Today (7th May 2019), the media picked up on the importance of the scientific paper which I revealed yesterday, which calculates the economic cost of ash dieback in Britain to total £15 billion.
Here’s a selection of the resulting press interest (updated 8th May 2019):
- New Scientist
- The Guardian
- The Times
- The Independent (though confused £millions with £billions!)
- The Daily Mail
- The Scotsman
- BBC Radio Oxford
- BBC Radio 4 Today Programme and local radio
- BBC news website
- BBC Farming Today (response from government Chief Scientist)
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Hi Gabriel. The cost of ash dieback is pretty staggering. The cost of Emerald Ash Borer in North America must be much greater I think. The incoming populist Premier of Ontario announced he is scrapping a 5 million trees project, whereas I notice several countries, including UK, plan to plant BILLIONS of trees. I organized High School students to plant c180 trees. We will do more in future ! Cheers, Ned Cundall
Good to hear from you Ned. You may be right. I found the following on the USDA website. Whilst it shows the cost to be less by some considerable amount than the £15 billion for ash dieback in the UK, the researchers did not estimate the costs arising from the loss of ecosystem services:
“The simulations predict a growing EAB infestation that is likely to include most of the 25 states. Responses to the infestation include treatment, removal, and replacement of more than 17 million ash trees at an estimated cost of $10.7 billion.” Read more