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#ecosystemservices

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How to Repair the Planet? One Answer Might Be Hiding in Plain Sight.
We tend to look at #environmental problems in isolation. A holistic approach would be more effective, a new report says.
New trees help to lock away planet-warming #carbon. But the choice of #trees matters: Nonnative species can also harm #biodiversity.
The report, by Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and #EcosystemServices focuses heavily on solutions.
nytimes.com/2024/12/17/climate
archive.ph/otlri

The New York Times · A Biodiversity Solution Might Be Hiding in Plain Sight.By Catrin Einhorn

"Ecosystem services" for ALL living beings

"Solving our current ecological and social crises requires a radical transformation of humanity's relationship to the global ecosystems that sustain all life."

At present there is government paralysis and "we keep voting in people who are OK with prolonging the use of fossil fuels, the very thing that is cooking our planet".

We have an egocentric approach to nature, despite knowing that without the environment, there's no economy.
>>
abc.net.au/news/2024-05-12/alb

"Nature does not revolve around humans any more than the sun revolves around the Earth...Ecosystem services are co-created by all species; humans must stop free-riding."
"We redefine ecosystem services as nature’s benefits to the biotic community of which humans are a part...The Ecozoic is defined as an era characterized by the mutual flourishing of humans and the rest of Nature.
>>
Rethinking ecosystem services from the anthropocene to the Ecozoic: Nature’s benefits to the biotic community
sciencedirect.com/science/arti

Ecosystem Services Key concepts and applications, au gov
>>
agriculture.gov.au/sites/defau
#nature #EcosystemServices #egocentrism #Australia #resources #TAKEApproach #anthropocentrism #biodiversity #conservation #ecosystems #Ecozoic #biodiversity #ExtinctionCrisis

#ClimateCrisis: Venezuela loses its last #glacier as it shrinks down to an ice field
theguardian.com/environment/ar

"#Venezuela is a mirror of what will continue to happen from north to south, first in #Colombia, #Ecuador, then in #Peru, #Bolivia, as #glaciers continue to retreat from the #Andes... The loss of La Corona marks the loss of the many #EcosystemServices that glaciers provide, from unique #microbial habitats to environments of significant cultural value"

"How human and ecosystem health are intertwined: Evidence from vulture population collapse in India"

voxdev.org/topic/energy-enviro

Basically, vultures were very important in certain areas to remove cadavers from the area - such as countless cows raised by *lacto-vegetarians*. ...

An anti-inflammatory medicine was introduced about 3 decades ago to help treat cows (probably helps with milk production).

The substance stuck around in cows who died and were dumped "outside" or "elsewhere", as trash is often dumped.

Vultures ate dead "tainted" cows and also died.

As vultures died, other carrion eating animals came by and feasted, but they were not as nice as the vultures for the ecosystem and for the humans in the area.

Note that vultures often die because of eating poisoned animals, poisoned by humans. Lead, for example, is a common deadly poison left behind by bullets from hunters. Many animals deemed "pests" are poisoned and end up being eaten by a vulture who dies later. That's aside from the various poachers just outright killing vultures.

Biodiversity & economics, limits of science rant

Because of how I understood anticapitalism, I was always against trying to calculate the economic cost of destroying nature.

Nature should not be destroyed because it's sacred. Period.

And, on a less spiritual way: as we don't have a clue* how complex ecosystems work, we should be less confident when pretending to put a price tag on ecosystem services.

But lately I am seeing economics less as a scam by greedy powerful to justify and optimize their exploitation of humans and nature (though I am still convinced that this brainwashing is the main function), but appreciate that in the strict sense, economics is just a way to make decisions. Even in an anarchist village, people do sorts of economics when taking decisions (just maybe a not based on €$¥, but more on "how much effort will it be for our community to build a new building with strawbales or with clay?"). And if we accept this role of economics, we see that it is necessary to integrate the value of biodiversity and nature into the equation, because if we don't, we lack the tools to take well-informed decisions.

Still, it feels like that we won't be very successful in improving things if we talk about the value of pollinating wild bees for the economy instead of burning down the headquarters of the banks that finance industrial agriculture (and some other offices come to my mind, but maybe lets start with the banks...).
The problem with all this bioeconomics stuff is that it is so deeply flawed. And it's an uphill battle, as we will be always behind the "real" economy's destruction of nature.

"If you are so sure that this tropical forest is of any good, show us the numbers", they said, while destroying the ecosystem forever for a palm oil plantation...

Probably the real solution would be to abandon our tecnocratic extractivist colonizer mindset and to embrace #IndigenousKnowledge.

* we really know little. We are getting better. E.g. in microbiology nowadays with molecular tools we can know *who* is there (mostly). But this leaves us with a large list of names and we don't have any idea about *what* they do. And latest when it comes to biological interactions in the real world, all we have left is to hold our hands and behold the impressive complexity and the miracles of life.

Thanks to
@blogdiva , one of your posts made me write this down. :ecoanarchism_heart:

[Edited typos]
#NaturalResourceEconomics #PluralisticEconomy #PluralEconomics #degrowth #Bioeconomy #DecisionMaking #Biidiversity #EcosystemServices #EcosystemService

📕 New publication 📕

We explored cultural impacts of #ClimateChange through participatory research with small-scale fishers in #Indonesia

We used the concept of cultural #EcosystemServices to understand how physical changes caused by the #ClimateCrisis alter the culture of these communities.

Cultural shifts happened due to damages to sacred and heritage sites and difficulties in performing traditional livelihood practices.

Link: link.springer.com/article/10.1

DM me for the paper.