One of the lessons of the book Natural Capitalism is that current economic calculations fail to account for the value of leaving intact ecosystems in place - if a felled forest is worth some amount of dollars, what's the opportunity cost in terms of damage to fisheries, carbon storage capacity, tourism, etc... these literal dollar costs, if calculated and added up, are often far higher than the short term gain had by the company which does the logging.

Anyway, once looked at as offbeat, such principals are gaining more acceptance (perhaps because they're more accurate!). No greater authority than the Federal Reserve Bank has just published a report sugesting the value of a living tree, as opposed to a cut one. That's pretty impressive given the current administration.

Buy the book, it's good.