World financial systems took extreme risks that stunned us all. We will pay the consequences. We react with alarm to the collapse on Wall Street, but the collapse of our ecosystems often receives only passing consideration. We will all pay the consequences of this, too, now and in the future. Accustomed to the availability of our natural resources, we think of them as free and take them for granted. But, a decade ago, the World Resources Institute estimated an annual global price tag of $33 trillion dollars for ecosystem services. These services would be expensive, difficult or impossible to obtain without functioning ecosystems. We rely upon them to provide clean water and air, cycle carbon and other nutrients, and decompose wastes. We have squandered these valuable resources. Between 40 and 50 percent of the Earth’s ice-free land surface is damaged by human activity. Carbon dioxide emissions increased 3.1 percent per year between 2000 and 2006, more than twice the growth rate of the 1990s, despite unambiguous evidence that it was causing climate change and disrupting ecosystems worldwide. Utah can expect to warm faster than other parts of the world, a trend that would result in decreased […]