<
https://theconversation.com/coral-bleaching-is-not-only-heartbreaking-its-also-bad-economics-237468>
"The latest official update on the health of the Great Barrier Reef is
heartbreaking.
Released on Friday, the fourth five-yearly Outlook Report prepared by the Great
Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority says the window of opportunity to secure a
positive future for the Reef is “closing rapidly”.
While the overall condition of coral reef habitats had improved from “very
poor” to “poor” in the five years to December 2023, the return of mass coral
bleaching in early 2024 after the reporting period and the future global
temperature increases already locked in made further degradation “inevitable”.
The report talks of “difficult choices and trade-offs”, but we argue that
investing in reef protection is in fact excellent economics.
Rather than just thinking about the economic cost of measures to support the
Reef, we ought to be also thinking about the economic benefits of those
measures, which are almost certainly larger. This makes supporting the Reef a
win-win.
A 2017 Deloitte Access Economics study put the annual value added to the
economy from the Reef at A$6.4 billion.
Nearly 90% of that benefit ($5.7 billion) came from one industry – tourism
(pre-covid). Smaller economic benefits came from fishing ($162 million),
recreation ($346 million) and scientific research ($182 million).
But these are only four of about 20 categories of so-called marine ecosystem
services linked to marine ecosystems, among them coastal protection, climate
regulation, pollution removal, oxygen production and cultural significance."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
