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Pricing the Planet Nick Hanley Weighs up a Study That Probes the Economic Value of Nature

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Pricing the Planet Nick Hanley Weighs up a Study That Probes the Economic Value of Nature The ecosystem services — and value — provided by mangrove forests range from coastal protection from storms to natural fisheries. ENVIRONMENTAL ECONOMICS Pricing the planet Nick Hanley weighs up a study that probes the economic value of nature. an economics help to save us from population and the predictions recalled Malthus. This, along environmental­ catastrophe? In fixed amount of farm­ with the two oil-price peaks of the 1970s Natural Capital, economist Dieter land, which meant that and growing public interest in the damaging CHelm offers a timely reminder of the con­ food supplies could implications of economic growth, returned tribution that his discipline can make to not keep up. However, the environment to centre stage in econom­ understanding and solving environmental disaster failed to mat­ ics. The Journal of Environmental Economics problems. The book hinges on the economic erialize, population and Management was founded in 1974. ZIEGLER/GETTY CHRISTIAN value of gifts of nature, from oil fields to wet­ and average living The late, great David Pearce was perhaps lands, which in combination with inputs standards continued the first academic economist to convince peo­ such as labour and produced capital pro­ to rise, and the envi­ Natural Capital: ple outside the field of its relevance for under­ vide humanity with valuable benefits from ronment largely dis­ Valuing the Planet standing the relationships between people, ecosystem services. Helm’s main message appeared from the DIETER HELM money and the environment — and for devel­ is that the apparent conflict between eco­ thinking and writing Yale Univ. Press: 2015. oping tools to help to manage the apparent nomic growth and environmental quality of economists, give conflict between economic growth and envi­ can be managed by preventing declines in or take the contributions of Arthur Pigou ronmental quality. The influence of his 1989 this natural capital. on the economics of pollution in 1920 and Blueprint for a Green Economy (Routledge), The concept of natural capital has quite Harold Hotelling on the management of non- co-written with Anil Markandya and Edward a backstory, although Helm does not delve renewable natural resources in 1931. By 1970, Barbier, reached beyond academia and gov­ into it too deeply. The environment was of environmental problems were no longer the ernment to the informed public. Pearce had central concern to the classical economists of professional concern of economists. three main messages. First, economic benefits the nineteenth century. The scarcity of pro­ Then everything changed. In 1972, environ­ from the environment need to be measured ductive agricultural land and coal reserves, mental scientist Donella Meadows and and recognized. Second, economics could for instance, was seen as a brake on economic co-authors published The Limits to Growth improve environmental policy by develop­ growth by pioneers such as David Ricardo (Universe), commissioned by the Club of ing market-like mechanisms through which and John Stuart Mill. Slightly earlier, Thomas Rome think tank. This influential book used a price could be put on pollution. Third, Robert Malthus had famously predicted systems dynamics modelling to predict prob­ national accounting conventions needed to a gloomy future as a result of the conflict able future paths for global population, food show up the gains and losses in a country’s between an exponentially growing human production and pollution. Some of these natural capital over time. 434 | NATURE | VOL 520 | 23 APRIL 2015 © 2015 Macmillan Publishers Limited. All rights reserved BOOKS & ARTS COMMENT These ideas are all taken up and expanded LIBRARY SCIENCE in Natural Capital. This is important, because the empirical evidence is that most countries do not account for the economic value of depreciating natural capital; nor The word on our have they put in place measures to hold the line. Helm’s arguments bring the main problem raised by Malthus into a sharp archival future new focus. Given current rates of world economic growth, incredible numbers of Michael Lesk assesses a work on the fate of the library people, demands for resources and levels of at a time of economic and technological upheaval. pollution now loom, increasing pressures on ecosystems and biodiversity. Evidence is growing of the importance of ecosystem ohn Palfrey loves libraries and is optimis­ have equal access to services such as clean water and pollination, tic about their future. In BiblioTech, he information online. and of the erosion of human well-being that Jdescribes that future. In his vision, public The increasing results when those services are disturbed. libraries, as a mainstay of informed demo­ commercialization That does not mean that economic growth cratic societies, will share access to online of information raises should be stopped (even if that were pos­ material as well as to the