The role of currency in mediating exchange of goods & services between individuals, the tribe, state or corporate entity, throughout history, will be briefly discussed in terms of the various types of currency (shells, gold, bronze, cloth, promissory notes, scrip and the petrodollar); the role of specie is highlighted. This information is then compared to biol. and ecol. "currency"; i.e., energy in the form of ATP whether from autotrophs or heterotrophs. ATP represents "sequestered sunshine", the specie being energy, and this is the "currency of account" of any ecosystem. Within contemporary society the accumulation of waste is a major problem; whether solid, liquid or gas: plastics, sewage, greenhouse gases, pharmaceutical residues, to name a few, increasingly pollute any ecosystem (whether hydrosphere, terrestrial, or atm.). Waste - derived manufactured products are com. uncompetitive with the similar materials made from "primary" feedstocks such as petroleum, metal ores or pristine forest, though recycling does play an increasingly major role. However the "natural autotrophy" of the biosphere is increasingly replaced by the "heterotrophy" of the "anthroposphere". Essentially, modern civlization creates "material entropy". The petrodollar forms the basis of the world economy. Thus contemporary society is based on the consumption of fossil fuels and their monetization. Here I propose the monetization of alternative energy (expressed as KWhr) derived from all viable sources; whether wind, solar, geothermal (or syngas drived from anaerobic combustion or hydrolytic oxidation of garbage and agricultural waste). These energy sources are "relatively" carbon neutral and along with methane derived from the fermentation of sewage, could replace fossil fuels. The success of the "petrodollar" shows that this can be done and could form the basis of banking and investment in a new, parallel, economy where entire sustainable communities, similar to the decomposers of an ecosystem, could be devoted to extracting energy and raw materials for "remanufg." from the waste stream. As the the increasingly obvious effects of climate change gradually "force the hand" of international legislatures to find a way of decreasing greenhouse emissions the above scenario becomes a plausible "way out".