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USDA Office of Ecosystem Services and Markets
As people around the world await the inauguration of U.S. President-Elect Barack Obama on January 20, it seems that every week brings news and controversy that heightens expectations for 2009 to be a turning point in the American response to climate change. We recently learned of yet another encouraging development on Capitol Hill, this time in the United States' federal approach to ecosystem services.
On December 18, U.S. Agriculture Secretary Ed Schafer announced that there will be a new office in the USDA: the Office of Ecosystem Services and Markets. According to an official release, this office, along with a federal government-wide Conservation and Land Management Environmental Services Board, will "assist the Secretary of Agriculture in the development of new technical guidelines and science-based methods to assess environmental service benefits which will in turn promote markets for ecosystem services including carbon trading to mitigate climate change."
Worldchanging ally Dr. Trista Patterson, an ecological economist with the USDA Forest Service, tells us that "this new office of Ecosystem Services and Markets will be responsible for coordinating many federal agencies including Agriculture, Interior, Energy, EPA, Army Corps, Commerce, Transportation, Defense, Council of Economic Advisors and White House Office of Science & Technology."
Ecosystem services, which you can read more about in our archives via the links below, are a means of connecting economic systems to ecological systems. Basically, pricing ecosystem services gives us a way to calculate what nature already provides for free into the business plan. All industries on the planet are linked in some way to the natural environment whether the connection is obvious, as is the case for resource industries such as logging or mining, or more indirectly, for many businesses who simply rely on a healthy environment to maintain healthy employees, healthy customers and a functional working and distribution infrastructure.
But the disconnect between the numbers that show up on a balance sheet and the real numbers when it comes to environmental degradation and its impacts, is dangerous. Without factoring in environmental costs and benefits, companies and even governments miss a huge part of the picture when evaluating present and future costs and dividends associated with a project. Placing monetary values on the services that ecosystems provide, from flood control to climate management, is an important step toward making the invisible visible, and creating a set of tools for making clear decisions on difficult issues where business and environmental issues clash.
Schafer has chosen Sally Collins to be the first Director of the Office of Ecosystem Services and Markets (OESM). Collins, who has served as Associate Chief of the USDA Forest Service for the past eight years, has championed work in ecosystem services and markets within that agency, as a concept to promote sustainable land management. According to the USDA, this is how the OESM will work, at least in its first year:
OESM will provide administrative and technical assistance to the Secretary in developing the uniform guidelines and tools needed to create and expand markets for these vital ecosystem services and will support the work of the Conservation and Land Management Environmental Services Board. As directed by the authorizing legislation the first ecosystem services to be examined will be carbon sequestration. The Office of Ecosystem Services and Markets and the Conservation and Land Management Environmental Services Board will be established to implement actions authorized by the 2008 Farm Bill.
The Conservation and Land Management Environmental Services Board, as defined by this charter, in accordance with the 2008 Farm Bill, is chaired by the Secretary of Agriculture, and comprises key White House advisers including the Secretaries of Commerce, the Interior, Energy, Transportation, and Defense; the EPA Administrator; the Assistant Secretary of the Army; the White House Council of Economic Advisors; and the Office of Science and Technology Policy. This new role in developing policy regarding ecosystem services adds yet another dimension when we consider Obama's recent picks for these positions (particularly the choice of former Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack as Secretary of Agriculture, which has generated some skepticism). But the inclusion of so many highest-level advisers, across so many departments, is also a sign that the federal government understands the crucial concept of interdependence when it comes to environmental policy.
In 2007, Worldchanging contributors Hassan Masum, David Zaks, and Chad Monfreda posted an interview with team members of the People & Ecosystems program of the World Resources Institute. The Washington D.C.-based think tank has produced tools and leading original research that inform both the scientific and policy communities. In the interview, the WRI team addressed points that stand out now, when viewed against the USDA announcement.
