单项选择题
The value a healthy environment provides is invisible in the global economy, leading to ecosystem degradation and species loss, according to the Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB) study released recently. For example, bees and other insects jumping from flower to flower provide an essential service for crop production, valued at an astonishing $ 200 billion.
As the value is inconspicuous, we tend to ignore it. However, the "broken" financial system must be reformed so that the environment and the valuable services it provides are incorporated into every decision and transaction, the report concludes. That is vital not only for slowing environmental destruction and species loss, but for modern economies to flourish, Sukhdev, leader of the study, said.
While most cost-benefit analyses look at natural resources that can be extracted, such as gold, timber and food, those products only account for one-third of the total economic value provided by the environment, the report said. Other "ecosystem services", such as pollination(授粉), forests filtering drinking water and wetlands providing flood protection, make up the other two-thirds.
Currently, businesses do not pay for the loss of services caused by production or development. Estimated at $ 2.2 trillion annually for the top 3,000 listed companies, those costs are passed onto society, or externalized.
"We are at a stage now where the rate of loss of ecosystem services and the rate of loss of biodiversity is so severe we cannot treat them as mere externalities of economics," said Sukhdev.
To internalize environmental values and costs, the TEEB report recommends implementing a variety of financial tools, such as charging for services, creating environmentally friendly markets with eco-labeling and providing financial incentives and subsidies for environmentally friendly businesses.
Normal business practices should report negative environmental externalities and offset their impacts so they have a net zero impact, or even a net positive impact, the report said. And subsidies for industries harming the environment, such as fossil fuels, should be phased out.
Environmental protection can also save money, according to the TEEB report. For example, New York saved more than $ 6 billion by paying farmers about $1 billion to change management of runoff (地表径流) to reduce the water pollution, rather than build a $ 6 billion to $ 8 billion wastewater treatment plant that would have cost between $ 300 million and $ 500 million a year to operate.
But convincing board rooms and consumers across the globe to start paying for things that have been free in the past is not going to be easy. Sukhdev said it is not going to happen overnight--new, emerging models will begin to compete with old, lingering ones.
"It could happen, but not in today’s environment," said Patrick Michaels, a senior fellow in environmental studies at the Cato Institute. "Right now, people-and it’s not just the U.S.--people are worried about economic contractions more than they are about environmental protection.\
A. It is caused and paid for by businesses.
B. It is estimated at $ 2.2 trillion every year.
C. It is transferred to society or externalized.
D. It can be seen as an externality of economics.