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CAPITALS / STATE
NATURAL CAPITAL
NATURAL RESOURCES, ESSENTIAL BIO-SYSTEMS, NATURAL EQUILIBRIUM CONTROL AND A WHOLE LOT MORE
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Nature is beautiful ... powerful ... and to be respected
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So many valuable things are available from nature ... the source of everything
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LAND
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WATER
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AIR
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RESOURCES
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BIODIVERSITY
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ECOSYSTEMS
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Nature has been depleted and degraded to improve humankind's quality of life
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LAND
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WATER
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AIR
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RESOURCES
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BIODIVERSITY
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ECOSYSTEMS
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This level of Natural Capital exploitation is unsustainable
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Essential habitat for all sorts of living organizms
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Natural land developed for food production
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Land built over with housing
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LAND
A very valuable source of natural value add, but also a foundation of value add for social improvement and economic improvement like agriculture and housing. Unfortunately in the modern economy these come at the expense of dangerous land degradation.
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Fresh air is very good for human health
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Industrial activity a big source of air pollution
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Motor vehicles another big source of air pollution
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AIR
Over the last fifty years many industrialized countries have reduced air pollution that people can see very substantially, but far less progress has been made on the reduction of greenhouse gases like CO2 and methane that cannot be seen but are also very dangerous.
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Fresh water is God's gift to humanity
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Oceans! Huge but getting hotter and more polluted
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Industry and storm water run-off degrades water
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WATER
Without potable water there is no life, but now water shortages are becoming increasingly frequent in part because of climate changes but also massive industrial water consumption and associated pollution.
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Minerals are used to make many products.
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Fossil fuels powered the industrial revolution
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Coal has been incredibly important
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RESOURCES
The industrial revolution with all its important benefits would not have been possible without mineral and energy resources that already existed in nature. Unfortunately too much of the economic progress was achieved by ignoring the emerging problems with the environment which have been growing and accelerating over time.
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FAUNA - animals, birds, fish, reptiles, insects, etc
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FLORA - millions of species of plants
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Many animal habitats at risk
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BIODIVERSITY
Scientists know how little we know about the natural world, and how valuable it would be to understand it better, but the modern financial world does not value this knowledge and all sorts of species are going extinct faster and faster.
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Natural systems recycle everything
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Climate has been quite stable until recent years
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Pollination, one of many essential services
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ECOSYSTEM
Nature is very complex, but nature is very efficient. Everything works together and the waste from one part of the system becomes the input for another part. When humankind disrupts this system, there is no knowing what the results will be!
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MEASUREMENT TELLS THE STORY
Measure Change in State and You Learn a Lot
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The State of the Environment / Natural Capital
Rapidly degrading but ignored in conventional financial and economic analysis
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Value Add ... the Contributions of Nature
Natural Systems are incredibly efficient, but operate very slowly unless the normal
equilibriums are disturbed, in which case there can be catasrophic dysruption
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Value Loss ... the Depletion and Degradation of Nature
Industry and Consumption has been responsible for the Depletion of Natural Resources
and the Degradation of the Environment since the beginning of the industrial era at zero cost
to the participants who have benefitted financially. This was wrong and must be changed.
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L070-CS-NC-NATURAL-CAPITAL
L070-CS-NC-NATURAL-CAPITAL ... NATURAL CAPITAL
There are many components to natural capital.
Everything has been made possible because there is Natural Capital ... but it is not infinite and has been seriously depleted since the 1700s.
There is the sun. There is life … whether this is human life or all the other life forms from single cell organisms to all sorts of fish and animals and to plants in all their varieties.
There are minerals and there are fossil fuels that represent millions if not billions of years of sun energy capture.
There is land and water and atmosphere.
There are ecosystems and biodiversity.
Nature works in many mysterious ways that we know little or nothing about, but are essential to the good health of people and the planet.
We now know something about the important services that the natural world provides which enable a natural environment in which animals, including humans can thrive. We do damage to natural capital at our peril. Despite this, there is no accounting for the impact economic activity has on natural capital. This has to change.
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EVERYTHING IS ENABLED BY AND CONSTRAINED BY NATURE.
... In modern times, all sorts of Economic Capital has been created that has converted natural capital into financial capital. Over the past 200 years there have been enormous changes in the technology available to create financial capital, and people have used increasingly sophisticated management metrics to optimize for profit performance and financial wealth creation. At the same time, the impact of human activities that create financial wealth on nature and all its natural systems have been ignored.
