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Resources
A great report, covering all aspects of our humanity's commons and how its benefits are being seized by a private elite, is "Public Assets, Private Profits:
Reclaiming the American Commons in an Age of Market Enclosure." (PDF format)
What would happen if we collected the economic value of our common heritage and spread it out to everyone? Author Robert Schutz calculates and explains his findings in a friendly book called The $30,000 Solution
A top think tank focusing on how to treat "common wealth" and achieve fair distribution of common value is The Geonomy Society.
The New America Foundation has a "Public Assets Program" and we can expect a lot of good research to emanate from this.
The Earth Rights Institute is dedicated to "democratic and equal right of all to common
heritage resources including surface land, oil
and mineral wealth, deep sea and outer
space resources, and the electromagnetic
spectrum."
There is a "Common Assets Program" at Redefining Progress, another top-notch think tank.
Common Assets should be enjoyed by all people in common -- but not everyone can have access to the same parks, airwaves, etc. So many favor an equal distribution of the economic value of public assets, called a Citizens Dividend or citizens income. Check out the details.
Declaration of Planetary Rights by John McConnell, the founder of Earth Day
What is EarthSharing and why is it called Earth's Survival Site? Find out.
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Articles
 Reclaim the Commons
by Caspar Davis
Thomas Paine and the French Physiocrats observed
that land and natural resources were provided by God or nature for the use of
all, and that nothing could be made or grown without access to them. They argued
that because the land and natural resources were provided by Providence and not
by any human act, equity demanded that their fruits be shared by all. To be
sure, work and tools were required to grow the crops or mine the ore, and those who
provide them should receive fair compensation. But the portion of the value provided by nature
... click here to continue
Who Owns the Sky?
by Peter Barnes
Until now, people have battled over land, water, oil and other valuable materials. But there has always been enough sky. That was before the sky became a waste dump for industrial economies. Now it is clear that Chicken Little had it almost right: the sky isn't falling, but it is filling. The gaseous bubble we inhabit can absorb only so much ozone-eating chlorine, acid-brewing sulfur and heat-reflecting carbon dioxide. When the heads of state of the seven largest industrial nations meet ... click here to continue
Sharing Our Common Heritage
by Alanna Hartzok
Our theme is sharing the common heritage via the tax shift agenda. I am going to do some sketches of what we are up against in terms of globalization, and the massive privatization of land and resources of the planet, and the kind of havoc that is causing. But also in the crisis of that we have the opportunity to really affirm the whole context of common heritage resources. There are several movements in that direction that I think are going to really help us ... click here to continue
Popular Ownership of the Commons
by John Champagne
Population increases and continual expansion of the many ways that human beings impact this planet are causing depletion of resources that support human civilization and destruction of ecosystems that make up the diverse communities of life on earth. We cannot continue on our present path.
When a living system made up of many interacting, interdependent parts experiences unsustainable stress ... click here to continue
Common Property in Land
by the Henry George Institute
We must make land common property," Henry George declared. Some of his followers felt that he had made a tactical mistake with that statement. What did he mean by it? Was he a "commonist"?
Basically there are three types of property: click here to continue
Who Deserves the Value of the Atmosphere
by Jeff Gates
The quality of the gaseous bubble that surrounds the earth is hugely important to the quality of life on earth. Our use of fossil fuels has put that domain at risk. For example, we Americans blow about 1.5 billion tons of carbon into the air each year. The sky may already have reached its absorptive capacity for acid-brewing sulfur, ozone-eating chlorine and heat-trapping carbon-dioxide. Oil is no longer in short supply -- sky is. Yet because the atmosphere has no owner, it's treated like a common sewer ... click here to continue
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