Читать книгу Oceans For Dummies - Joseph Kraynak - Страница 35

Sticking a price tag on the ocean is a real challenge. How would you go about measuring its economic value? Would you use a metric like the one used for countries — gross domestic product (GDP)? And if the value of the ocean could be quantified, would it be considered rich compared to the countries with the biggest economies?

Well, in 2015, the World Wildlife Fund, the Global Change Institute (at the University of Queensland), and the Boston Consulting Group set out to quantify the ocean’s economic value. They did so by adding up the dollar value of the various benefits gained through fisheries, tourism, shipping, and coastal protection from coral reefs and mangroves, to name a few.

This massive analysis concluded that the sea is worth … wait for it … US$24 trillion. That’s trillion, with a “T.” Its annual gross marine product (the equivalent of GDP) was estimated to be US$2.5 trillion a year. That would rank the ocean as the world’s seventh largest economy, sitting between the United Kingdom and Brazil. Maybe, just maybe the ocean should have a seat at the G7 Summit … we’re just sayin’.

Here’s the breakdown from the study:

Ocean Asset	US$ Trillion
Marine fisheries	2.9
Mangroves	1.0
Coral reefs	0.9
Seagrass	2.1
Shipping lanes	5.2
Productive coastline	7.8
Carbon absorption	4.3
TOTAL	24

Back to the study. The people crunching the numbers admitted to being unable to factor in less tangible benefits of the ocean — you know, little things like producing over half of Earth’s oxygen, anchoring the water cycle, and regulating weather and climate. They didn’t even consider oil and minerals (from offshore drilling and mining), wind power, or the ocean as a source of new medicines. As a result, their estimates represent a vast undervaluation of the ocean’s worth to humanity, let alone all the other living creatures on the planet, but it is a good place to start and underscores just how important the ocean is to our global economy.

Visit www.worldwildlife.org/publications/reviving-the-oceans-economy-the-case-for-action-2015 for additional details from the study.