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Biodiversity What is it and Why is it Important?

Biodiversity What is it and Why is it Important?. Jon D. Erickson University of Vermont Burlington, Vermont, USA. Biodiversity What is it and Why is it Important?. Jon D. Erickson University of Vermont Burlington, Vermont, USA.

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Biodiversity What is it and Why is it Important?

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  1. BiodiversityWhat is it andWhy is it Important? Jon D. Erickson University of Vermont Burlington, Vermont, USA

  2. BiodiversityWhat is it andWhy is it Important? Jon D. Erickson University of Vermont Burlington, Vermont, USA

  3. Allocation of scarce resources toward alternative desirable ends • What are the desirable ends? • What scarce resources are needed to obtain those ends? • What ends get priority? (How do we allocate?)

  4. e i r e t s , n t s r e n t s , , e p r o g f i t a s ( W 1 ) F actor services Goods Household Fir ms (production g n i d n e p S t n Go v er nment e m T n a r e v x ( 2 o e s ) G ( 2 ) S ) a 3 v ( i n t n g e s m t ( s e 3 ) v n I Financial mar k ets I P e ) r 4 m s o ( n n a l c o n s t i o u m p p o r t s ( ) 5 5 ) ( s t r o p x E Other countr ies What’s Wrong with this Picture?

  5. The Epoch of Fossil Fuel Exploitation (after Hubbert, 1969) 300 200 Trillion kwh per year 100 +5 +1 +2 +3 -1 +4 -5 -4 -3 0 -2 Mayan Steam culture Stonehenge Built Parthenon Engine completed Pyramids Iron in constructed Black Middle Death East Inquisition Magellan's Circumnavigation

  6. EMPTY WORLD MODEL

  7. Allocated to the Rest of Nature Allocated to Humans K Low entropy matter & energy Time

  8. No Structure = No Function

  9. vs. Ecosystem Services Knowledge Ecosystem Goods Certainty Risk Uncertainty Ignorance

  10. Allocation of scarce resources toward alternative desirable ends • What are the desirable ends? • What scarce resources are needed to obtain those ends? • What ends get priority? (How do we allocate?)

  11. Desirable Ends: • Sustainable Scale • MB >= MC • 2. Just Distribution • 3. Efficient Allocation

  12. What are the characteristics of resources relevant to the allocation question? • Goods vs. Services (Flows vs. Funds) • Substitutability • Irreversibility • Renewability • Uncertainty • Externality • Rivalness • Excludability

  13. Market Goods Open Access (tragedy of the commons) Tragedy of the Non-commons Pure Public Goods

  14. Biodiversity: What is it andWhy is it Important? • Structure of the function • Our ultimate means and our ultimate ends • Characteristics that make market allocation problematic, if not impossible • We are ignorant • Steps towards shifting “to a culture of permanence, both for ourselves and for the biosphere that sustains us” – E.O. Wilson

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