[thecavemaster]

"What is a pristine rainforest worth? How about fresh air? Clean water? They are worth an infinite amount...and nothing. Infinite in the aesthetic, spiritual sense. I have as difficult a time, personally, putting a number value on a rainforest as I would putting a price tag on my mother. How much are your children worth to you? Some things have an intrinsic value that is priceless. But the free market alone, its invisible hand unbound, assigns no value to ecosystem services--phenomena like the ozone layer filtering cancer-causing ultraviolet rays; a forest spewing oxygen; a healthy river acting as a watershed." -William Powers from Whispering in the Giant's Ear