To value the natural resources of the planet requires pricing the priceless. However a report by the United Nations has done just that: damaging the natural environment costs between $2,000bn and $4,500bn per year, the study says.

Numbers are not the only reason to care about nature but they do capture one reason to value diversity. This week sees the 10th Convention on Biological Diversity in Nagoya, Japan. The wider recognition of nature’s contribution to our livelihood, however, is not just an issue for environment ministers, green groupies and tree-huggers.

The estimates in this report, by Indian economist Pavan Sukhdev, vary by $2,500bn – so much as to be almost meaningless, even if they are correct. Imperfect as they must be, they are still better than nothing. We should welcome attempts to measure how much natural capital depreciates through human activity. Other alternative forms of capital – human, social, intellectual – are now central to policy analyses. We must put some number on degrading our natural assets to give them a value in political calculations.