Nature is Being Renamed ‘Natural Capital’ – But is it Really the Planet that will Profit?
But what is “natural capital”? And why use it to refer to “nature”?
ecosystem services
Valuing What Really Matters: A Look at Soil Currency
Soil is a vital resource that the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimates contributes about USD $16.5 trillion in ecosystem services annually.
What’s that Forest Worth? Disaster Assistance (finally!) Takes Nature into Account
If a tree falls in the forest, what does it cost?
Beyond Paris: Avoiding the Trap of Carbon Metrics
Until recently terms like “carbon accounting,” “carbon footprint,” and “carbon offsetting” would have raised some quizzical eyebrows among the general public. Today, such carbon-based metrics are everywhere, but are they helpful or unhelpful in motivating the necessary action on climate change?
Vikings, Phoenicians and the ‘Cultural Services’ of the Sea
Can cultural aesthetics be meaningfully quantified? And if so, can an ecosystem gain/lose value when cultural values shift?
Adjusting the Fifth to a Finite Planet, Part II
“Are individuals entitled to wealth created by society . . . or should this wealth belong to society as a whole?”
Adjusting the Fifth to a Finite Planet, Part 1
Infinite-Planet Thinking is deeply embedded in our political economy.
Peak Meaninglessness
Last week’s discussion of externalities—costs of doing business that get dumped onto the economy, the community, or the environment, so that those doing the dumping can make a bigger profit—is, I’m glad to say, not the first time this issue has been raised recently.
Use and Abuse of the “Natural Capital” Concept
Some people object to the concept of “natural capital” because they say it reduces nature to the status of a commodity to be marketed at its exchange value.
Why Economics Needs to Make Space for Nature
Aniol Esteban is head of Environmental Economics at the New Economics Foundation. I started by asking what, for him, is the link between nature and wellbeing?
Monetizing Nature: Taking Precaution on a Slippery Slope
In the wake of declining political will for environmental protection, many in the environmental community are advocating for the monetization of nature.
Champions of Cumbria’s (Human) Landscapes
But why should we care about what happens to some sheep farmers in a remote corner of Britain, far from the front lines of catchier environmental stories like the disappearing Amazon rainforests, China’s sinking coastal cities, or rampant poaching to feed the illicit ivory trade?