An Answer to the Meaning of Life

"The well-intentioned dolts putting a price on nature are delivering it into the hands of business. "

"Picture, for example, a planning enquiry for an opencast coal mine. The public benefits arising from the forests and meadows it will destroy have been costed at £1m per year. The income from opening the mine will be £10m per year. No further argument needs to be made. The coal mine’s barrister, presenting these figures to the enquiry, has an indefeasible case: public objections have already been addressed by the pricing exercise; there is nothing more to be discussed. When you turn nature into an accounting exercise, its destruction can be justified as soon as the business case comes out right. It almost always comes out right. "

http://www.monbiot.com/2011/06/06/an-answer-to-the-meaning-of-life/