Of fools and gold

If an alien civilisation were to visit earth and observe our goings on, they'd be quite amused by the fact that all trade and finance on earth happens on the basis of gold - a metal quite useless apart from some limited use in the electronics industry. It's amazing how gold developed as the de rigueur measure of monetary exchange across various peoples all over the globe, all independent of each other. Shouldn't we be elevating the value of something else to the level of gold, something that is much more precious? Say, clean air, clean water, fertile soil, healthy forests and freedom of speech, thought and being?