If we fully value natural resources, capitalism will have a better chance to live long and prosper. One can live perfectly well without ever giving a thought to the sulfur cycle or wetland functions. Only when the benefits nature provides are disrupted do we take notice. When rain disappears and soil blows away in the Southwest, when reservoirs become polluted, or when we learn that mercury contaminates the fish we eat from the Great Lakes, we suddenly grasp the effect of natural capital depletion.
Many regions face far more severe effects of natural capital depletion.
But each ecosystem depends on the health of all ecosystems. The atmosphere does not fathom whether CO 2 comes from U.S. oil or Chinese coal, nor do hurricanes lose force because the Heritage Foundation doesn't believe global warming is a problem. Living systems operate on laws over which we have no say. In some cases, as with copper, wood, and coal, the search for substitutes has indeed proved economically and technologically beneficial. Nevertheless, some forms of natural capital are simply irreplaceable.