Research analyst Evan Branosky commented on the need for a better understanding of the problem and solutions as obstacles to the creation of a meaningful and unified ecosystem services model:
I've found that potential stakeholders understand the concept of trading quite well. This is due, in part, to the advent of carbon markets. The main criticism (and sometimes, skepticism) is more focused on the regulatory driver and design of the market. No one argues that emissions trading is a tool to efficiently regulate CO2; they argue instead about the science of global warming, the regulatory driver behind the program, the design of the market structure, and the market's geographic scope.GIS Research Analyst Stephen Adam (who has since left WRI) discussed the need for a federal office to unify the ecosystem services approach:
Based on my experience, what's most needed to move implementation forward is political buy-in. While some individuals, businesses, and local governments will adopt ecosystem-minded policies and practices, it'll take a progressive federal government to allocate the necessary funds and create incentives for long-term programs oriented toward ecosystem goods and services. The debate over ecosystem goods and services will no doubt continue over the next decade, but government intervention and support is vital in the mainstreaming of ecosystems.Revisiting that interview, it seems that a lot of hopeful progress has been made in the less than 18 months since it was published. Of course, the creation of a federal office is merely the first step of a long journey, and the impact of the office on U.S. markets, domestic ecosystems and even international policies remains to be seen. But recognition at a federal level is a huge step forward, particularly because it seems that the question of "does climate change exist" and "should we do something about it" is quickly fading from U.S. politics (case in point: this recent video message from Obama). We hope to see a lot of progress in this arena in the year to come.
Read more about ecosystem services in the Worldchanging archives:
Ecosystem Services of Tropical Forests to be Protected with Precedent-Setting Memorandum
Ecosystem Goods and Services Series: The Biophysical Basis
Ecosystem Goods and Services Series: Valuation 101
Moving Ecosystems Services from Theory to Reality
Photo: Lower Falls, Yellowstone River Canyon, Yellowstone National Park. Credit: flickr/v1ctory_1s_m1ne, Creative Commons license.
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(Posted by Julia Levitt in Columns at 3:14 PM)
USDA Office of Ecosystem Services and Markets
As people around the world await the inauguration of U.S. President-Elect Barack Obama on January 20, it seems that every week brings news and controversy that heightens expectations for 2009 to be a turning point in the American response to climate change. We recently learned of yet another encouraging development on Capitol Hill, this time in the United States' federal approach to ecosystem services.
On December 18, U.S. Agriculture Secretary Ed Schafer announced that there will be a new office in the USDA: the Office of Ecosystem Services and Markets. According to an official release, this office, along with a federal government-wide Conservation and Land Management Environmental Services Board, will "assist the Secretary of Agriculture in the development of new technical guidelines and science-based methods to assess environmental service benefits which will in turn promote markets for ecosystem services including carbon trading to mitigate climate change."
Worldchanging ally Dr. Trista Patterson, an ecological economist with the USDA Forest Service, tells us that "this new office of Ecosystem Services and Markets will be responsible for coordinating many federal agencies including Agriculture, Interior, Energy, EPA, Army Corps, Commerce, Transportation, Defense, Council of Economic Advisors and White House Office of Science & Technology."
Ecosystem services, which you can read more about in our archives via the links below, are a means of connecting economic systems to ecological systems. Basically, pricing ecosystem services gives us a way to calculate what nature already provides for free into the business plan. All industries on the planet are linked in some way to the natural environment whether the connection is obvious, as is the case for resource industries such as logging or mining, or more indirectly, for many businesses who simply rely on a healthy environment to maintain healthy employees, healthy customers and a functional working and distribution infrastructure.
But the disconnect between the numbers that show up on a balance sheet and the real numbers when it comes to environmental degradation and its impacts, is dangerous. Without factoring in environmental costs and benefits, companies and even governments miss a huge part of the picture when evaluating present and future costs and dividends associated with a project. Placing monetary values on the services that ecosystems provide, from flood control to climate management, is an important step toward making the invisible visible, and creating a set of tools for making clear decisions on difficult issues where business and environmental issues clash.
