Mark Schaefer reviews “The Last Animal” by Ramona Ausubel.

The concept of nature as capital is gaining visibility in policies and practices in both the public and private sectors. This change is due to an improved ability to assess and value ecosystem services, as well as to a growing recognition of the potential of an ecosystem services approach to make tradeoffs in decision making more transparent, inform efficient use of resources, enhance resilience and sustainability, and avoid unintended negative consequences of policy actions. Globally, governments, financial institutions, and corporations have begun to incorporate natural capital accounting in their policies and practices. In the United States, universities, nongovernmental organizations, and federal agencies are actively collaborating to develop and apply ecosystem services concepts to further national environmental and economic objectives. Numerous federal agencies have begun incorporating these concepts into land use planning, water resources management, and preparations for, and responses to, climate change. Going forward, well-defined policy direction will be necessary to institutionalize ecosystem services approaches in federal agencies, as well as to guide intersector and interdisciplinary collaborative research and development efforts. In addition, a new generation of decision support tools are needed to further the practical application of ecosystem services principles in policymaking and commercial activities. Improved performance metrics are needed, as are mechanisms to monitor the status of ecosystem services and assess the environmental and economic impacts of policies and programs. A greater national and international financial commitment to advancing ecosystem services and natural capital accounting would likely have broad, long-term economic and environmental benefits.

Addressing serious environmental and economic challenges in the United States will require organizational changes at the federal level.

The world is facing a global water crisis. Already, deficiencies in water supply and water quality are causing widespread human suffering. About 1.1 billion people lack access to clean water, and 2.6 billion do not have access to improved sanitation facilities. Everyday, 4500 children throughout the world die from preventable diseases caused by the lack of clean water and sanitation. China, India, and the United States are all facing major shortages of freshwater, and water pollution is having serious impacts on public health and the environment in both China and India. Major investments in science and technology will be required to address the water issues of the future. A new generation of innovative, small-scale technologies is needed to prevent and control pollution, and to restore watersheds. Creative, collaborative approaches to addressing the world's decline in freshwater resources are urgently needed. (C) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

S everal recent studies have independently come to a consistent and deeply troubling conclusion: The diversity of life on our planet is declining rapidly, and in the absence of well-targeted conservation efforts, that trend will surely accelerate in the decades ahead. Loss of habitat, invasive