Rashid Sumaila
Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries and School of Public Policy and Global Affairs
University of British Columbia

via Zoom

Fish is more valuable than diamond?

I will introduce the concept of Infinity Fish, which is the title of my recent book. When we look around us we see the decline of renewable natural resources, such as fish stocks and forests; the pollution of the environment, e.g., marine plastic pollution; and the warming, acidification, and deoxygenation of the ocean, and we wonder why? Well, in Infinity Fish I argue that these depletions and destructions of nature are partly due to the way we value the environment (including our ocean and the marine life it holds) and how we value or not value all the amazing services it provides us. The lack of proper valuation of the goods and services derived from the environment is a fundamental reason why we have so far failed to take good care of the ocean (and the environment at large). It is essential that we get these valuations right, so that the ocean can, in turn, continue to take care of both current and future generations.