physical books and further barriers. sible), but it does demand a fundamental spaces that resonate emotionally with users. Palfrey is especially change in government policies globally. Palfrey — who helped to set up the Digital concerned about the As Helm drives home, these changes relate Public Library of America at Harvard Uni­ copyright status of most fundamentally to a new goal of eco­ versity in Boston, Massachusetts — shows BiblioTech: Why out-of-print books. nomic policy: keeping natural capital from that most libraries are facing a “perfect Libraries Matter Nobody makes declining. Many of the assets that make up storm”: waning use, inadequate resources More Than Ever in money from them, natural capital deliver benefits that the mar­ and users satisfied with easy personal access the Age of Google but legal problems ket does not value, but which are important to online information. Although the book JOHN PALFREY such as the dilemma Basic: 2015. for well-being. So adopting such a policy does not focus on academic libraries, US of ‘orphan books’ would mean that as a country depletes its research libraries saw a 69% decline in the (volumes in copyright, but for which the oil reserves, for example, it would reinvest a number of queries handled between 1991 owner is unlocatable) prevent libraries from proportion of the returns from this activity and 2012. US research librarians answer providing such volumes online. Finally, in promoting renewable alternatives. some 7 million questions each year; Inter­ Palfrey, echoing the concerns of Google That demands a number of moves. A net search engines handle that many every vice-president Vint Cerf among others, feels country must change the way it undertakes two minutes. Academic-library budgets are that digital preservation of library holdings its national accounting to reflect the year-on- shrinking: spending has dropped from 3.7% is riskier than traditional methods. In my year changes in the value of all of its assets, of the total budget of a typical US university view, this is not entirely accurate: a single including natural capital; it must tax pollu­ in the early 1980s to 1.8% in 2011. paper copy can fade or go up in smoke, tion while removing perverse subsidies for Roughly half whereas multiple digital copies can stay safe activities that deplete natural capital; it must of an academic- “The school and affordable. enforce strict limits on the use of renewable library budget is library should At a time of austerity and belt-tightening, resources to maintain them above critical spent on acquisi­ be as important will governments recognize the importance thresholds; it must require general offsetting­ tions, and that is as the school of libraries and librarians? The school of the negative effects of infrastructure pro­ increasingly con­ sports team.” library should be as important as the school jects. Moreover, it must increase the provi­ sumed by journal- sports team, I feel. Political will is essential, sion of public goods such as national parks subscription prices. However, open-access as is innovative energy among librarians. and green spaces. publishers such as the Public Library of Sci­ Palfrey hopes that conventional and new These are not new ideas (most were dis­ ence (PLOS) provide information with no library technologies will sit side by side. This cussed in Blueprint for a Green Economy), reader fee, changing the economics entirely. is not common in technological change: car- but Natural Capital provides a very useful As Palfrey notes, school libraries — which rental companies do not run livery stables. update and pulls together the past 20 years still have a key role in teaching scholarly I suspect that a more likely future is that of economic insight in language that non- habits and propelling children towards a libraries (and museums) will be divided into economists will easily understand. For life in science — are suffering, often losing the ‘wholesalers’ that have large historic col­ example, since 1989 economists have made their staff. The 2010 Google Map ‘A Nation lections, such as the US Library of Congress great progress in estimating the values Without School Librarians’ is a grim indica­ or the British Library, and the ‘retailers’ such of ecosystem-service benefits. Helm has tor of the trend, showing the districts that as university libraries, which serve faculties. thought carefully about the practicalities of have eliminated certified school-librarian Anyone interested in the future of librar­ tracking changes in natural capital, of fund­ positions. As for public libraries, the Pew ies — and whether there is one at all — will ing reinvestment in habitats, and of prioritiz­ Research Center reports that only about find much to mull over in this book. I hope ing actions through a focus on thresholds. half of people in the United States used one its effectiveness will match its enthusiasm. ■ As such, the book is a valuable contribution, in 2013. Palfrey is fearful that in the future, written by an author who knows his subject not everyone will Michael Lesk is professor of information and cares deeply about his message.
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