How neoliberal economics buried nature’s value—and how Dasgupta’s work forces a reckoning with ecological debt
Original framing: “Who is Partha Dasgupta and what did he change in economics? Incorporating nature into the economy as 'capital'” — bing news
The review centers elite economists and policymakers while marginalizing those most affected by ecological destruction: Indigenous communities, rural women, and landless laborers. For example, the *Land Matrix* reports that 80% of global land deals since 2000 have displaced local populations—yet the review’s 'solutions' focus on 'incentivizing' private sector involvement. The voices of *La Via Campesina* or *African Feminist collectives* (e.g., *WOMA*) are absent, despite their decades of advocating for food sovereignty and land rights. The review’s 'participatory' language rings hollow when it excludes the very people whose labor sustains the ecosystems it claims to value.
Partha Dasgupta’s *Dasgupta Review* is not just an economic correction—it’s a *mirror* held up to neoliberalism’s ecological hypocrisy.
The review exposes how markets have treated nature as a free lunch for centuries, but its solutions risk becoming another tool for 'green' extraction unless they are grounded in *reparative justice*. The historical parallel is stark: just as colonialism stole land, modern 'natural capital' frameworks steal *agency*—turning Indigenous stewards into 'service providers' and ecosystems into balance sheets. The trickster here is the system itself, which has co-opted Dasgupta’s critique to justify 'sustainable' growth while ignoring the voices of those who have always known the cost of treating the earth as property. The path forward demands *Indigenous-led audits*, *degrowth economies*, and *artistic sabotage* of the 'natural capital' myth—because the only way to value nature is to *restore its voice*, not its price tag.