Read on Twitter
&, a thread about #valuingnature 
1/ My heart sinks when I see rhetoric about 'valuing #nature' distilled into questions like 'How much is an #elephant worth?'
#naturalcapital #ecosystemservices #value
@PolEcoNet @GeorgeMonbiot @NatCapMyth https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/jan/28/how-much-is-an-elephant-worth-meet-the-ecologists-doing-the-sums-aoe
1/ My heart sinks when I see rhetoric about 'valuing #nature' distilled into questions like 'How much is an #elephant worth?'
#naturalcapital #ecosystemservices #value
@PolEcoNet @GeorgeMonbiot @NatCapMyth https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/jan/28/how-much-is-an-elephant-worth-meet-the-ecologists-doing-the-sums-aoe
2/ A simple question can be asked in response:
If an elephant [a forest, a river, ...] is converted into a dollar sign in a capitalist #marketeconomy, is it the elephant that is valued, or the dollar?
[ or?]
If an elephant [a forest, a river, ...] is converted into a dollar sign in a capitalist #marketeconomy, is it the elephant that is valued, or the dollar?
[
or?]
3/ If #nature worth is pegged only to dollars, a risk is that its value diminishes if promised dollars do not appear ( #Yasuní NP, Ecuador), or something of higher dollar value is found in the same place - e.g. #oil in #Okavango 
e.g. https://news.mongabay.com/2019/07/heart-of-ecuadors-yasuni-home-to-uncontacted-tribes-opens-for-oil-drilling/
e.g. https://news.mongabay.com/2019/07/heart-of-ecuadors-yasuni-home-to-uncontacted-tribes-opens-for-oil-drilling/
4/ plus, if 'The “ #naturalcapital” that sustains human life looks set to become a trillion dollar asset class' (as claimed), who will profit from this new 'asset class' as it becomes legible and investable?
[history provides some clues] https://theconversation.com/nature-is-being-renamed-natural-capital-but-is-it-really-the-planet-that-will-profit-65273
[history provides some clues] https://theconversation.com/nature-is-being-renamed-natural-capital-but-is-it-really-the-planet-that-will-profit-65273
[4+/ Longer article here with more theory/detail @STS_Journal]
https://sciencetechnologystudies.journal.fi/article/view/58040
https://sciencetechnologystudies.journal.fi/article/view/58040
5/ @pgreenfielduk's article is big on claims like 'The services[?] of forest eles are worth $1.75m for each animal,...; more than the $40k a poacher might get for shooting the mammal for ivory'; but says less on how these $$ may reach poachers & change behaviour.
6/ Imv, hyperbolic assertions of #financialvalue are also being made on the basis of category errors casting #nature as #money.
But, also see thoughtful discussion of complexity here (by @BeanBarnes I think): http://conservationblog.co.uk/unnatural-capital-our-internal-conflict-with-natural-capital/
But, also see thoughtful discussion of complexity here (by @BeanBarnes I think): http://conservationblog.co.uk/unnatural-capital-our-internal-conflict-with-natural-capital/
7/ eg. the mentioned Interim #DasguptaReview describes the diversity of #biodiversity as akin to ‘a portfolio of #naturalassets’, in a relation to risk that is 'just as' how ‘diversity within a portfolio of financial assets’ spreads risk for investors.
8/ But nature’s diversity & emergent complexity ≠ a portfolio of financial assets. It is unclear how folding the former into the latter will benefit #biodiversity & local ppl rather than #financiers.
See blog on Interim #DasguptaReview: https://the-natural-capital-myth.net/2020/06/01/the-dasgupta-interim-review-on-the-economics-of-biodiversity-feedback/
See blog on Interim #DasguptaReview: https://the-natural-capital-myth.net/2020/06/01/the-dasgupta-interim-review-on-the-economics-of-biodiversity-feedback/
9/ Also mentioned is Carney's push to scale-up global voluntary #carbonoffsets markets. But many are concerned this will mostly maintain existing patterns of profit, consumerism & env impacts.
e.g. open letter led by @greenfinanceobs https://greenfinanceobservatory.org/2020/12/22/is-scaling-up-voluntary-carbon-offset-markets-really-what-the-climate-needs/
e.g. open letter led by @greenfinanceobs https://greenfinanceobservatory.org/2020/12/22/is-scaling-up-voluntary-carbon-offset-markets-really-what-the-climate-needs/
10/ So, fwiw, new elisions between ‘ #nature’ and ‘ #capital’ may amplify (rather than redress) env concerns, while deepening economic #inequalities that are themselves linked with environmental damage. Needs watching I think 
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https://the-natural-capital-myth.net/
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https://the-natural-capital-myth.net/
