Sustain Earth Day through economic inclusion
In March, through #FridaysForFuture, students from over 120 countries went on strike from school to protest climate change. In the same month off the coast of the Philippines, a whale was found with 88 pounds of plastic inside its stomach. Despite challenges ahead, it is encouraging to see a generation mobilize on behalf of Mother Earth.
While this day is pronounced Earth Day, every day the earth provides us the resources in which we build our lives upon. We have collectively harnessed its power for the advance of consumerism — which we also may want to consider taming. But if on this day we are supposed to acknowledge the Earth, what should we do on all other days?
Money talks, and is said to ‘make the world go round’. Yet we rarely see Earth represented well in monetary transactions. While value exchanges hands for land and acreage, it does not yet to a meaningful degree for carbon emissions, ecosystem services, aesthetic value, nor community benefits. For example, in building a parking lot, we are not paying for the opportunity costs of not building a park.
The idea of placing more explicit monetary value on nature is not a new concept. It is referred to as natural capital valuation. In fact, estimates published over two decades ago in the International Journal of Science pegged the annual value of ecosystem services at $33 trillion. How can we work those hidden environmental costs and benefits into real market prices?
Again money talks, so whether it is through our consumption habits or our investments — we must collectively signal the market to heed these costs. At present, by not acknowledging Earth every day, we borrow from the generations of the future. Unsustain.
Let’s sustain Earth day every day!
