A review of VALUE - and say - whales

We are continuing our conversation about value this week! Value has different faces depending on what slice of time and history you find yourself considering. Take the value of a piece of metal wire. Well, nowadays if one were to find it in their house lying about, they may toss it - the average person is likely to not understand what could be done with it. Rewind only 80 years (not even) and you'd find many items that people bought were not only more durable, but the average person understood their workings and could, say, mend these things if need be. The value of a piece of wire found on the floor of that house in the 30s/40s could be the incalculable value of having a functioning radio for some - or an operable flashlight. It is easy to see value as fixed in time or as fixed within the dogma of one individual's life.

Economists seeking to calculate the value of one whale - have given us an understanding of the value of a whale as a storage locker for carbon. Life such as marine algae, fungi and trees also have methods of removing CO2 from the air through photosynthesis, the further storing of that carbon below soil or through building biomass, though this is a great over-simplification. The idea that trees gulp in CO2 and provide us with O2 is not completely without merit, though it seems to me - a total amateur - to leave out the great many details of nutrient retrieval, distribution and inter-linking between organisms and beyond. It is these additional pieces of information that give more life and understanding to the lives of other entities in their own right - outside of a perspective centered around their utility to us. Seeing other entities as mere air-cleaners also seems to place them in our mind as "meant to clean OUR air," a semantic frustration perhaps, but it is useful to understand why trees or whales or fungi USE or HOLD or BREAK DOWN CO2. With this knowledge, we can better learn the capacities for these entities, for were we to push beyond them, it may be difficult to rebalance the scale. I am also of the mind that a deeper understanding of our fellow Earth inhabitant offers us perspective of our strengths - sure, but more humblingly-so of our weaknesses and vulnerabilities.

I'm getting off topic perhaps...……..

With whales, their significance in sequestering carbon seems to have been understood even before this year. There is mention of it (though not in the valuation through money) in a 2010 peer review article that mentions the strong connection between whaling and fishing - and reduced carbon sequestering. As economies have become more intertangled commercially, money is a foundational language of value. I will add my own belief that, along with money, a great deal of value/power lies within data. In a time in history where the pulse of 'knowing' resides strongly within the fast moving world of social media - we find that data (even inaccurate or false data) can easily become someone's truth and actionable compass.

We are in a place in time that feels fragile for the human race on Earth. That fragility was observed in the late 18th c./early 19th c. when Alexander von Humboldt made notice of monoculture and its direct relationship to loss of biodiversity. How unfortunate it would be to make use of the facilities within the bodies of this world to sequester carbon - without, too, editing our own behaviors. I find it fascinating the 2 million dollar value that was calculated for the lifetime of a whale - sequestering on average 33 tons of carbon to the bottom of the ocean. That amount, in some respects, seems such a pittance for the life of a creature, however we are observing statistical value based on storing carbon (how much it would cost US to do what a whale does as a passive act by simply existing). Part of me cannot help but be amused at the proclaimed value of a superstar that comes up here and there. So and so is WORTH 2 billion dollars. Oh, are they? I bemuse myself with this because we can see two distinct methods of estimation. One system (in the case of the whale) continues in its value to the ecosystem regardless of our wavering economy; the other system has no mechanical value to the well-being of the ecosystem at all, but resides in the social economy - and still drives trends/money/power.

In school as a child, I remember learning human systems and their workings, but was never made to understand the human body or the human social network within the context of the ecological family. We learn a version of history, but the cost/value of our own lives remains quite a mystery to us. I suspect that individuals who live 'closer to the Earth,' so to speak, have a more direct understanding of their own resource usage. I do think this would be useful insight as we continue to understand the needs of the Earth as a living system in this slice of time and thinking forward. We have removed much of the already sequestered fuel from the depths to burn for our own energy and how clever that was indeed. Now - as we uncover the relationship of CO2 and the great diversity of life that has come to thrive in an Oxygen rich environment, we must use that perspective to systematically shut down damaging systems and engage with our environment with insight and respect.

There are natural systems that create CO2: sugars in trees being metabolized, decomposing biomass, fires etc...….. Many humans feel attacked when one mentions greenhouse gases and carbon footprints and reducing this or stopping that. There does have to be a sensitivity in approach, however looking within our own lifestyles to see how we take from and give to the greater ecology of our world - should be a priority.

A whale is extremely value spiritually to many, emotionally to many, physically - on Earth - it has great value as one who offers much nutrition to phytoplankton and - to those who require oxygen - as one who removes CO2 from the air. Of late, THAT KNOWLEDGE is not enough to inspire action in us. We require statistics and the lens of money to understand that value more directly. I ask how can we change our understanding of value to reside less in money and more in the direct physicality of our survival? Did we once have that ? What did it look like? Is it retrievable yet?

Send me your ideas and your questions and let's engage more on this conversation of value and nature.

Have a great week, Sarah