e need to treat the oceans, the climate and the land differently if we want to survive the 21st century. These are the global commons, our shared natural heritage. We see a rise of cooperative enterprises to manage these commons, with people collaborating around healthier food and energy reduction. But we also see the emergence of an Internet of things and of ecosystems, connecting forests and fisheries to the world wide web. Could the Internet really help us to save nature? And what does ownership have to do with it? Socrates Schouten is lead of the Commons Lab at Waag, institute for technology and society in Amsterdam. Socrates researches the societal impact of digitalisation and the sustainability transition. In 2016 he published the book ‘De circulaire economie’ (The Circular Economy, published by Leesmagazijn). This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx