Much of the value of nature comes from the wonder and joy it provokes, and reducing that to a balance sheet must, in many senses, destroy the emotional responses. But you have to sympathise with the authors of the national ecosystem assessment, given the commercial world in which we live and the fact that we tend to take the value of the natural world for granted. Charging for access to nature is not unknown.
However, this is not the only problem related to the government's publication of the assessment, and the white paper on the natural environment, in recent weeks. Both underestimate the value of nature by omitting significant parts of our natural environment.
Nature comprises both living and non-living elements. It is the living elements - the wildlife, biodiversity and green spaces - that are traditionally emphasised in conservation circles, but the natural world also includes the physical basis of the planet - its rocks, minerals, fossils, soils, topographies and physical processes that together comprise a natural geodiversity.
Without the diversity of altitude, topography, soil, hydrology, lithology, etc, there would be little biodiversity. But geodiversity also provides storage of water in aquifers, oil and gas within the rock layers, and the opportunity for carbon storage.
We also bury our dead and a lot of our waste within the physical earth. We build our cities from stone, brick, steel, concrete, glass and bitumen - all derived from nature. We use energy resources including coal, oil, gas, uranium, geothermal, hydroelectric, wave and wind power, all derived from non-living nature. We value our metal alloys, our gold, silver, platinum and our gemstones. Many artists gain inspiration, and sometimes materials too, from physical elements of the natural environment. Read the full report here.
Source: Murray Gray, guardian.co.uk.
