Title: Natural Capital and Income
Headings: 
Natural Capital and Income
Natural Income: More than Resources

Content: Destroying Ecosystem Services Destroys Sustainability
Sustainable scale is exceeded for an ecosystem service when the rate of resource depletion reduces the capacity of natural capital to provide in the future the natural income it yielded in the past. Whether the process is with money or natural capital, as long as the draw down exceeds the rate of replenishment, the amount available will eventually shrink to zero - sustainability is destroyed. Thinking about sustainable scale forces us to focus at least as much on ecosystem services, and the natural income they provide, as on resources. Because natural capital is excluded from economic theory and practice, these vital, life supporting sources of natural income essential for sustainability, are considered to have no market value and are therefore ignored. The Competition for Natural Capital
The exchanges of energy and nutrients among the planet''s biotic and abiotic components created the earth's unique capacities to support complex life forms. Our planet's web of life depends on solar energy and exchanges of natural capital in life sustainaing processes. As the human species evolved, spread around the globe, and began increasing the level of material throughput via technology, it began competiting with other species and natural processes for the available, and finite, amounts of natural capital available. The success of this human activity is leading us to out-compete the natural world upon which we depend. Thinking about sustainable scale helps us think about the appropriate balance between the human use of natural capital, and the rest of nature''s use of the limited amount available (see Biodiversity ). Which Natural Capital Is Critical?