Peter
Barnes co-founded the socially responsible phone company, Working Assets. He has
been involved in many other socially responsible and environmental causes, including
a retreat center for environmental and social activist writers. His book,
Who Owns The Sky? Our Common Assets and the Future of Capitalism, argues
that global warming and other environmental problems can be solved by treating
the sky as an asset owned by everyone. Common Assets, which he co-founded in 2003,
promotes the concept discussed in the book of defending the assets we inherit
as a community which include, the "atmosphere, oceans and rivers, the electromagnetic
spectrum, our democratic political system, roads and parking spaces, landscapes
and soundscapes, wilderness and wild animals, our monetary and financial systems,
our store of scientific knowledge, our languages and cultures, the Internet and
many more."
