Natural Capitalism

Joanna Sheldon cjs10 at cornell.edu
Fri May 18 16:24:55 PDT 2001


At 07:28 19-05-01, you wrote:
>/ dave / wrote:
>
>>"Natural Capitalism" - phewy. Who are Hawken and Lovins, and what's their
>>game?
>
>Hawken, as in Smith & Hawken, catalog purveyors of teak-handled mulchers
>to the better classes, to quote Alexander Cockburn.
>
>Doug

The J. Peterman of home&garden catalogues...I just checked out their online presence: "Everyday French glasses. A classic bistro shape suitable for everything from jus d'orange to vin de table. Weighted bottoms thwart spills." Ahem.

It should be noted that Smith and Hawken started out selling plain old-fashioned, well-made garden tools from the UK (we gotta hand it to you English -- you do know how to build a spade). No teak handles, by the way, though it does make for a good line. Those of us who've lived from our own produce have been grateful to be able to buy well-weighted tools that could stand being left out in the rain. When we could afford them. But the marketing (complete with beautiful watercolours for illustration) has been aimed at people who have nothing better to do than putter about in their perennial borders.

As for "natural capitalism", what a revolting concept. I see there's even a dot org for it: http://www.naturalcapitalism.org/ -- in suitably toasty shades of green and brown. Looks like "sustainable capitalism" is actually what they're on about.

cheers, Joanna S.

www.overlookhouse.com



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