Episode Details
Back to Episodes“Present-day Benefits of Nature to Humanity” by Tandena Wagner
Description
This article was written with the aid of AI for research, structure, and phrasing. It may contain >10% AI-generated text.
What Has Nature Done For Me Lately?
In this sequence I try to determine the most valuable aspects of nature, after observing that lots of people find it valuable. One of the major candidates is “ecosystem services,” a term describing benefits we get from nature.[1] I find that the total value of all ecosystem services is high, but the marginal unit wouldn't meaningfully diminish the benefits we receive.
In this post I explore
- How valuable ecosystem services are (about $45 trillion per year)
- What those ecosystem services are (nutrient cycling, etc)
- How possible it is to get those same benefits from other sources besides nature
- And whether biodiversity is providing the instrumental gain we get from nature.
A quick clarification: Biodiversity is a measure of how many distinct species exist in nature (although it ambiguously can refer to local density of species, total extant global species, diversity within a species, and/or variety of ecosystems). Biodiversity is not equivalent to ecosystem services - as I demonstrate in this post.
Breakdown of Ecosystem Services
The estimated dollar equivalents of [...]
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Outline:
(00:19) What Has Nature Done For Me Lately?
(01:31) Breakdown of Ecosystem Services
(03:53) The Value Estimates In This Table Are Flawed
(06:00) Some Other Ideas for Measuring Value
(08:16) Option Value
(09:19) A Case for Biodiversity as a Biotech Resource Library
(14:07) Conclusion
(16:03) References:
(16:06) Sources for my Claims about Ecosystem Services
(16:26) Nutrient Cycling
(18:24) Water Supply
(19:00) Pest Control
(19:44) Wild-Caught Fish
(20:22) Pollination
(20:43) Disease Control
(21:40) Flood Control
(22:21) Water Purification
(22:52) Major Assessments of Current Value from Nature:
(22:58) Recent Assessments:
(24:31) Older Assessments:
(25:19) Other Assessments:
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First published:
May 20th, 2026
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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.