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Realistically, there's very little in the economy that depends on biodiversity. A few crops might suffer from the loss of certain pollinating insects. And poten
by dcolkitt 5y ago
Realistically, there's very little in the economy that depends on biodiversity. A few crops might suffer from the loss of certain pollinating insects. And potentially some drug discovery might slow from lower biodiversity. And some tourism in places like the rainforest may decline (but mostly replaced by tourism to places like Vegas).
But there's really no reason to believe that even a major loss of biodiversity would have any significant economic implications. Certainly not more than 10% of global GDP. That doesn't mean that it might not be something worth caring about for other reasons, but the economy definitely doesn't rely on it.
- amelius 5y agoSorry, but I very much question that. This might not be a gradual thing, but it could be exponential at some point.
- kachnuv_ocasek 5y agoYou're underestimating the effects of breaking points and phase shifts. The planetary system could at any point snap and transition to a completely different mode of functioning with irreversible changes cascading one after another.
- fooker 5y agoAnd we could get wiped out by a gamma ray burst at any point. So what?
- ljp_206 5y agoGiven consensus on a way forward and well-meaning intentions, we can at least tap the brakes on biodiversity loss/ecosystem destruction/human-related changes to our environment. Suggesting we should be fatalistic about circumstances we at least have a toe hold on today when tomorrow could yield an event we can do nothing about isn't helpful.
- DeRock 5y agoThis argument feels hollow to me. You may be right, perhaps we overvalue the purely economic contribution of biodiversity. But biodiversity is less of a means to me, and more of the end. Humans ARE biodiversity. We exist because of the long, complex and ever moving evolutionary chain. We haven't found life any where else in the universe like it exists on earth. It is a wonderous experiment and it is something we have a responsibility to foster. Without it, it feels like humans are but a finger lamenting at the death of the body it extends from.
- hardlianotion 5y agoI suspect that we don't fully understand the extent to which we depend on biodiversity.
- KittenInABox 5y agoAll of our antibiotics depend on biodiversity. So does many of our medicines, all of our fruit. We still can't synthesize blood from the horseshoe crab so we need that. Biodiversity is how we ensure a robust civilization with multiple specialist humans in varieties of lifestyles and interests. A world without biodiversity is inflexible, therefore fragile. We already recreated it in minimally-diverse production systems, which have all been majorly screwed over as soon as covid required adaptation.
- ska 5y ago> Realistically, there's very little in ... More realistically, we do not understand the impacts of biodiversity well enough to be confident about the economic impacts of biodiversity loss. These are complex systems, and we very typically overestimate our understanding and mastery of complex systems.