Pricing Nature: Failing to Measure the Immeasurable

The value of Earth`s ecosystems cannot be correctly measured by monetary units as they cannot capture the infinite value nature has for humanity. A better way for valuation and protection of natural ecosystems would be the identification and quantification of nature`s buffering capacities and their corresponding tipping points for different global natural cycles, which would serve humanity as objective biophysical limits in all economy-nature interactions. These limits could be applied at different scales, from global to local in the process of decision making. This study presents also an example of the inseparable relations between the buffering capacities and their tipping points for water and carbon cycles. This example demonstrates that land biomes` buffering capacities for water cycling and carbon sequestration have reached their tipping points simultaneously in the middle of 19th century. Avoiding these negative trends requires the implementation of a massive reforestation plan at global scale within a few decades.