Tons, Hectares, or Dollars? Measuring the Pressure Exerted by the Economy on the Biosphere

Created
Fri, 16/06/2023 - 01:16
Updated
Fri, 16/06/2023 - 01:16
by Gregory M. Mikkelson

Like a doctor measuring a patient’s vital signs, environmental scientists use various indicators to assess the health of the global ecosystem. These planetary vital signs are reckoned in a variety of units, such as tons of greenhouse gas emitted or hectares of land deforested. Meanwhile, conventional economists try to measure everything in terms of dollars (or other currencies). For example, they assign monetary values to the “ecosystem services”

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