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U.N.: Include Value of Natural Resources in Size of Economies
U.N. urges new resource accounting, cites BP spill
The Gulf of Mexico oil spill highlights the need for governments to include the value of natural resources such as fisheries when calculating the size of their economies, the United Nations environment chief said.
The Gulf of Mexico oil spill highlights the need for governments to include the value of natural resources such as fisheries when calculating the size of their economies, the United Nations environment chief said. (photo by Flickr user kadavoor) A U.N. Environment Programme report on Tuesday urged businesses to take more account of their impact on the natural resources which people depend on.
It said the private sector would act faster if governments more explicitly valued such resources, including biodiversity, a term for the wide array of animal and plant species.
"The oil spill goes to the heart of a contradictory set of signals," said Achim Steiner, UNEP executive director.
He said the money spent on cleaning up the spill from BP Plc's ruptured well in the Gulf of Mexico would be included in Gross Domestic Product, the conventional measure of economic activity, but many costs to nature including the health of fisheries and the survival of marine creatures would not.
"An oil spill could turn out to be a positive thing for the GDP indicator, while it has actually caused a far greater (negative) impact in terms of the natural wealth and natural capital of the United States," said Steiner.
"We're trying to tackle the issue of invisibility of the value of biodiversity in the marketplace."
Tuesday's report argued that extractive industries such as oil and mining, as well as wider industry, risked losing customers, brand value, efficiencies and opportunities if they failed to take account of biodiversity, as attention to its value rose.
One example of explicit valuation was the payment by some cities for conservation of forests and wetlands, in order to use these to cleanse their water supplies and effluent and so avoid more expensive, artificial treatment.
Tuesday's report calculated the value of such emerging markets for water services at $5 billion in 2008. The report is the latest such initiative in 2010, which the United Nations has declared 'International Year of Biodiversity'.
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Show AllNature is not a subsidiary of the human economy, as the UN report implies, to be noticed (or not) at our convenience. The human economy is utterly subordinate to nature. The UN is trying to expand mental horizons, but they need to go a whole lot further.
"[...]urged businesses to take more account of their impact on the natural resources which people depend on."
Urged?
Rome is burning! The rulers of the world yawn!
We are living in an insane asylum, and the inmates are running the place.
Strict laws should be framed by all nations to carefully evaluate in monetary terms the vast losses to the Earth's environment perpetrated by corporations as "business as usual"—and each corporation should be steeply fined for the horrendous damages they currently inflict without consequence.
But no one—NO ONE—in our world's governments has the guts to do anything dramatically positive and effective. The U.N. makes wishy-washy, useless statements like "businesses [should be urged] to take more account of their impact on the natural resources which people depend on."
Baloney! Businesses should be fined so harshly that they change their rotten-to-the-core negligence IMMEDIATELY or are forced out of business.
No one will do this. No one has guts. The planet is utterly doomed by political wusses and self-centered greedheads.
The plutocracy rules with an iron fist, and the human species will soon be a memory—and no one in power cares. No one.
Why aren't people storming the offices of politicians and CEOs with sit-ins until the laws change?
Because they will be killed or maimed by the police states that protect the plutocrats.
This isn't brain surgery!
Why does common sense today play the Greek role of Cassandra?
How can things be so screwed up? How?
RE: Businesses should be fined so harshly that they change their rotten-to-the-core negligence IMMEDIATELY or are forced out of business.
Under global capitalism, laws are made for and by corporate power. It is axiomatic to capitalism that businesses will externalize any cost they can. They have been successful at externalizing the cost to nature since the dawn of modern capitalism 300 years ago. Since they run the show, why would they now want to internalize those costs? The first rule of capital is to maximize profits - not sustainability, nor economic justice, nor peace...etc.
The following link to a current BBC story shows the decisive actions being made on humanity's behalf with respect our environment and our collective future.
I feel so much better now:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science_and_environment/10603656.stm
"U.N.: Include Value of Natural Resources in Size of Economies"
By that tentative yardstick the US is bankrupt.
Non Serviam - I will not serve.
It's a start.
If the environmental devastation of the "developing world " (sic) caused by the economic and political actions of imperialist countries like the US were tallied then questions would be asked.
Then again, probably not.
Some would have us believe that it an Economic system such as "Capitalism" that "Creates wealth".
Nothing could be further from the truth. Over 70 percent of the Global economy is based on the extraction of RESOURCES from the Natural world.
This is not wealth "creation". It is wealth CONSUMPTION.
Neither Capitalism or any other human based economic system in the world for that matter "Creates" the trees, the oceans the rivers the plains the fish or the beasts.
Of the economic systems so far developed, Capitalism relies most heavily on CONSUMPTION. It has managed to convince the peoples of the wrold that this an act of CREATION.
Bravo. If only we measured wealth as to how much natural resources we left to future generations...
Put into perspective, if nature was a human worth billions but was gonna die of a debilitating disease in 6 months, what does it matter?
How to value biodiversity? It's easy if you recognize "mother nature" and just let your mind wander. Biodiversity becomes something to catalog, so we can interdepend with nature in better ways. But if your peers or "authorities" dissuade you then you may find yourself contributing to the plunder of nature. Many in the USA who claim "family values" and believe in a "higher power" or aspire to power themselves, pursue these at the expense of nature, and people, and help fuel the destruction of THE most amazing thing - life.
Putting a price on the web of life that sustains us so that our Capitalist system can better evaluate the costs and benefits of actions made in the constant pursuit of profit? What an absurd and ridiculous notion.
We may as well ask, "what is your son or daughter worth?"
We are the drowning man who will not let go of the bag of gold that drags him to the bottom of the sea.
oh, like economists & policy leaders are finally going to wake up from their long slumber and realize that there are vital measures that actually trump growth?
sure throw us a bone. get all excited that there will be an awakening. but i see no reason, none, to hope that any sort of change is coming in this century or in the next 10,000 years.