{"id":617,"date":"2011-06-02T07:14:19","date_gmt":"2011-06-02T06:14:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/?p=617"},"modified":"2011-06-02T07:14:19","modified_gmt":"2011-06-02T06:14:19","slug":"report-from-the-bottom-line-the-uk-national-ecosystem-assessment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/2011\/06\/02\/report-from-the-bottom-line-the-uk-national-ecosystem-assessment\/","title":{"rendered":"Report from the bottom line: the UK National Ecosystem Assessment"},"content":{"rendered":"

I woke up today to discover that this significant publication<\/a> has emerged. \u00a0 As the Independent<\/a> puts it:<\/p>\n

A view of green space from your bedroom window? \u00a0That's worth \u00a3300 to you each year. \u00a0The total value of British woodland to the national economy in sucking in carbon every year: \u00a3680m. \u00a0The country's bees and other pollinating insects are, meanwhile, worth \u00a3430m. \u00a0That is the verdict of the first report to place a monetary value on the economic, health and social benefits of the UK's environment \u2013 a report commisioned by the Government and sponsored by the Department for the Environment's chief scientist, Professor Bob Watson. \u00a0The National Ecosystem Assessment (NEA) aims to put a price on the hidden value of Britain's natural heritage, from marine fisheries and species diversity to the pleasure experienced when walking along a sandy beach.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And here's today's\u00a0Guardian<\/a> (and Wordsworth by proxy):<\/p>\n

In praise of\u2026 the unquantifiable<\/em>.<\/p>\n

It says something about our culture if the only way to make the nightingale's song heard is to contort it into national income. \u00a0Nature hates calculators<\/a>,\" said Ralph Waldo Emerson, but that won't stop the number-crunchers. Inspired by a worthy desire to ensure public policy respects the natural world, the National Ecosystem Assessment<\/a> yesterday delivered a 2,000-page report totting up the economic contribution of woodlands, coasts and open spaces. There are of course gaping holes in GDP as a gauge of the good life, but it says more about our rotten culture than it does about economics if the only way to make the nightingale<\/a>'s song heard in Whitehall is to contort it into national income. Is it really more helpful to put a \u00a31.5bn price tag on inland waterways than to read Walt Whitman musing that \"a leaf of grass is no less than the journey-work of the stars\"? What is the more persuasive argument to run against sprawling development: the NEA's \u00a3430m valuation of pollinating insects, or Wordsworth's tribute<\/a> to \"These hedge-rows, hardly hedge-rows, little lines \/ Of sportive wood run wild\"? Shakespeare found \"tongues in trees<\/a>, books in the running brooks, sermons in stones\", while Einstein promised understanding would come from looking deep into nature. These authorities, not export earnings, convey the real worth of our fields and woods. As for our duties as stewards for our children, Wordsworth makes the point \u2013 \"pleasing thoughts \/ That in this moment there is life and food \/ for future years\" \u2013 without recourse to discount rates. It is high time to draw a distinction between what can be counted, and what truly counts.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I think I shall delve into this one before I think about what UNECE has to say about competences. \u00a0In particular, I wonder what value it will put on domestic gardens as biodiversity resources.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I woke up today to discover that this significant publication has emerged. \u00a0 As the Independent puts it: A view of green space from your bedroom window? \u00a0That's worth \u00a3300 to you each year. \u00a0The total value of British woodland...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":237,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-617","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-new-publications"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/617","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/237"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=617"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/617\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=617"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=617"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=617"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}