Ecological Services

"Ecological services" are the benefits provided by natural ecosystems.  Examples would include crop pollination by bees and other insects, water filtration and storm-surge protection by salt marshes, oxygen production by rain forests, and carbon sequestration by woodlands and grasslands.  

There is no monetary cost for these ecological services, but there is a societal cost for not exploiting the ecosystems.  The "cost" for providing wildlife refuge, oxygen production, and carbon sequestration, say, is the loss of potential revenue in not clear-cutting forests for timber.

But in late-stage capitalism, those who want to hoard commodities for their own personal wealth can't see the value of ecological services over the potential revenue to be made from exploitation.  Why let carbon sit in deep storage beneath the ground, when you can mine the coal by mountaintop removal for profit?  Why preserve the habitats and species diversity of National Forests when you can clear-cut the timber? And why not drain the swamps and let urban sprawl extend into the Everglades with cheap, transitory suburban housing developments?

I can't believe I'm saying this, but our so-called "president" is right about one thing - if there were no forests out West, there'd be no forest fires right now.  Of course, there'd also be no slope stabilization to reduce landslides and other catastrophes, no clean rainwater catchments for our Western cities, and no bird habitats to control populations of mosquitoes and other insect pests, but that's another matter.

When someone like our so-called "president" sees the horrific wildfires ravaging the American West right now, all he can see is the failure of not exploiting the ecosystems for short-term profit.  The value of ecological systems, since they can't be monetized, have no worth to someone like our so-called "president."  From there, it's an easy next step to blaming the current catastrophes not on climate change as science indicates, but on the lack of exploitation.  As I said, if there were no forests, there's be no forest fires.

Only you can prevent forests.