Ellen: Support A group of economists and ecologists recently estimated the economic value of Earth's biosphere's "essential services," such as climate regulation, food, and water supplies, at $33 trillion annually. ██ ██████ █████████ ████ ██████████ ██ ███ █████████ █ ████ █████████
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Ellen says that we should prioritize protecting Earth’s biosphere. This is supported by a recent estimate by a group of experts that the biosphere provides $33 trillion worth of “services” to humans each year.
Santiago concludes that we should not use an economic approach to justify protecting the biosphere. Why not? Because taking that approach implies that the biosphere is primarily important due to the “services” it provides. Santiago presumably thinks that the biosphere’s truest value lies elsewhere.
We want to find a disagreement between Ellen and Santiago. They disagree about whether economic valuation is a good justification for protecting Earth’s biosphere.
On the basis of their █████████ ██ ███ ████ ██████████ ██ █████████ ████ █████ ███ ████████ ████████ ████ ███ █████ ██ █████ ███ ██ ███ █████████ ███████████
Estimating the dollar █████ ██ ███ ███████████ █████████ ████████ ██ ██ ███████████ ███ ██ █████████ █ █████████ ███ ██████ ██████████ ██ ███ █████████ █ ████ █████████
Ellen agrees and Santiago disagrees, so this is the disagreement. Ellen’s argument does exactly this, using an estimated dollar value to rationalize protecting the biosphere. Santiago, though, says that economic value is not how we should justify protecting the biosphere.
The biosphere's most █████████ █████ ████ ██ █████████ █████ ████ ███ ████████ ██ ████████ ██ █████ ███████
Santiago agrees with this, but Ellen never disagrees. Ellen focuses on the value of the “services” provided by the biosphere, but doesn’t eliminate the possibility of a more important value.
Calculating the dollar █████ ██ ███ ███████████ █████████ ████████ ██ ███ ████ █████████ ███ ██ ██████ ████ ██████████ ███ █████████ ██ ███████ ██ █ ██████ ██ ████████
Neither speaker talks about what would be the most effective way to ensure that the biosphere is urgently protected, so we can’t say that either Ellen or Santiago expresses an opinion.
The idea that ███ ██████ █████ ██ ███ ███████████ █████████ ████████ ███ ██ ██████████ ██████████ ██ ████████████
Neither speaker makes this claim. Ellen accepts the idea of estimating this dollar value, and even Santiago doesn’t take issue with whether the calculation is realistic.
Calculating the dollar █████ ██ ███ ███████████ █████████ ████████ ███████ ████ ███ ███████████ ████ █████████ █████ ████ ██ ███ ████████ ██ ████████ ██ █████ ███████
Santiago agrees with this, but Ellen doesn’t disagree. Ellen doesn’t talk at all about the implications of doing this calculation, or about what the biosphere’s most important value is.
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