Ecosystem Services

Air-$100, Trees-$50, Snow-$75, Animals-$25

Can we really put a price on nature?  That is what the podcast at scientificamerican.com is discussing in ecosystem services matter.

Peter Kareiva, a scientist at The Nature Conservancy has put a dollar sign on nature services.  He states that if we aren’t putting a dollar sign on nature, say for parks and rivers clean up, we aren’t giving nature what it deserves.

I would have to agree that without putting a value on nature no one will care.  If we do’t care about nature it will eventually go away, and that’s not good.  Without nature we won’t have food to eat or oxygen to breath.  This is why we must give nature what it deserves, a clean healthy environment.  We can only give that to nature if we give it a dollar sign.

Mosquitoes?

God made everything in this world with a purpose... but mosquitoes come close.

Do mosquitoes have a purpose? Can they be eradicated?  Are they really that important?  I mean how useful can an obnoxious little pest that makes you itchy all over be?

Actually mosquitoes are vital to the survival of many species such as the mosquitofish.  The mosquitofish loves mosquitoes so much that they are actually stocked in rice fields and swimming pools as pest control.  If mosquitoes are eradicated the mosquitofish would go extinct.
Although the mosquito is quite a nuisance since they terrorize caribou in Alaska.  Alaskan mosquitoes form such thick swarms that they can asphyxiate the caribou!

Personally I would have to say that it would be bad to get rid of mosquitoes.  Mosquitoes are such vital parts of some ecosystems that getting rid of them could truly ruin a perfectly good ecosystem.  One example is most mosquitoes are large pollinators of plants such as cocoa.  If we rid ourselves of pesky mosquitoes we rid ourselves of chocolate! That’s not good! I think we can get along can’t we?  Just use bug spray.