Schafer has chosen Sally Collins to be the first Director of the Office of Ecosystem Services and Markets (OESM). Collins, who has served as Associate Chief of the USDA Forest Service for the past eight years, has championed work in ecosystem services and markets within that agency, as a concept to promote sustainable land management. According to the USDA, this is how the OESM will work, at least in its first year:
OESM will provide administrative and technical assistance to the Secretary in developing the uniform guidelines and tools needed to create and expand markets for these vital ecosystem services and will support the work of the Conservation and Land Management Environmental Services Board. As directed by the authorizing legislation the first ecosystem services to be examined will be carbon sequestration. The Office of Ecosystem Services and Markets and the Conservation and Land Management Environmental Services Board will be established to implement actions authorized by the 2008 Farm Bill.
The Conservation and Land Management Environmental Services Board, as defined by this charter, in accordance with the 2008 Farm Bill, is chaired by the Secretary of Agriculture, and comprises key White House advisers including the Secretaries of Commerce, the Interior, Energy, Transportation, and Defense; the EPA Administrator; the Assistant Secretary of the Army; the White House Council of Economic Advisors; and the Office of Science and Technology Policy. This new role in developing policy regarding ecosystem services adds yet another dimension when we consider Obama's recent picks for these positions (particularly the choice of former Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack as Secretary of Agriculture, which has generated some skepticism). But the inclusion of so many highest-level advisers, across so many departments, is also a sign that the federal government understands the crucial concept of interdependence when it comes to environmental policy.
In 2007, Worldchanging contributors Hassan Masum, David Zaks, and Chad Monfreda posted an interview with team members of the People & Ecosystems program of the World Resources Institute. The Washington D.C.-based think tank has produced tools and leading original research that inform both the scientific and policy communities. In the interview, the WRI team addressed points that stand out now, when viewed against the USDA announcement.
Research analyst Evan Branosky commented on the need for a better understanding of the problem and solutions as obstacles to the creation of a meaningful and unified ecosystem services model:
I've found that potential stakeholders understand the concept of trading quite well. This is due, in part, to the advent of carbon markets. The main criticism (and sometimes, skepticism) is more focused on the regulatory driver and design of the market. No one argues that emissions trading is a tool to efficiently regulate CO2; they argue instead about the science of global warming, the regulatory driver behind the program, the design of the market structure, and the market's geographic scope.GIS Research Analyst Stephen Adam (who has since left WRI) discussed the need for a federal office to unify the ecosystem services approach:
Based on my experience, what's most needed to move implementation forward is political buy-in. While some individuals, businesses, and local governments will adopt ecosystem-minded policies and practices, it'll take a progressive federal government to allocate the necessary funds and create incentives for long-term programs oriented toward ecosystem goods and services. The debate over ecosystem goods and services will no doubt continue over the next decade, but government intervention and support is vital in the mainstreaming of ecosystems.Revisiting that interview, it seems that a lot of hopeful progress has been made in the less than 18 months since it was published. Of course, the creation of a federal office is merely the first step of a long journey, and the impact of the office on U.S. markets, domestic ecosystems and even international policies remains to be seen. But recognition at a federal level is a huge step forward, particularly because it seems that the question of "does climate change exist" and "should we do something about it" is quickly fading from U.S. politics (case in point: this recent video message from Obama). We hope to see a lot of progress in this arena in the year to come.
Read more about ecosystem services in the Worldchanging archives:
Ecosystem Services of Tropical Forests to be Protected with Precedent-Setting Memorandum
Ecosystem Goods and Services Series: The Biophysical Basis
Ecosystem Goods and Services Series: Valuation 101
Moving Ecosystems Services from Theory to Reality
Photo: Lower Falls, Yellowstone River Canyon, Yellowstone National Park. Credit: flickr/v1ctory_1s_m1ne, Creative Commons license.
