WSN subscribers may be interested in contributing to an online
discussion of the article published by Robert Costanza et al. in today's
issue of Nature. Entitled, "The value of the World's ecosystem services
and natural capital", the article is an attempt to place an economic
value on the services of global ecosystems. The online abstract reads:
"The services of ecological systems and the natural capital stocks that
produce them are critical to the functioning of the Earth's life-support
system. They contribute to human welfare, both directly and indirectly,
and therefore represent part of the the economic value of the planet. We
have estimated the current economic value of 17 ecosystem services for
16 biomes, based on published studies and a few original calculations.
For the entire biosphere, the value (most of which is outside the
market) is estimated to be in the range of US$16-54 trillion per year,
with an average of US$33 trillion per year. Because of the nature of the
uncertainties, this must be considered a minimum estimate. Global gross
national product total is around US$18 trillion per year."
The full text of the article, together with some commentary, can be
found through the "Ecosystems" link on the Nature homepage at:
http://www.nature.com/
Information regarding subscription to the online seminar, scheduled for
May 19 - June 30 and featuring contributions from Costanza and other
authors of the paper, can be found at:
http://csf.colorado.edu/isee/ecovalue/
-- John Hoopes hoopes@ukans.edu http://www.cc.ukans.edu/~hoopes