Nature, Volume 465, Pages 985–986
On June 14, 2010, BP pledged $20 billion to an escrow account to pay for damage caused by the April 22, 2010 sinking of its Deepwater Horizon drilling platform off the coast of Louisiana. The beneficiaries of this fund are expected to be fishermen, hoteliers, charter-boat operators, and other Gulf-coast business owners who have lost income, as well as states and other entities with clean-up costs.
However, whether payment will ever be made for the loss of 'ecosystem services' is unknown. Ecosystem services benefit everyone but are owned by no one, such as the carbon sequestration provided by marsh plants and ocean plankton, or the buffering that coastal marshes provide to nearby communities from the Gulf's many hurricanes.
The 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska raised similar questions, and sparked a flurry of research in the once-obscure discipline of ecological economics, which seeks to estimate quantities such as the 'replacement cost' of an ecosystem — or even an individual organism. (For example, killer whales cost $300,000 at the time; cormorants were $310.) The Gulf oil spill seems likely to inspire another surge of research in this field.
Ecological economist Robert Costanza at the University of Vermont in Burlington has already estimated a $34 billion to $670 billion price tag for the loss of Gulf ecosystem services.
Read more in "A Full Accounting", in the June 24, 2010 issue of Nature.
Showing posts with label ecology. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ecology. Show all posts
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Thursday, November 19, 2009
Protecting Ecosystems Saves Money
Natural capital – ecosystems, biodiversity, and natural resources – underpins economies, societies, and individual well-being. And, according to a new study hosted by the UN Environment Program (UNEP), protecting ecosystems saves money. For example, the Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity study puts a $2 to 5 trillion price tag on the ongoing cost of forest loss and estimates that potential rates of return can reach 40% for mangrove and woodlands/shrublands, 50% for tropical forests, and 79% for grasslands.
The study highlights that losses in the natural world have direct economic repercussions that we systematically underestimate. Developing our capacity to measure and monitor biodiversity, ecosystems, and the provision of services is an essential step towards better management of our natural capital. Providing evidence of the value of our natural capital to decision-makers paves the way for more targeted and cost-effective solutions. Developing and strengthening policy frameworks to manage the transition to a resource-efficient economy is the way forward. Investing in natural capital can be a cost-effective response to the climate change crisis, support local economies, and create jobs.
Study leader, Pavan Sukhdev, a Deutsche Bank economist, said "We have now evaluated 1,100 studies ranging across different countries and different ecosystem services. And we find that with protected areas, for example, no matter how you slice the figures up you come up with a ratio of benefits to costs that’s between 25-to-one and 100-to-one."
Sukhdev added, "Now we can say quite confidently that there is a solid benefit from investing in protected areas…Establishing reserves, policing them and so on, would cost about $40-50 billion per year – and the annual benefit would be about $4-5 trillion."
The study highlights that losses in the natural world have direct economic repercussions that we systematically underestimate. Developing our capacity to measure and monitor biodiversity, ecosystems, and the provision of services is an essential step towards better management of our natural capital. Providing evidence of the value of our natural capital to decision-makers paves the way for more targeted and cost-effective solutions. Developing and strengthening policy frameworks to manage the transition to a resource-efficient economy is the way forward. Investing in natural capital can be a cost-effective response to the climate change crisis, support local economies, and create jobs.
Study leader, Pavan Sukhdev, a Deutsche Bank economist, said "We have now evaluated 1,100 studies ranging across different countries and different ecosystem services. And we find that with protected areas, for example, no matter how you slice the figures up you come up with a ratio of benefits to costs that’s between 25-to-one and 100-to-one."
Sukhdev added, "Now we can say quite confidently that there is a solid benefit from investing in protected areas…Establishing reserves, policing them and so on, would cost about $40-50 billion per year – and the annual benefit would be about $4-5 trillion."
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Perhaps the World's Largest Dam Removal Project
Klamath Hydroelectric Settlement Agreement
Bettina Boxall, Los Angeles Times, September 30, 2009
PacifiCorp, a Portland, Oregon utility, has consented to the removal of four hydroelectric dams that for decades have been the subject of bitter feuding among farmers, fishermen, and tribal interests along the Klamath River.
The dams, which range in height from 33 feet to 173 feet and are spread across 65 miles of the Klamath, have impaired water quality and blocked a 300-mile migratory route for salmon for a century.
Removal won't begin until 2020, but is seen as vital to restoring California's dwindling salmon stocks.
Backers say the decommissioning -- which still must be approved by the federal government -- would be the nation's largest and most complex dam removal project. The tentative agreement was reached after a decade of negotiations among 28 parties.
Read the article here, and in the San Francisco Chronicle here.
Bettina Boxall, Los Angeles Times, September 30, 2009
PacifiCorp, a Portland, Oregon utility, has consented to the removal of four hydroelectric dams that for decades have been the subject of bitter feuding among farmers, fishermen, and tribal interests along the Klamath River.
The dams, which range in height from 33 feet to 173 feet and are spread across 65 miles of the Klamath, have impaired water quality and blocked a 300-mile migratory route for salmon for a century.
Removal won't begin until 2020, but is seen as vital to restoring California's dwindling salmon stocks.
Backers say the decommissioning -- which still must be approved by the federal government -- would be the nation's largest and most complex dam removal project. The tentative agreement was reached after a decade of negotiations among 28 parties.
Read the article here, and in the San Francisco Chronicle here.
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
If Societies Become Sustainable, Ecosystems May Recover
Rapid Recovery of Damaged Ecosystems
Holly P. Jones, Oswald J. Schmitz, Yale University
Nearly 75 percent of ecosystems that have been degraded by humans or damaged by natural disasters such as hurricanes fully or partially recover within decades, a new analysis has found.
Reviewing 240 studies of disturbed ecosystems from 1910 to 2008, researchers at the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies found that most ecosystems recovered from as little as five years to as much as 56 years (an average of 42 years). The researchers found that ecosystems degraded by humans took longer to recover than ecosystems that suffered natural disturbances.
While 72 percent of ecosystems did fully or partially recover, the remainder showed no recovery or were beyond recovery, according to the study.
Read the summary in Yale Environment 360, and the complete article in the journal, PLoS ONE.
Holly P. Jones, Oswald J. Schmitz, Yale University
Nearly 75 percent of ecosystems that have been degraded by humans or damaged by natural disasters such as hurricanes fully or partially recover within decades, a new analysis has found.
Reviewing 240 studies of disturbed ecosystems from 1910 to 2008, researchers at the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies found that most ecosystems recovered from as little as five years to as much as 56 years (an average of 42 years). The researchers found that ecosystems degraded by humans took longer to recover than ecosystems that suffered natural disturbances.
While 72 percent of ecosystems did fully or partially recover, the remainder showed no recovery or were beyond recovery, according to the study.
Read the summary in Yale Environment 360, and the complete article in the journal, PLoS ONE.
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