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(Posted by Julia Levitt in Columns at 3:14 PM)
Lawyer says Madoff cooperating with probes
Sanjay Gupta for U.S. Surgeon General?
The Washington Post is reporting that President-elect Barack Obama has asked Dr. Sanjay Gupta (who we recently interviewed) to serve as surgeon general:
The offer followed a two-hour Chicago meeting in November with Obama, who said that Gupta could be the highest-profile surgeon general in history and would have an expanded role in providing health policy advice, the sources said. Gupta later spoke with Tom Daschle, Obama's White House health czar and nominee for Health and Human Services secretary, and other advisers to the president-elect.The Michigan-born son of Indian and Pakistani parents, Gupta has always been drawn to health policy. He was a White House fellow in the late 1990s, writing speeches and crafting policy for Hillary Clinton. His appointment would give the administration a prominent official of South Asian descent and a skilled television spokesman.
What the post doesn't mention is that Dr. Gupta would bring to the administration a much deeper grounding in both global health issues and urban health innovations than recent surgeons general. Given his polished presentation skills and his fame, he may be able to make excellent use of the bully pulpit his position provides to educate Americans on the importance of an active U.S. role in global health issues, and the health benefits of sustainability and smart growth.
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(Posted by Alex Steffen in Health at 2:54 PM)
China builds inland Antarctic base
Japan Seeks Australia’s Help to Thwart Whaling Opponents
Alcoa to slash jobs and sell 4 units
Gates projects Pentagon needs $70 billion more for wars
German tycoon Adolf Merckle commits suicide
Tehran Looks to the Skies for Cheap Power from the Sun
Iran is introducing the latest solar technologies to cut its oil consumption and bring cheaper electricity to its civilians
by Alok Jha
A concentrating solar power (CSP) plant in Spain that uses panels to reflect light on to a central tower to produce electricity. A pilot scheme using CSP has been started in Iran. Image credit: AP
Renewable energy experts in Iran have been quietly working on capturing sunlight to power their country.
According to officials, Iran has started 2009 by inaugurating a pilot solar plant in Shiraz, Fars province. It is a concentrating solar power (CSP) system, using parabolic mirrors to focus sunlight onto a tube of water that is super-heated to make steam that is then used to turn electricity-generating turbines.
According to the Mehr Iran news agency, Iranian energy minister Parviz Fattah said: "The country backs the use of alternative and renewable energy sources. In future alternative energy sources will be greatly developed in the country. The growth of investments in this sphere is expected."
The solar radiation hitting the Earth contains around 10,000 times the energy needs of the world's population. CSP is seen by many as a simpler, cheaper and more efficient way to harness the sun's energy than other methods such as photovoltaic panels. But it only works in places with clear skies and strong sunshine. As such, large CSP plants of up to 20mw each are already in construction in the sunnier parts of the world.
Spanish firms, in particular, are moving quickly with CSP: more than 50 solar projects around Spain have been approved for construction by the government and, by 2015, the country will generate more than 2GW of power from CSP, comfortably exceeding current national targets. The companies there are also exporting their technology to Morocco, Algeria and the US.
At present the Iranian plant is small (just 250KW, probably enough for just over 200 family homes while the sun is shining) but the locally-built mirrors join thousands of smaller-scale solar-thermal installations already in place around the country.
Whether Iran has plans to build bigger solar plants or add photovoltaic panels to those plans is unclear, but an ambitious move in this direction would be a good idea. Not only because the region has a huge resource of sunlight falling onto it, so tapping even a small proportion of that would be a cheap and clean way to provide energy for the country.
This is an excerpt from Tehran Looks to the Skies for Cheap Power from the Sun, which originally appeared in The Guardian. Alok Jha is a science and environment correspondent at The Guardian.
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(Posted by WorldChanging Team in Energy at 10:45 AM)
Obama says U.S. deficit may approach $1 trillion
Many in U.S. military don't get time to vote: study
