Info, news & views for anyone interested in biodiversity conservation and good environmental decision making
“The world’s richest eight people, a group small enough to fit around a dining room table, own as much wealth as the poorest half of humanity – some 4.1 billion people.”
Scott Leckie, How much wealth is too much?
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In this issue of Dbytes
1. Valuing nature’s contribution: a national ecosystem accounting perspective
2. Can we alter ocean chemistry to absorb carbon?
3. Can rewilding offer us a brighter, greener future?
4. The windscreen phenomenon is misinformation
5. As swift parrots kept breeding in this forest, the government realised it had a problem
6. Why climate scientists need to talk more about the very worst‑case scenarios
7. Why nature belongs on America’s balance sheet
8. Understanding democratic erosion
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1. Valuing nature’s contribution: a national ecosystem accounting perspective
Nature is essential to human well‑being and economic activity. When we do not account for nature, there is a risk of unsustainable natural resource use, mismeasurement of progress and underinvestment in nature. The simplest reason for measuring and valuing nature is that as a society we cannot manage what we do not measure. The internationally adopted System of Environmental-Economic Accounting – Ecosystem Accounting (SEEA EA) integrates environmental and economic information into a single, internationally recognised accounting framework that supports sustainable development, natural resource management and evidence-based policy. However, valuing ecosystem services in general remains complex and contested. This paper provides deeper insight into Australia’s National Ecosystem Accounts, going beyond the headline monetary figures to unpack what sits behind the numbers and offering additional explanation of how the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) goes about valuing ecosystem services.
Valuing nature’s contribution: a national ecosystem accounting perspective | Australian Bureau of Statistics
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2. Can we alter ocean chemistry to absorb carbon?
Scientists are investigating ways to lock up more atmospheric carbon in our oceans, forests and soils. One of the proposed methods is ocean alkalinity enhancement. This aims to boost the ocean’s natural ability to absorb and store atmospheric carbon dioxide by changing the chemistry of seawater.
Can we alter ocean chemistry to absorb carbon? Here are the pros and cons
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3. Can rewilding offer us a brighter, greener future?
Craig Johnson, a marine biologist, was one of the first to document the decline of giant kelp forests and to think of rearing warm-tolerant giant kelp varieties and reseeding them in the wild, through his work at the University of Tasmania’s Institute for Marine and Antarctic Science. Now, teams of researchers are working on just this, buoyed by the possibility of restoring Tasmania’s iconic undersea forests. Trials have shown that giant kelp forest can return in the space of a year. So nature can heal if given a chance. The dream is that warm-tolerant strains could be successfully reared and replanted at scale, and that these forests would reseed more forests.
Friday essay: can rewilding offer us a brighter, greener future?
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4. The windscreen phenomenon is misinformation
Many commenters essentially agree that the windscreen phenomenon [the observation that fewer splatted bugs on windscreens is evidence of catastrophic declines in insect biodiversity] is probably not accurate evidence of decline, but they argue ‘it doesn’t matter’ if it engages people. We heard similar flawed arguments about the insect apocalypse narrative.
Engages people with what? Misinformation?
This is science denialism. It absolutely matters what narratives we use to engage with science. Misinformation engages us with a fantasy. It doesn’t respect diverse audiences and it doesn’t support critical thinking. It denies the scientific method and attempts to invalidate scientific results. It potentially drives actions or inactions that exacerbate environmental problems. It also risks a decline in public trust and understanding of science.
The windscreen phenomenon is misinformation – Ecology is not a dirty word
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5. As swift parrots kept breeding in this forest, the government realised it had a problem
The Tasmanian government’s own advice was saying that native forest logging practices needed to be urgently reviewed. But what was the cost of protecting critical habitat when forestry jobs were at stake?
As swift parrots kept breeding in this forest, the government realised it had a problem – ABC News
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6. Why climate scientists need to talk more about the very worst‑case scenarios
As scientists learn more about how climate change could trigger catastrophic flooding, wholesale collapse of food supplies and millions of heat-related deaths, there is a growing realisation that such risks need to be more widely understood and acted on. Too many people remain unaware about what could actually happen. Disasters like these are possible. Crucially, they are not yet inevitable. This lack of awareness is concerning, as I outlined with colleagues in an article published in February 2026 in the journal Nature. It fuels both climate denial and climate doomism. We have the evidence needed to help steer humanity towards greater safety, but scientists have not communicated that evidence effectively enough. We have tied ourselves too closely to a paradigm that focuses on best-known outcomes.
Why climate scientists need to talk more about the very worst-case scenarios
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7. Why nature belongs on America’s balance sheet
From watersheds to wildfire risk, the natural world provides services that don’t show up in America’s economic accounts. Ken Bagstad, a former U.S. Geological Survey economist and Woods Institute visiting fellow, explains why putting nature on the books could reshape decisions from Washington to any town, USA.
Why nature belongs on America’s balance sheet | Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment
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8. Understanding democratic erosion
Democratic erosion is the incremental and multifaceted deterioration in the freedoms, guarantees and processes vital to the functioning of democracy. Various studies have tried to pinpoint one cause or set of causes of democratic erosion. This report argues that democratic erosion is a systems problem that is best understood by applying systems thinking to identify and explore the complex processes and pathways behind the phenomenon.
Democracies do not usually collapse abruptly; they erode due to the gradual weakening of democratic norms, guardrails and institutions. Democratic erosion can lead to autocracy, but more often it results in lower democratic quality short of complete breakdown.
All instances of democratic erosion are characterised by the following interplay: conditions that provide an opportunity; actors who exploit these conditions for their anti-democratic agenda; and causal pathways that enable these conditions and actors to hollow out democracy.
We identify five reinforcing loops of democratic erosion: anti-democratic actors consolidate power; weakening of balancing institutions; entrenched division; loss of faith in democracy; and use of political violence.
Understanding democratic erosion: report and country case studies
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About Dbytes
Dbytes is a weekly eNewsletter presenting news and views on biodiversity conservation and environmental decision science. ‘D’ stands for ‘Decision’ and refers to all the ingredients that go into good, fair and just decision-making in relation to the environment.
From 2007-2018 Dbytes was supported by a variety of research networks and primarily the ARC Centre of Excellence for Environmental Decisions (CEED). From 2019 Dbytes is being produced by David Salt (Ywords). David was formerly the Editor of Decision Point, the research magazine of CEED.
Dbytes is supported by the Global Water Forum.
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