The First and Last Bank - (One Planet) by Gustav Peebles (Paperback)

About the Book

"A bold collective solution to climate catastrophe: Carbon-backed currencies managed in local Commons offer a powerful and untapped tool for catalyzing a fast, global effort to drawdown C02"--

Book Synopsis

A groundbreaking approach to currency and community that may allow us to seize carbon from the atmosphere--and offer a new tool in the fight against climate change.

Through the ages, currencies have been based on all manner of objects--from tobacco leaves to salt to gold to collateralized debt obligations. The only thing that this odd assortment of objects shares is the communal belief that these objects could harness and direct economic growth--that they are, in a sense, fertile. In The First and Last Bank, Gustav Peebles and Benjamin Luzzatto propose that atmospheric carbon could be seen anew as fertile in this same sense. In other words, carbon, rather than loom as waste in our skies, could instead be "drawn down" to the earth by millions of currency users and the communally owned banks they rely on, where it could serve as a foundation of new biological life.

Seeing currency as a powerful tool for collective action, the authors argue that dovetailing developments in digital currencies and the biosequestration of carbon have, together, made a new and radical intervention in the climate battle possible: a nonproprietary currency backed by sequestered carbon. This new currency would be managed via Wikipedia-style open-source policies that privilege sustainability and equity over endless growth and pollution. Because it is backed by sequestered carbon, the use of the currency would draw gaseous carbon out of the atmosphere and push it back into the ground, following the exact same trajectory as gold during the era of the international gold standard. While it is no silver bullet, such a currency would act as a necessary complement to wide-scale mitigation efforts, at the same time engaging ordinary citizens in the fight to reduce the dangerous levels of carbon in our atmosphere.

Review Quotes

"If we ever get around to developing coherent public policy to deal with the climate crisis, this is a particularly fascinating--and beautifully explicated--idea. It made me think of some of the ideas from Kim Stanley Robinson's Ministry for the Future, translated into nonfiction."
--Bill McKibben, author of The End of Nature

"In this exciting and original co-creation, Gustav Peebles and Benjamin Luzzatto draw from faith and wisdom traditions as they envision a way to align our monetary and banking systems with the natural systems of the earth."
--Karenna Gore, Founder and Executive Director, Center for Earth Ethics

"The grassroots carbon-banking system proposed by Peebles and Luzzatto can mobilize the regenerative agriculture community in a global effort to grow a garden planet. A wildly creative and important vision for a world in need of repair."
--Rattan Lal, Distinguished University Professor of Soil Science, the Ohio State University

"As much a provocative reflection on the intertwining of money and morality as it is a call to action on the climate crisis, The First and Last Bank provides a roadmap for reimagining our carbon economy."
--Bill Maurer, Dean, School of Social Sciences, UC Irvine; coeditor of Paid: Tales of Dongles, Checks, and Other Money Stuff

"An inspiring thought experiment with real-world potential."
--Mother Jones

About the Author

Gustav Peebles is Associate Professor of Anthropology at Stockholm University. His research is focused on the history of monetary policy.

Ben Luzzatto is an interdisciplinary artist and professor at the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore. His work draws from a variety of fields, including sculpture, ecology, architecture, and object design.