Nature loss 'dwarfs bank crisis'

[nosmokes]

The *real* bottom line - "It's all about the Environment Stupid."
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original-BBC





Nature loss 'dwarfs bank crisis'
By Richard Black
Environment correspondent, BBC News website, Barcelona


The global economy is losing more money from the disappearance of forests than through the current banking crisis, according to an EU-commissioned study.

It puts the annual cost of forest loss at between $2 trillion and $5 trillion.

The figure comes from adding the value of the various services that forests perform, such as providing clean water and absorbing carbon dioxide.

The study, headed by a Deutsche Bank economist, parallels the Stern Review into the economics of climate change.

It has been discussed during many sessions here at the World Conservation Congress.

Some conservationists see it as a new way of persuading policymakers to fund nature protection rather than allowing the decline in ecosystems and species, highlighted in the release on Monday of the Red List of Threatened Species, to continue.

Capital losses

Speaking to BBC News on the fringes of the congress, study leader Pavan Sukhdev emphasised that the cost of natural decline dwarfs losses on the financial markets.

"It's not only greater but it's also continuous, it's been happening every year, year after year," he told BBC News.




"So whereas Wall Street by various calculations has to date lost, within the financial sector, $1-$1.5 trillion, the reality is that at today's rate we are losing natural capital at least between $2-$5 trillion every year."

The review that Mr Sukhdev leads, The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (Teeb), was initiated by Germany under its recent EU presidency, with the European Commission providing funding.

The first phase concluded in May when the team released its finding that forest decline could be costing about 7% of global GDP. The second phase will expand the scope to other natural systems.

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complete article here

[Mnemosyne]

1. Maybe it's the increased

CO2 that is making so many people completely fucking stupid these days. :shrug:

Sorry, feeling a little stressed today. :hi:

[anigbrowl]

2. This is good news (the recognition, not the loss!)

For a long time the climate deniers got away with the argument that the consequences were too far off in the future, while the economic costs of adapting were too large and too near-term. It would be great if conservationists can get across the idea that it's the other way around, and that switching to sustainable resource management will also improve economic sustainability.

[PDittie]

3. The Economy is a wholly-owned subsidary

of The Environment. (Someone smarter than me said that.)

[ppenelope]

4. But it is pretty clever (and accurate)

[PurityOfEssence]

5. Try to sell that when people are hurtin'...

The recent and ongoing financial disaster doesn't bode well for the environment or anything else "esoteric".

Sure, we're merrily on the path of killing everything else and finally ourselves, but times like these, although they do bring out flashes of the best in people, tend to make people very short-sighted and selfish.

That's why the conversation has to be kept forcibly open by people, and mercifully, we're going to see a boom in alternative energy. Sometimes greed can be harnessed, too...

[bertman]

6. Good points, PurityofEssence.

[greyl]

7. k&r nt

[crispini]

8. K &R