By Ben Cohen

Forget the credit crunch, the destruction of our natural environment is far more costly, says George Monbiot:

On Friday, Pavan Sukhdev, the Deutsche Bank economist leading a

European study on ecosystems, reported that we are losing natural

capital worth between $2 trillion and $5 trillion every year, as a

result of deforestation alone(1). The losses incurred so far by the

financial sector amount to between $1 trillion and $1.5 trillion.

Sukhdev arrived at his figure by estimating the value of the services -

such as locking up carbon and providing freshwater - that forests

perform, and calculating the cost of either replacing them or living

without them. The credit crunch is petty when compared to the nature

crunch.

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It's easy to forget about environmental issues when the economy is on the brink of collapse, but Monbiot reminds us that the two are not mutually exclusive:

The two crises feed each other. As a result of Iceland’s financial

collapse, it is now contemplating joining the European Union, which

means surrendering its fishing grounds to the Common Fisheries Policy.

Already the prime minister Geir Haarde has suggested that his

countrymen concentrate on exploiting the ocean(5). The economic

disaster will cause an ecological disaster.

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