John E. Losey, Essay Example

Many individuals agree and some disagree that there should be a price put on goods and services provided by the world’s ecosystems. John E. Losey, associate professor of entomology at Cornell University, and Mace Vaughan, Conservation Director at the Xerces Society of Invertebrates, believe that even the value of services provided by insects should be enough to justify increased conservation efforts. Marino Gatto and Giulio A. DeLeo, two professors of applied ecology, argue that putting a price natures services falsely indicates that only economic values are values are important (Easton, 2011).

Losely and Vaughan base their theory on pricing ecosystem goods and services provided by insects. To prove their argument they use calculations of economic values provided by insects including pollination, dung burial, pet control, and recreation and fishing commercial fishing. Using their calculation, Losely and Vaughan estimated that four ecological services provided these insects in the United States to be more than $57 billion. For this reason Losely and Vaughan argue that conservation efforts for insects should be justified by their economic value (Easton, 2011).

Gatto and De Leo argue that there are limitations to using cost-benefit analysis to make decisions concerning the ecosystem. They explained that using techniques such as the contingent valuation methods can be misleading and only provide an estimate of existing values, in which biologists have special interests. Gatto and De Leo also explained that instead of using cost benefit analysis to calculate the price on the environment, we should us multi-criteria analysis. The multi-criteria analysis method will assist in the decision making by choosing many alternatives instead of just two (Easton, 2011).

I agree with Losely and Vaughan’s views on how wild insects are enough to justify increasing conservation efforts. I personally think that there should be no limit on the price we pay for conservation. If insects like the dung beetle did not remove the waste from cows from the grass, then the cows would not eat and our beef supply wouldn’t exist. We also need our bees to pollinate plants and flowers that we need for consumption, oxygen, and fossil fuel. I personally believe that conservation efforts are necessary in order to protect our environment.

References

Easton, T. A. (2011). Taking sides: Clashing views on environmental issues (14th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.