• Richard Branson, Jane Goodall and Edward Norton might seem like strange bedfellows. • But in 2012, at the Earth Summit in Brazil, they stood together on stage making the case that putting a price tag on nature was the only sensible way to prevent its destruction. • Goodall, who spent decades studying chimps in Tanzania, took the microphone and wavered a bit: “It’s a bit shocking to me that we have to do that. • I know why we have to do that. • It makes perfectly good sense… But we mustn’t forget, for the sake of our children and great-grandchildren, to keep alive that reverence for the natural world.” Her words held an ambivalence that many biologists felt towards the idea of recasting coral reefs, tundra and tropical forests in terms of dollar bills, says environmental scientist and anthropologist Daniel Suarez at Middlebury College in Vermont. • But they hoped that by speaking the same language as financial markets and the boardroom executives who live by them, they could help plummeting wildlife populations to flourish.
Article Summaries:
- Richard Branson, Jane Goodall and Edward Norton might seem like strange bedfellows. But in 2012, at the Earth Summit in Brazil, they stood together on stage making the case that putting a price tag on nature was the only sensible way to prevent its destruction. Goodall, who spent decades studying chimps in Tanzania, took the microphone and wavered a bit: “It’s a bit shocking to me that we have to do that. I know why we have to do that. It makes perfectly good sense… But we mustn’t forget, for the sake of our children and great-grandchildren, to keep alive that reverence for the natural world.”
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