“… we argue that destroying and replacing the free gifts of nature can be an economic benefit.”
— Gowdy et al. (2012): The Parable of the Bees: Beyond Proximate Causes in Ecosystem Service Valuation via Krulwich Wonders.
Robert Krulwich has a fascinating article that summarizes a research paper that looked into what happened when people had to replace the honeybees to pollinate fruit crops in China. Apparently, from a purely economic standpoint, humans did a better job — they pollinated more flowers — and because people had to be hired to do this, it helped the economy as well.
Despite the economic benefit, summarized by the alarmist quote above, the authors of the article actually use this example to argue that it is foolhardy to use this type of economic analysis for deciding what to conserve.
We do not argue that the positive economic benefits justifies eliminating natural processes. On the contrary, the Maoxian [, China] case illustrates the danger of allowing the logic of the market to drive conservation policy.
— Gowdy et al. (2012): The Parable of the Bees: Beyond Proximate Causes in Ecosystem Service Valuation.
↬ Dr. Sansone