part 1 of this three part BBC series (author - richard anderson) -
Nature' sting- the real cost of damaging the earth - throws ups some startling economic facts.
A recent study for the United Nations Environment Programme, entitled The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (Teeb), put the damage done to the natural world by human activity in 2008 at between $2tn (£1.3tn) and $4.5tn.
and as bee populations alarmingly decline, someone is doing the pollination and at a cost..
In the US in 2007, for example, the cost to farmers of a collapse in the number of bees was $15bn, according to the US Department of Agriculture, contributing to a global cost of pollination services of $190bn
it is quite clear that the rapid degradation is caused by the unending human desire to have more which is fuelled by corporate growth which is fuelled by share indices and so on...
Trucost has estimated the cost of environmental damage caused by the world's largest 3,000 companies in 2008 at $2.15tn.
That equates to around one-third of their combined profits.
the data is better than the article, but it is to be noted that the economics of the our excesses is coming to light.
4 comments:
global warming is fraud says here
In US, they call it Gore-able warming.
In fact, both sides seem to put forward their argument in a good way. We don't know which side to believe in :(
v - now it is such a high stakes game that the average person will be left unsure.
this should not dull our common senses to live within our means and avoid a wasteful lifestyle.
Even for the loss of sparrows, the "scientists" have come up with a confusing jumble of reasons (possibly to protect various business interests). With pollinators like bees, we are closer to destroying the foundations of food security, only hope would be natural farming proponents like point return. It is definitely a high stakes game! Hope some of the broken connections will return with natural farming, and we'll have a richer, bio-diverse future.
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