NATURAL SYSTEMS ... NATURAL CYCLES, ECOSYSTEM SERVICES, CLIMATE SYSTEMS
BIO-DIVERSITY / NATURE'S RESILIENCE ... FAUNA AND FLORA ... MILLIONS OF SPECIES ... MANY UNKNOWN
LAND ... USED FOR BIO SERVICES, HABITAT, AGRICULTURE, FORESTRY, BUILDING DEVELOPMENT, ETC.
WATER ... USED FOR HUMAN CONSUMPTION, INDUSTRY, AGRICULTURE AND NATURAL SYSTEMS
AIR ... ESSENTIAL FOR LIFE SUPPORT, BUT BEING USED AS A DUMP FOR GASEOUS WASTES
NATURAL RESOURCES / ENERGY
FOSSIL FUELS, FUELWOOD, WIND AND SOLAR
NATURAL RESOURCES / MINERALS / RAW MATERIALS
MINERALS, TIMBER, BIO-DIVERSITY
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FRESH AIR
Air is essential for human life, but air pollution has been one of the unintended consequences of progress towards a better quality of life and standard of living, and may now be one of the biggest risks mankind has ever faced.
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L0700-CS-NC-CLIMATE
L0700-NC-CLIMATE ... CLIMATE
CLIMATE ... a natural system that is essential to the natural equilibrium of planet earth. The equilibrium has changed slowly over the past millions of years but change is now happening faster than at any time in history ... that is geological history. Scientists know a lot about what has happened in the past and know that this rapid change is happening. They do not know exactly where a new equilibriun will be established as a result of changes that have been happening as a result of human activity during the past few centuries.
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Open L0700-CS-NC-CLIMATE
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L0700-CS-NC-ECOSYSTEM-SERVICES
L0700-NC-ECOSYSTEM-SERVICES
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Open L0700-CS-NC-ECOSYSTEM-SERVICES
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L0700-NC-FOSSIL-FUELS
L0700-NC-FOSSIL-FUELS
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Open L0700-CS-NC-FOSSIL-FUELS
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L0700-CS-NC-LAND
Much of the land on planet earth is either desert or mountain and unsuited to human habitation. Some people in the modern consumer economy are using more than their fair share of the land to support their lifestyle. Land is being developed into urban conurbations and for industrial scale agriculture reducing the land that is available for natural ecosystem services critical for the sustainability of the enviro-socio-economic system.
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Open L0700-CS-NC-LAND
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L0700-CS-NC-NATURES-LIVING-SYSTEMS
L0700-NC-NATURES-LIVING-SYSTEMS
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Open L0700-CS-NC-NATURES-LIVING-SYSTEMS
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L0700-CS-NC-MINERALS
L0700-NC-MINERALS
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Open L0700-CS-NC-MINERALS
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SUN ... SOURCE OF ALL ENERGY
The sun is the source of all the energy that is available on the earth. The natural systems that convert the energy of the sun into other forms of energy that endure through time are critical for the sustainability of the planet, but poorly understood both in science and more dangerously by policy makers.
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Open L0700-CS-NC-SUN
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L0700-CS-NC-WATER
L0700-NC-WATER ... WATER
There is more water than land on planet earth, but only a small part of the water is potable freshwater. Most is saline in the oceans. Water is vital to life. A human will die after three days without any hydration and freshwater is increasingly scarce.
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Open L0700-CS-NC-WATER
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L0700-CS-NC-Australia
L0700-NC-Australia ... about Environmental Accounting for the Nation of Australia
Australia has been at the forefront of national level statistics and government financial management for several decades ... and it comes at no surprise that they are doing significant work in the area of environmental accounting. I am struck by the high environmental value that is placed on energy resources, which I believe is a result of valuing resources using money as a single composite unit of account. Timber has virtually no value, while fossil based energy resources have a very high valuation.
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Open L0700-CS-NC-Australia
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L0700-CS-NC-Nitrogen-Cycle
Nitrogen-Cycle
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Open L0700-CS-NC-Nitrogen-Cycle
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MINERAL RESOURCE DEPLETION
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NATURE'S LIVING SYSTEMS
The living systems of nature ... including human beings ... are extremely complex and quite amazing. Despite the amazing growth in knowledge during the last century very little is known about the deep intricacies of these natural living systems. What is now known is that they are immensely important for sustaining the enviro-socio-economic system that is key to quality of life and standard of living.
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Open L0700-NC-NATURES-LIVING-SYSTEMS
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RESOURCE DEPLETION, ENVIRONMENTAL DEGRADATION AND ECOSYSTEM REMEDIATION
NATURAL CAPITAL has been diminished significantly since the beginning of the modern era ... since the start of the agricultural revolution and then the industrial revolution. There has been resource depletion and environmental degradation that has not been taken into account in the metrics of socio-economic performance and no credit given for ecosystem remediation, an activity now growing, but long overdue. Resource Depletion and Environmental Degradation is a shorthand way of embracing everything that relates to loss of Natural Capital. When some of nature's bounty is consumed in a manner that means it can never be recovered, there is resource depletion. When the environment is damaged in some way, and there is some possibility that there might be some future recovery, this is environmental degradation. Both are stresses on the planet, that imply risk for the future.
