Nature's Service. You Don't Get Somethin for Nothin

Cycling and recycling are another critical service of nature. Where would we get water without the hydrologic cycle? How could we afford manmade water storage in place of natural storage like a 223,000-hectare swamp in Florida valued at $25 million a year, Abramovitz asks.

Nature's stability and resilience are another invaluable service worth protecting. Simply put, complex ecosystems--those with complex biodiversity, functions and processes--are far better able to withstand disruptions (weather, disease, minor ecological imbalance) and bounce back from adversity than are simple systems. Coasts, for example, withstand severe storms quite handily until tidal marshes, swamps, reefs and forests are destroyed.

Apparently we're not doing a very good job of protecting nature's services, according to Abramovitz. She claims that "The continued conversion, simplification, and degradation of ecosystems needs to be reversed. And degraded habitat should be restored so it can perform critical services."

"Finally," she says, "we can no longer assume that nature's services will always be there free for the taking. We must become more cautious and forward-thinking before taking any actions that disrupt natural systems and services and limit the options of future generations."

"Maintaining nature's services requires looking beyond the needs of this generation, with the goal of ensuring sustainability for many generations to come. We must act under the assumption that future generations will need at east the same level of nature's services as we have today--the safe minimum standard," she says.

Amen.

Purchase a copy of State of the World 1997. E-mail: Worldwatch Institute. Snail mail: 1776 Massachusetts Ave. N.W., Washington, D.C. 20036-1904. Voice: (202) 452-1999.

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