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The value of nature

zidanguszidangus Veteran
edited June 2011 in Buddhism Today
Well governments might start to listen and act if a price tag is put on to nature.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-13616543

Comments

  • NirvanaNirvana aka BUBBA   `     `   South Carolina, USA Veteran
    Wot's money got to do with it?

    It's all about trashing up the place for human consumption, isn't it?

    Let's litter the landscape with nuclear power stations, and if some blow the survivors will have the life-changing event of moving away from home and starting up elsewhere. Think of all the personal junk they'll have to leave behind.

    A world where value is put on pristine environments is for ELITISTS!
  • personperson Don't believe everything you think The liminal space Veteran
    Yes, whats the cost to a company to dump their sludge in a river? Whats the cost in health and healthcare dollars to the people who fish or swim in that river? How much is worth to have natural systems that clean the air and produce oxygen. Humans are pretty clever and could possibly come up with some technology (if it doesn't exsist already) that could filter air and produce oxygen but how much would that cost. We take too much of what nature does for us for granted.
  • NirvanaNirvana aka BUBBA   `     `   South Carolina, USA Veteran
    edited June 2011
    The article says: "The natural world is vital to our existence, providing us with essentials such as food, water and clean air - but also cultural and health benefits not always fully appreciated because we get them for free."

    What about the economy? Is the economy not based on nature being its characteristic bountiful self? If we throw it off balance by our poor stewardship, we will be the first losers.

    Aren't our modern economic systems basically fragile? Imagine what a nuclear accident near a metropolitan area would do to the economy! There would be billions and billions of dollars lost moving people, housing them, and finding ways to keep their lives in some kind of order. Imagine what a tidal wave of confusion such a calamity would throw at our fragile economy. Things would no longer be predictable and the economy would suffer greatly.

    I've never heard of any agency actually putting something like an easement on people's property allowing industry to put up arsenals which if compromised would have detrimental effect on these properties and those who live on them. Hey! Industry is immune! Those who run the show own it and the rest of us better just shut up and follow the rules they set down.

    I should hope that people could by law establish their cities and villages as nuclear-free zones. However, the powers that be only seem to care about the bottom line. What's money got to do with it? Only everything.

    I know it's ELITIST to think that there should be areas legally protected from being trashed by greed and shortsightedness. But what's the alternative? Letting sloganistic hypocrites operate wherever they will under whatever pretexts they can come up with?
  • shanyinshanyin Novice Yogin Sault Ontario Veteran
    i guess theres a price tag on most thigns these days
  • personperson Don't believe everything you think The liminal space Veteran
    Wot's money got to do with it?

    It's all about trashing up the place for human consumption, isn't it?

    Let's litter the landscape with nuclear power stations, and if some blow the survivors will have the life-changing event of moving away from home and starting up elsewhere. Think of all the personal junk they'll have to leave behind.

    A world where value is put on pristine environments is for ELITISTS!
    And with the way we currently measure GDP a nuclear meltdown would end up being a boost to GDP. Just think of all the work generated from cleaning it up and all the new homes and stuff that the people would have to buy, not to mention the "wonderful" economic boon to the medical industry from all the sick people.
  • zidanguszidangus Veteran
    @person Sad state of affairs isnt it :(
  • NirvanaNirvana aka BUBBA   `     `   South Carolina, USA Veteran
    So the earthquake and tsunami in Japan helped their economy? The jets flying into the World Trade Center towers and the subsequent shutting down of the skies for days helped the economy.

    Our fragile modern economies require a stable, peaceable environment to grow. Wars and chaos may profit the few, but the masses suffer.
  • personperson Don't believe everything you think The liminal space Veteran
    So the earthquake and tsunami in Japan helped their economy? The jets flying into the World Trade Center towers and the subsequent shutting down of the skies for days helped the economy.

    Our fragile modern economies require a stable, peaceable environment to grow. Wars and chaos may profit the few, but the masses suffer.
    What you say is true, I'm referring to the measure of GDP. In GDP a car accident where someone needs life saving surgery adds to GDP. Not only do the hospitals make money, the car companies do when the person needs to get a new car or needs to get it fixed. The only thing that gets factored into GDP is economic output, whether those events increase human prosperity are irrelevant.

    So yes, the skies shutting down hurts GDP but the efforts to clean up ground zero and the rebuilding of new buildings will help the economy. For GDP rebuilding is better than the buildings just staying in place. GDP has little to do with how health or happy we are. Check out Gross National Happiness http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gross_national_happiness
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