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Open L0700-NC-CLIMATE
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Ecological Footprint
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Measurements for Natural Capital
The goal must be to have a single number that represents the totality of the impact a reporting entity is having on all components of Natural Capital and another number that reflects the contrinution the reporting entity is having on all components of Human Capital. Performance is a measure derived from these two numbers.
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Water
It makes no sense that water is taken for free in so many settings. Water is one of the most valuable substances on the planet and MDIA quantification should reflect this. The MDIA standard value should reflect changes in water abundance that exist from place to place. Too little water and there are problems. Too much water and there are problems.
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NC-Water-001-150102 .... Peter Burgess DRAFT
'http://truevaluemetrics.org/DBpdfs/NaturalCapital/Water/NC-Water-001-150102.pdf'
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Open PDF ...
NC-Water-001-150102
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OWNERSHIP OF NATURAL CAPITAL
WITHOUT OWNERSHIP THE MODERN WESTERN ECONOMIC PHILOSOPHY DOES NOT WORK!
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GO TOP
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Chief Seattle's Letter to the President of the United States, 1852
(attributed to Chief Seattle, but unverified; this is one of several versions)
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'The President in Washington sends word that he wishes to buy our land. But how can you buy or sell the sky? the land? The idea is strange to us. If we do not own the freshness of the air and the sparkle of the water, how can you buy them?
Every part of the earth is sacred to my people. Every shining pine needle, every sandy shore, every mist in the dark woods, every meadow, every humming insect. All are holy in the memory and experience of my people.
We know the sap which courses through the trees as we know the blood that courses through our veins. We are part of the earth and it is part of us. The perfumed flowers are our sisters. The bear, the deer, the great eagle, these are our brothers. The rocky crests, the dew in the meadow, the body heat of the pony, and man all belong to the same family.
The shining water that moves in the streams and rivers is not just water, but the blood of our ancestors. If we sell you our land, you must remember that it is sacred. Each glossy reflection in the clear waters of the lakes tells of events and memories in the life of my people. The water's murmur is the voice of my father's father.
The rivers are our brothers. They quench our thirst. They carry our canoes and feed our children. So you must give the rivers the kindness that you would give any brother.
If we sell you our land, remember that the air is precious to us, that the air shares its spirit with all the life that it supports. The wind that gave our grandfather his first breath also received his last sigh. The wind also gives our children the spirit of life. So if we sell our land, you must keep it apart and sacred, as a place where man can go to taste the wind that is sweetened by the meadow flowers.
Will you teach your children what we have taught our children? That the earth is our mother? What befalls the earth befalls all the sons of the earth.
This we know: the earth does not belong to man, man belongs to the earth. All things are connected like the blood that unites us all. Man did not weave the web of life, he is merely a strand in it. Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself.
One thing we know: our God is also your God. The earth is precious to him and to harm the earth is to heap contempt on its creator.
Your destiny is a mystery to us. What will happen when the buffalo are all slaughtered? The wild horses tamed? What will happen when the secret corners of the forest are heavy with the scent of many men and the view of the ripe hills is blotted with talking wires? Where will the thicket be? Gone! Where will the eagle be? Gone! And what is to say goodbye to the swift pony and then hunt? The end of living and the beginning of survival.
When the last red man has vanished with this wilderness, and his memory is only the shadow of a cloud moving across the prairie, will these shores and forests still be here? Will there be any of the spirit of my people left?
We love this earth as a newborn loves its mother's heartbeat. So, if we sell you our land, love it as we have loved it. Care for it, as we have cared for it. Hold in your mind the memory of the land as it is when you receive it. Preserve the land for all children, and love it, as God loves us.
As we are part of the land, you too are part of the land. This earth is precious to us. It is also precious to you.
One thing we know - there is only one God. No man, be he Red man or White man, can be apart. We ARE all brothers after all.'
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Source of this letter
http://www.ascensionnow.co.uk/chief-seattles-letter-to-the-american-president-1852.html
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Open external link
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Source of this letter
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Natural Capital Committee ... UK
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Natural Capital Coalition (NCC)
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State-of-Nature-2013
'http://truevaluemetrics.org/DBpdfs/NaturalCapital/State-of-Nature-2013.pdf'
| Open PDF ...
