In our growth as a human population we have spread out in vast numbers across the Earth. With that expansion we have settled down, set up home and turned pristine wilderness into regimental house and garden plots, industrial sites and city scapes that have been filled with material goods in the main for our own amusement and adornment as a replacement for that which is perhaps more natural.

Our food instead of being eaten from our immediate environment is shipped half way around the world to reach our dinner plate requiring a great deal of fuel to make this happen. Fuel that is also required to get us to and from work, away on vacation, back to the nature we are now disconnected from, as well as power the rest of our modern lifestyle.

In all this time nature has continued to write a blank cheque against our evolution as if it were an infinite resource never to be fully used up, with no real value placed upon it for the clean air it provides, other species it hosts and well-being it holds within it.

Mainstream Economists regard the cost to nature as an 'externality' and therefore something that doesn't need to be factored into the balance sheet despite what harm any particular product or service might be doing to the wider biosphere and species that populate it, ourselves very much included.

However Ecological Economists are now doing their best to factor the value of nature back into the equation both in a monetary sense and also from a more holistic perspective probably best described by these scientists here.

To my mind however growth will not come to an end until the land is valued as highly if not more so than the minerals that are to be extracted from it, for instance if the price per hectare of an oxygen producing area of rainforest is valued more economically in whatever medium than the gold or oil that might be taken from it then it will stay as it is.

It is a pretty sick world I believe if an indigenous Papua New Guinea tribal elder is only given $8 for a tree 200 years old if that same tree can then be made into several thousand dollars of timber when it hits the shores of the Western World. There is something fundamentally not right or indeed ethical about that exchange even before you realise this in no way provides enough medicine or food for such tribes to stave off the likes of malaria in their more modern communities.

The rather perverse situation we find ourselves in of course tells us that should we choose to stop consuming and stop buying these things then the whole system comes crashing down because it is solely built on this continuous growth model.

As more people become aware of the situation however with regards to the ever decreasing rain forest we can start to make a difference. We can sign petitions and give support easily online through organizations such as 38 Degrees, Avaaz as well as the more widely known WWF and Greenpeace. The sheer weight of signatories is having an effect at government level when decisions are being made, but they need ongoing support. Like the Indonesian government who have stopped a palm oil company from burning any more rain forest illegally but need to protect more land and the Costa Rican government too who have stopped Infinito Gold from going ahead with their open-pit goldmine but now need help from being sued. Please think about adding your own signature to the list.

Alternatively if you wish to find out the true value of nature to yourself maybe it is time to join me on one of my Walk Of Life exercises to help find your own life's purpose either as session 7 of my coaching model or as part of my upcoming Transformation Day where you can transform your own life in just 1 day, rediscovering your own ROAR or stand to get your money back guaranteed.

Much love. Sx

Can amazing landscapes like these ever be valued highly enough for them to be preserved indefinitely without question?

Make your own mind up by clicking here.