I would like to clear up a few misconceptions concerning Earth Democracy. Shiva writes on localization as the key to sustainability, not redesigning globalization as a communistic world.

Each farmer works his own land, and decides at which price to sell it. This way the WTO does not control the income of many third world countries. The WTO(that's World Trade Organization to you and me) often uses dumping as a tactic to keep large corporations in power. Dumping refers to when the WTO sells a countries exports at a value which is less than what it took to grow a certain crop, or product. The WTO can also deny import restrictions as well. This is how they control economies. Countries cannot choose the price at which they sell, and cannot choose what they do not want to purchase. If a country wants to become self sustaining, they can't. (Read more on this in Ch. 2)

You may ask yourself, but doesn't creating corporate rule allow for more jobs and a better circulation of currency? In chapter one it states that since globalization has been enacted, during the mid 1990's, an estimated 2 million jobs have been lost every year in the US. By comparing this to the wage gap of 12 to 1 from US to India, it can be shown that while jobs are lost world-wide, it affects India and other third world countries the most due to their lack of funds, which coincedentially, is also due to globalization. Anti-monopoly laws apply to those operating within a certain country. Besides, Shiva only wrote on how certain corporations are gaining money. For instance, KFC income grew by a bucket full when the permitted amount of MSG(source of asthma and other health problems) was increased.

As an example for how corporate exploitation leads to religious fundamentalism and violence, Islamic citizens began to control the government of Sudan for the first time in 1983, immediately after oil was discovered and controlled by oil companies. After Islamic law was imposed, a famine affecting only the African inhabitants of the Darfurian region killed an estimated 800,000 civilians. In 2003 rebel fighting began, and thus the Genocide in Darfur technically began. If anyone wants any other examples, just look at the Middle East.

As concluded in the book, Earth Democracy becomes a strong power when everyone takes action for the common good. Earth Democracy is not communism, there is not one power or community who restricts trade, funds, control of land, and distribution of wealth. The WTO and the World Bank control distribution of wealth.

- Chris