Pacific Coast Environmental Metrics "Specializing in measuring intangibles."

Zero Waste Planet Services Our Mission Social Games Common Pool Resources Collective Action Publications/Working Papers Clients Frequently Asked Questions About Us Quotes Top Level PCEM Box 63 Malahat, B.C. V0R 2L0 (250) 730-3738 metrics [at] pcem.ca	"Social capital is the currency of sustainability." "The world would be a better place if poor people were allowed to make decisions." "Being 'realistic' means compromising your own values. Being 'pragmatic' means compromising others'. People who change the world for the better are neither realistic nor pragmatic." "Solving common pool resource management problems with externalities is like resorting to epicycles to explain planetary orbits if the Earth was at the center of the solar system. It is simply wrong." The image to the right is a representation of "epicycles," in which the Sun orbited the Earth in early planetary models but in order to adjust for differences between observed and calculated locations in the sky, small circles had to be added on top of the orbits, for "cycles within cycles." In general the term has come to represent "bad science. PCEM often uses the term to reference "bad economic models" that suggest people are unable to manage the commons and it must either be privatized or controlled by an authoritarian government. The real solution is properly designing systems that let people solve local problems locally.