Clean air is currently free for everybody. If air is polluted, clean air will have to be produced, and, thereby, be owned by  a producer. The producer will, thereby, be able to impose a social structure determined by his “rights” and a “network of debts” upon other humans, who purchased his product,  represented by his ownership of money. The possession of money will manifest and promote the manufacturer’s social position in society. This is already reality as demonstrated by the Vitality Air company [3].

On the contrary, rarely is the inverse social structure imposed on polluters, ie no polluters goes into “debt” owing clean air or the labour to make air clean again to all the other humans or living beings who previously “owned” the clean air.

As discussed also by Hickel (2020) by replacing nature by human-made artifacts, the natural commons will be replaced by property owned by individuals, thereby, enabling a transfer of resources upwards the social hierarchy. In short, natural clean air will be replaced by CLEANAIR, Inc.

This example can be generalized to other natural resources which has been generously freely provided by nature and, ultimately, to the complete natural basis for survival in general, ie our biosphere. Therefore, any human who is interested in maintaining a more or less socially equal society should have a vital interest in protecting the commons of nature against the predatory influence of humans. Protecting nature means protecting humans.

References:

[1] https://www.linkedin.com/posts/alexei-navolokin-5420563_will-the-world-be-ruled-by-mechanical-bees-activity-6976692708065079298-Stns?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop

[2] Hickel, J. (2021). Less is more. Penguin. https://www.jasonhickel.org/less-is-more

[3] https://vitalityair.com/