Importance of Accounting for Nature

The devastating floods in Spain are the latest in a relentless series of extreme weather events across Europe this year. From Poland to Portugal, Germany to Italy, and beyond, nearly every corner of the continent has faced severe floods, storms, or droughts.

Reading about these natural disasters and their dire consequences will never become normal. All unique in their unfolding and in the lives they impacted, these events are no longer rare. This is our new normal, and we need to start treating it as such.

Europe is the fastest-warming continent on Earth. The impacts are unmistakable: rising heatwaves, worsening droughts, wildfires, and floodwaters that devastate communities time and again. We can’t afford to keep hoping things will get better on their own.

We need action and a shift of perception of the value that healthy and resilient ecosystems can offer to us.

Maybe by accounting for the value of nature through its ecosystem services, we can stop thinking about the cost of protecting and restoring nature as a burden but an investment for us and our future generations to come.

What do you think?