Heather Heggie, Naracoorte
ECO services are valued at $125t per annum globally and GDP is $80t globally.
Loss of wetlands, reefs and land is $8t per annum.
A dollar value is now being put on eco services – clean air, clean freshwater rivers, lakes, streams, unpolluted land, fertile soil, rainforests, glaciers and much more.
The world’s GDP is estimated at $74t.
Between 1997 and 2020, eco services value dropped by 20 trillion but by 2050 their value could drop by a further 34pc in the Asia Pacific Region alone, due to rising sea levels, damaged reefs, cyclones, warming oceans, more intense droughts and floods, days over 35 degrees and increasing population pressure.
Impacts on eco systems are increased population, energy use, equity, environmental change, climate change.
The EU has mandated all member countries to produce natural services ecological values.
The UN sustainable development goals were adopted last year by all UN countries with the ultimate goal of safeguarding life on and offshore via a clean environment and food security.
US Federal agencies have been directed to incorporate ecosystem services in their planning, investment and regulations.
Climate change is now resulting in parts of the planet becoming unliveable due to heat and uninsurable due to excessive storm and flood damage.
Australia now has “red zones” where property is uninsurable and other zones are prohibitively expensive to insure.
Insurance companies are not insuring properties which are also a bushfire risk.
Anyone who listened to Late Night Live with Phillip Adams, Ian Lowe and Tim Buckley on the ABC recently will know how outdated and false were the claims made in the YouTube “Planet of the Humans”.
The good news is the democratic party in South Korea has just won a landslide victory and this heavily coal dependent economy plans to be totally carbon neutral by 2050.
One wonders what is stopping Australia from taking the lead in the Asia Pacific region in becoming an emissions free superpower supplier.
HEATHER HEGGIE,
NARACOORTE