State-of-Nature-2013
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The new BUSINESS IMPERATIVE: VALUING NATURAL CAPITAL
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NC-2012 ... The new BUSINESS IMPERATIVE: VALUING NATURAL CAPITAL
'http://truevaluemetrics.org/DBpdfs/NaturalCapital/NC-2012.pdf'
| Open PDF ... NC-2012
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Changes in the global value of ecosystem services
Robert Costanza a, *, Rudolf de Groot b , Paul Sutton c,d , Sander van der Ploeg b , Sharolyn J. Anderson d , Ida Kubiszewski a , Stephen Farber e , R. Kerry Turner f
In 1997, the global value of ecosystem services was estimated to average $33 trillion/yr in 1995
($46 trillion/yr in 2007 ). In this paper, we provide an updated estimate based on updated unit ecosystem service values and land use change estimates between 1997 and 2011. We also address some of the critiques of the 1997 paper.
Using the same methods as in the 1997 paper but with updated data, the estimate for the total global ecosystem services in 2011 is $125 trillion/yr (assuming updated unit values and changes to biome areas) and $145 trillion/yr (assuming only unit values changed), both in 2007 .
From this we estimated the loss of eco-services from 1997 to 2011 due to land use change at $4.3–20.2 trillion/yr, depending on which unit values are used.
Global estimates expressed in monetary accounting units, such as this, are useful to highlight the magnitude of eco-services, but have no specific decision-making context. However, the underlying data and models can be applied at multiple scales to assess changes resulting from various scenarios and policies. We emphasize that valuation of eco-services (in whatever units) is not the same as commodification or privatization.
Many eco-services are best considered public goods or common pool resources, so conventional markets are often not the best institutional frameworks to manage them. However, these services must be (and are being) valued, and we need new, common asset institutions to better take these values into account.
2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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Global-Environmental-Change
'http://truevaluemetrics.org/DBpdfs/Environment/Global-Environmental-Change-Costanza-et-al-May-2014.pdf'
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Open PDF ... Global-Environmental-Change-Costanza-et-al-May-2014
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Environmental Accounting in Australia
Australia has been at the forefront of national level statistics and government financial management for several decades ... and it comes at no surprise that they are doing significant work in the area of environmental accounting. I am struck by the high environmental value that is placed on energy resources, which I believe is a result of valuing resources using money as a single composite unit of account. Timber has virtually no value, while fossil based energy resources have a very high valuation.
The information in this webpage has been downloaded from this Australian Government source: http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/mf/4655.0
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Open file L0700-NC-Australia
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Open external link
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New Deal for Nature
The Global Deal for Nature (GDN) is a time-bound, science-driven plan to save the diversity and abundance of life on Earth. Pairing the GDN and the Paris Climate Agreement would avoid catastrophic climate change, conserve species, and secure essential ecosystem services. New findings give urgency to this union: Less than half of the terrestrial realm is intact, yet conserving all native ecosystems—coupled with energy transition measures—will be required to remain below a 1.5°C rise in average global temperature. The GDN targets 30% of Earth to be formally protected and an additional 20% designated as climate stabilization areas, by 2030, to stay below 1.5°C. We highlight the 67% of terrestrial ecoregions that can meet 30% protection, thereby reducing extinction threats and carbon emissions from natural reservoirs. Freshwater and marine targets included here extend the GDN to all realms and provide a pathway to ensuring a more livable biosphere.
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Powerful science ... weak management
Natural Capital ... To solve climate change and biodiversity loss, we need a Global Deal for Nature
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Open page #16569
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Powerful science ... weak management
Natural Capital ... To solve climate change and biodiversity loss, we need a Global Deal for Nature
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Open L0700-CS-NC-E-biodiversity-system
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'http://truevaluemetrics.org/DBpdfs/NaturalCapital/New-Deal-for-Nature-eaaw2869.pdf'
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Open PDF ... New-Deal-for-Nature-eaaw2869
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Nature Based Solutions (NbS) in Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs)
Synthesis and recommendations for enhancing climate ambition and action by 2020.
Many countries are in the midst of revising and strengthening their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) under the Paris Agreement on climate change, further guidance is needed to help streamline and strengthen the inclusion of NbS in the NDCs
'http://truevaluemetrics.org/DBpdfs/NaturalCapital/UNGA-IUCN-2019-Nature-Based-Solutions.pdf
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Open PDF ... UNGA-IUCN-2019-Nature-Based-Solutions
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Comparative pollution ... China v USA
Emissions in China are growing faster than the USA ... but the cumulative amount of pollution associated with the USA is many times bigger than that of China. In part this is deliberate misin=formation and in part it is very sloppy reporting by the media and to some extent the scientists and people who should know better.
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Open L0700-CS-NC-footprint-China-v-USA
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