Daily, G. C., T. Soderqvist, S. Aniyar, K. Arrow, P. Dasgupta, P. R. Ehrlich, C. Folke, A. Jansson, B.-O. Jansson, N. Kautsky, S. Levin, J. Lubchenco, K.-G. Maler, D. Simpson, D. Starrett, D. Tilman, and B. Walker. 2000. The value of nature and the nature

2.2.2 VALUES AND ATTITUDES: Valuing people and nature Both people and nature are continuously evaluated every time we say “I like someone or some place.” Comparative evaluations require a common standard and these may be aggregated as in approval ratings for government leaders or individualized as in test results for college entrance. One common standard for evaluation is monetary, giving answers to such questions as “how much it is it worth?” For items where there are extensive markets, average prices can serve as values. And while objectionable to many, monetary values are placed on human life as in the setting of compensation for loss of life and injury. Some benefits of nature in the form of productive ecosystem services are marketed, but most are not, and a lively interdisciplinary field of ecological economics seeks to value nature to encourage its sustainability. The Reading addresses both the need to value nature and how to do it. Valuation requires the identification of alternate ways of providing needed services from institutions, technologies, and ecosystems, the costs and benefits of each in terms of human well-being, and comparable means for estimating these when much is unknown or uncertain.

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