth paradigm. Moral obligations all too easily dismissed, consciences eased with the thought “Oh, well- its what’s best for the economy”. Enough it seems for most to sleep easy at night. We take to plant our crops. We take to graze our animals. We take to generate our energy. We take to feed our almost insatiable lust for consumer goods. We take to house our expanding populations. We destroy our home… to build more houses. We take, we take, and we take some more, until we’ve taken almost all. We now exist in a world where only fragments of nature remain, and where even those fragments are under threat. It seems we will not stop taking until all is gone, our earth home transformed into an economy. Our earth home re-organised for maximum short term economic gain and contribution to GDP. We take (not borrow), not to build our earth home. We take to feed a ravenous economy, founded on short sighted greed and the abandonment of morals. An economy destined to be nothing more than a disastrous blip on the long earth timeline. PART 2 So, if you share with me that desire to bring nature back as part of your true earth home, let’s begin the journey home. It is now time for us to build our true forever earth home. It has taken us hundreds of years to destroy our earth home. It will not be rebuilt in a year, or a decade. It may take hundreds of years to complete the mission, so you will need to re-calibrate your future vision, from day to day, week to week, month to month. You will need to lift your sights to year to year, decade to decade, century to century. Always keep your eye on the prize and enjoy the gains along the way. Because once we begin the great downsizing (yes that is what this journey home is all about) each gain, rather than being overwhelmed by growth, will be consolidated, and built upon. This journey is about living and breathing, genuine progress in action with your earth home forever as the goal. Insofar as economics goes the great downsizing is referred to as “degrowth”. A somewhat misleading term because it refers to the scale and planetary impact of the human economy- not the countless gains and improvements which accompany the process. Degrowth is the context for facilitating the return of nature and the rebuilding of our earth home. If you are a renovator, you may like to think of it as a restoration project. The removal of crumbling and unsafe structures and their replacement with stronger more resilient, efficient and aesthetically pleasing architecture. Gardeners may see a comparison with plant pruning. The cutting of unnecessary and burdensome growth to strengthen the plant and to promote new and vibrant shoots. Just a quick word on earth home courage and unwavering determination here. It is always tempting to stick with the devil you know. I understand that. And of course, those profiting from that devil will do all in their power to stop you leaving. Lies, misinformation, twisted statistics, pseudo-science, fear, these are just some of their tricks. So all I can say here, is that you will need a fair degree of courage and determination to stand up to them and their immoral system. Great human achievements were never built on doing things the way we’ve always done them. Achievement was always led by those with new visions and by those with the courage and determination to back them. So… all good, I hear you say, .. but what? Where? How? What do we do? How do we embark on our journey home? For now I ask nothing more than this: 1. Consolidate your mind around your vision of an earth home forever. Accept that your home is also home for other life and that a biodiverse home is a happy healthy home. Include them in your vision for your earth home. Hold that picture, visualise it each day, and accept that it is very achievable, but some downsizing will be necessary, but that will be a very positive process. 2. Accept that the current economic system is destroying your earth home, and despite its false promises of “green growth” will always destroy it- because fundamentally you cannot have one species attempting endless growth on a finite planet and simultaneously secure a healthy biodiverse earth home. The old must go, a system upgrade is needed, change is good. 3. Believe in your Terra Domus Aeternum! Conclusion and references: If you are ready to begin the journey home, to begin the process of rebuilding our forever earth home. Then here’s more. Lock degrowth in as the only viable means to that end, educate yourself, understand the goal and the method, learn to communicate your message. To succeed, we need activists- only a mass movement of the people will kick start this. Momentum is building, but too slowly. I can be followed on twitter for those who wish to engage there. This will help with message delivery and responses to questions. https://twitter.com/martinrev21 Here are just a few other links to get you started, but I highly recommend you do your own research, there’s tons of material out there. Center for the Advancement of the Steady State Economy: https://steadystate.org/ Degrowth; https://degrowth.info/degrowth Doughnut economics: https://doughnuteconomics.org/about-doughnut-economics Population Matters: https://populationmatters.org/ Also- Seek out those in your community who are either on this message, or even more importantly, those who are close, and do what you can to bring them the last 10 yards. See my other articles on Medium which can all be read in short bytes, and which compliment this article. Thanks for taking the time to read this- Martin