EWES - Natural Capital, Ecosystem Services, and Environmental Worldviews (Lesson)

Natural Capital, Ecosystem Services, and Environmental Worldviews

Public Service Functions of Nature

A complicating factor in our perception of maintaining clean air and water is that ecosystems do some of this without our help, and have done so since before the Industrial Revolution. Forests absorb particulates, salt marshes convert toxic compounds to nontoxic forms, wetlands and organic soils treat sewage. These are called the public service functions of nature. For example, it is estimated that bees pollinate $20 billion worth of crops in the United States. The cost of pollinating these crops by hand would be exorbitant, so a pollutant that eliminated bees would have large indirect economic consequences. We rarely think of this benefit of bees. Recently, however, an outbreak of bee parasites in the United States reduced the abundance of bees, bringing this once-intangible factor to public attention.  

All living creatures and natural ecosystems perform public service functions for us, carrying out tasks important for our survival that would be extremely expensive for us to accomplish by ourselves. For example, bees pollinate millions of flowers important for food production, timber supply, and aesthetics.

As another example, bacteria fix nitrogen in the oceans, lakes, rivers, and soils. The cost of replacing this function in terms of production and transport of artificially produced nitrogen fertilizers would be immense, but again we rarely think about this activity of bacteria. Bacteria also clean water in the soil by decomposing toxic chemicals. The atmosphere performs a public service by acting as a large disposal site for toxic gases. For instance, carbon monoxide is eventually converted to nontoxic carbon dioxide either by inorganic chemical reactions or by bacteria.

Only when our environment loses a public service function do we usually begin to recognize its economic benefits. Then, what had been accepted as an economic externality (indirect cost) suddenly may become a direct cost.

People have attempted to estimate the dollar value of public service functions. At this time, we have to consider these estimates only rough approximations, as the value is difficult to measure. Public service functions of living things that benefit human beings and other forms of life have been estimated to provide between $3 trillion and $33 trillion per year. Economists refer to the ecological systems that provide these benefits as natural capital.

Environmental Worldviews

Review the following on Environmental Worldviews before moving on to the next section and the FRQ.

 

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