This is an interesting conceptual map of risks to the world economy. Biodiversity loss is included, though I bet a lot of conservation biologists would disagree with the missing links. Biodiversity could certainly be used as an investment in infrastructure (ecotourism, ecosystem services), preventing food price volatility, transnational crime and corruption and international terrorism (Somali pirates), and how on earth did they leave out Pandemics? The really interesting thing, though is their plot of likelihood and severity. Biodiversity loss is about midrange in the likelihood scale, but fourth-lowest on the severity scale. Meanwhile, asset price collapse is listed as the highest likelihood and highest severity. It’s an fascinating view on how economists think about biodiversity loss.

After a dreadful PR year for both privatization and government intervention, perhaps we should have expected a renewed enthusiasm for the commons. And that’s just what we got yesterday morning, straight out of Oslo. It’s too bad that University of Indiana political science Professor Elinor Ostrom had to win both the first Nobel Prize in Economics ever awarded to a woman as well as the first pendant the committee handed out after sullying its credibility by awarding President Obama the Peace Prize before he even pardons his first turkey. But no matter! If we can spin Obama’s win as a “call to action,” why not do the same with Ostrom’s? Pessimism (fatalism) aside, I’m all for the twenty-teens being the decade of disappearing nuclear warheads and retreating neoliberal resource management.

Let’s hear from the Laureate herself!

An excerpt form the introduction to her 1990 book, (more…)

• Salazar is canceling all those last-minute oil and gas leases in Utah.
• A thoughtful piece on the status of the Endangered Species Act, by Verlyn Klinkenborg in Nat Geo.
• Fascinating article in Seed on using ecological principles to re-think or economic ideology. Please read it thoroughly. Perhaps my favorite line comes from Alan Greenspan: “Everyone has [an ideology] … to exist, you need an ideology.”
• Ecosystem services: still sexy.
• A mysterious disease known as “White Nose Syndrome” is wiping out bat populations in the northeast. One potential problem may be amatuer cavers (aka spelunkers) spreading the disease. If you want a truly bracing look into the misunderstandings of conservation, look no further than this conversation taking place at Metafilter, a supposedly well-educated and well-informed group blog site (e.g. “Such a weird form of conceit…. Bats are dying, clearly we humans are killing them. Only humanity is capable of killing animals.”)
• At least the Santa Catalina Island foxes are doing well — up from 103 to 784 in just 8 years. I love this: “‘In 2007, we had an extreme drought with less than 3 inches of rain,’ she said. ‘As a result, mule deer were dying in great numbers, and the foxes were able to scavenge off the carcasses. By the time breeding season arrived in 2008, we literally had obese foxes, and females in such good condition that they were having larger-than-normal litters.’ … In addition, 2008 was ‘a good rain year, so the rodent population exploded,’ she said. ‘The mice were convenient to-go packages of protein for females to retrieve and feed to their pups.’” Tails foxes win, heads their prey loses. Now that’s stability.

• One way to avoid this whole blackmail thing would be to set up a fund for rainforest protection — countries protect their forest, they get money. A new report commissioned by Gordon Brown suggests just that. I think it’s a good idea, though some are calling it a “get out of jail free card” for big polluters.
• OMG crops 4free. 2good2btru =). wait rangrs cmng lol.

• The International Society for Ecological Economics is holding their biennial conference, starting today, in Nairobi. The title of this year’s conference is “Applying Ecological Economics for Social and Environmental Sustainability.” Get your abstracts here.
• The Global Environmental Facility (here, forever-after “GEF”) and the United Nations Environment Programme (“UNEP”) have announced a 5 year, $27 million program to protect key pollinators: “Conservation & Management of Pollinators for Sustainable Agriculture through an Ecosystem Approach.”