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The economists say:

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If you clear-cut the forest,

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take the money and put it in the bank,

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you can make 6 or 7%.

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If you clear-cut the forest,
put it into Malaysia or Papua New Guiena,

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you can make 30 or 40%!

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So who cares whether you keep the forest?

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Cut it down, put the money somewhere else.

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When those forests are gone put it in fish.

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When the fish are gone, put it in computers.

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Money doesn't stand for anything

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and money now grows faster
than the real world.

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Conventional economics is
a form of brain damage.

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David Suzuki
geneticist/activist

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Economics

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is so fundamentally disconnected
from the real world,

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it is destructive.

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If you take an introductory
course in economics,

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the professor in the first lecture
will show a slide of the economy.

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And it looks very impressive, you know -

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raw materials,
extraction process, manufacturer,

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wholesale, retail,
with arrows going back and forth.

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And they try to impress
you because they think

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(they know damn well
economics is NOT a science)

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but they're trying to FOOL us into thinking
that it's a real science. It’s not.

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Economics is a set of values
that they then try to use

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mathematical equations and all that stuff
and pretend that it's a science.

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But if you ask the economist:

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“In that equation,
where do you put the ozone layer?

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Where do you put the deep
underground aquifers of fossil water?

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Where do you put topsoil or biodiversity?”

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Their answer is “Oh,
those are externalities!”

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Well then you might as well be on Mars.

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That economy's not based
in anything like the real world.

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It’s life, the web of life,
that filters water in the hydrologic cycle.

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It's microorganisms in the
soil that create the soil

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that we can grow our food in.

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Nature performs all kinds of services.

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Insects fertilize all
of the flowering plants.

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These services are vital
to the health of the planet.

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Economists call these "externalities."
That's nuts!

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[♪ Airy music  ♫]