The concept of "commons" has traditionally served as a device for controlling land, forests, rivers, and natural resources. Now, as we approach the twenty-first century, new forms of enclosures and notions of private property are emerging-from water rights, biodiversity, and "gene pools" of plants and humans to the demands of multinational corporations for free access to more land for investment and exploitation. The power of the commons is still flourishing and the "global commons" now provides the central metaphor for ecological politics.