NEWS

Tuesday, November 28, 2006

Economic Benefits from Healthy Ecosystems?

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Community: Fraser Valley

In today’s Globe and Mail, ecologist Kai Chan looks at what he calls “ecosystem services”—the value of the natural environment to humans. Dr. Chan is head of a research team looking at marine zones off the BC coast. Zones that are full of competing demands on resources. A research team is working to develop a new scientific model to measure the value of forests, grasslands, waterways, and airsheds to human communities.

Dr. Chan advocates that this costing helps “people realize the real economic benefit we get from healthy ecosystems,” but is there also a danger in putting a dollar value on “nature services?” By placing a dollar amount on nature, these “services” could be bought and sold on a market where something like “clean air” may just be factored into the cost of doing business. Alternately, are consumers willing to take on the added “true” costs of
the products we consume? Read the full article.

Further Reading / Viewing

GPI Atlantic

An independent, non-profit research and education organization based in Halifax, committed to the development of the Genuine Progress Index (GPI) - an effort to move beyond indicators to a full benefit-cost accounting system that takes all social, economic, and environmental benefits and costs into account.  Read the report: The Nova Scotia GPI Fisheries and Marine Environment Accounts - Econometric direct and deferred costs valuation of the fisheries resource and marine environment, and implications for resource management, commercial, and environmental practices.

The Value of Unpaid Work

The National Film Board of Canada. “Who’s Counting?: Marilyn Waring on Sex, Lies, and Global Economics.” [Video]. Directed by Terre Nash (1995) ISBN 0-7722-0680-5.

Marilyn Waring, an eco-feminist and academic from New Zealand, has outspokenly criticised the concept of GDP, the economic measure that became a foundation of the United Nations System of National Accounts (UNSNA) following World War II. She has also criticized a system which ‘counts oil spills and wars as contributors to economic growth, while child-rearing and housekeeping are deemed valueless’.

True Cost of Economics

What would it cost to drive if the price tag of gas and cars included air pollution, road construction and maintenance; property taxes lost from land cleared for freeways; free parking paid for by taxes; noise and vibration damage to structures; protection of petroleum supply lines; sprawl and loss of transportation options; auto accidents; and congestion? A number of researchers have tried to answer this question, and John Holtzclaw of the Sierra Club profiled eight studies that, when averaged, estimated the true price of gas at $6.05 a gallon.

Redefining Progress’ Sustainable Economics Project

Natural Capital

Natural Capitalism: Creating the Next Industrial Revolution (Little, Brown. September 1999) co-authored with Amory Lovins and L. Hunter Lovins.