Ecosystem services are all the benefits humans derive from nature. Whether directly or indirectly, human societies derive all their economic and non economic resources from nature, but that is not all we can attribute to it.
Ecosystems are formed when organisms interact with the physical space they occupy on the planet. It consists of biotic and abiotic components (biotic: anything that is or was once alive, abiotic: was never alive), and deliver various functions, such as:
i. Providing energy – Animals cannot convert our Sun’s heat and light to nutrients. When plants do that, and are consumed by herbivores, who are then consumed by other animals, they enable animal life and activity on earth. It is the ancient Sun’s bounty we use when we consume fossil fuels, for they are nothing but dead and buried plants and animals of several ages.
ii. Providing habitat – Life usually has a type of space it prefers to live in: a certain temperature range, an amount of humidity it can tolerate, the land it grows in, where its prey lives. These preferences are evolved over millennia and organisms that belong to a certain area have a distinct evolutionary advantage in that type of region.
iv. Providing planetary cycle regulation – Ecosystems and their interactions regulate all the biogeochemical cycles of our planet. Whether directly or indirectly, they produce most of the resources present in nature. Examples include fresh water, oxygen, seeds, and biomass decomposition which leads to richer soils and removal of dead creatures.
v. Providing commercial raw material – nearly every molecule on our planet comes either directly or indirectly through the ecosystem production factory. Even synthetic molecules are completely or in part sourced through this production cycle. Think of anything you own, anything you use, anything you want to possess- it was created by the planetary ecosystem in one way or another. Even synthetic molecules require humans to formulate them.
vi. Providing rehabilitation services – Humans use nature for exposure to beauty, companionship, relaxation, spiritual experiences, and cognitive enrichment. Nearly none of the revenue generated by industries based on the participation in these activities is reinvested in preserving or enhancing the ecosystems that support them.
Our empire of commerce and poverty is rooted in the soil we stand on, and everything that made it.
Is it possible to price these activities? Of course. The easiest ways are to simply add up what can be traced to nature in our global GDP… which is everything (Since we have not yet started mining extraterrestrial worlds, so at the moment nature simply means our own home). However, what about pricing the services that save us from spending money? When a bee pollinates a flower so we don’t use human hands to do it, or when a bird eats an insect that would otherwise eat our crop, so we don’t require insecticides, how do we count that? One way to do that is to simply destroy all ecosystems, and see how everything is priced with only humans and human food alive. A less dystopian way is perhaps to understand the services provided by the ecosystems as thoroughly as we can, and invest in them so that they become both, healthy and self sustaining, and replace the parts of our economy that are dedicated to being nature-substitutes, as well as enhances it (and we can later compare how much we are saving).
It’s important to understand that not all nature based solutions are harmless to nature itself. Of course fossil fuels are the greatest examples- because yes those are as natural as they come, but even more direct sources of energy, such as using solar energy requires the use of mining for rare earth metals; Hydroelectricity can devastate large land areas and damage life in the fresh water source used for it; Restoring apex predator population (as much as we are able) will inevitably lead to conflicts between those predators and the local human population. Even so, on balance, the scale is very much tipped to one side in favour of choosing solutions that restore ecosystems.
So how do we build our solar punk paradise? Here are some suggestions:
i. Education – Early and continuous instruction in what ecosystems are, the local ecosystems, their safeguarding, and their sustainable uses will help society as a whole understand how to live as part of ecosystems, and use them for human benefit (monetary and otherwise) without depleting them.
ii. Investment in Ecosystems – Large swathes of the planet have been left in desolation due to human economic activities. These devastated lands are in need of restoration, and investment in such restoration will help nearby areas by resulting in more predictable weather, and a nicer place to live, among other rewards.
iii. Payment for ecosystem guardianship – There is absolutely no reason communities who traditionally maintain ecosystems as part of their culture should do that work for free. First, it must be recognised as work, and next, it must be valued fairly and paid so that they are compensated for their efforts, and are also able to continue their cultural planet nurturing practices rather than joining the conventional economy.
iv. Creating safe zones – Humans are everywhere. Creating ecological hotspots without human settlements will help many species of flora and fauna thrive. Such areas can be sustained through tourism.
v. Policy interventions – Coordinated government action at the local, national and multinational levels which may include policies, regulation, taxation, market controls, or other intercessions in partnership with local and regional bodies at every level to drive change forward and bring people together.
Chasing Tales 