Fossil fuelled capitalism, although generating riches for billions, is underwritten by a planetary pyramid scheme - one in which withdrawals from the natural world are not supported by underlying capital replenishment, resulting in global impacts such as climate change and biodiversity loss.<br/><br/>Former investment banker Justyn Walsh argues that the failure to properly value nature is more than just a glitch in the system, but in many ways is the system - one enabling a 'cowboy economy' that relentlessly rolls forward to new frontiers of exploitation, and gives the appearance of wealth being created when in fact much of it is being destroyed.<br/><br/>Stark in its warnings but hopeful in its prescriptions, Eating the Earth argues that we need to embrace a new story - one acknowledging that humankind is a part of nature rather than apart from nature, that measures how life is enriched rather than destroyed, and that lives off nature's dividends rather than eating into its capital.