Clearwater’s Economic Wealth Depends on its Environmental Health

During tough economic times, it sometimes feels as though environmentally sustainable practices are a luxury, something we can’t afford when struggling to make ends meet.  But when you think about it, our economic survival depends on environmental quality—especially here locally, where our top industry, tourism, couldn’t survive without it.

I got to thinking about this after reading “Testing the Waters 2011,” an annual report by the Natural Resources Defense Council, which reviews water quality testing and data from hundreds of beaches nationwide.  The report focuses mostly on unhealthy bacteria levels (the type caused by sewage and storm water run-off), although the BP oil spill disaster contributed to making 2010 the second-worst year on record. 

The good news is that Florida’s overall beach water quality stood at 6^th place nationally and was generally of good quality.  Which illustrates my point:  Protecting beach water quality is important not only to us locals who enjoy a regular dip in the Gulf, but to our economy as a whole.

According to the Clearwater Regional Chamber of Commerce’s website, tourism is responsible for 85,000 jobs in Pinellas County and has an economic impact of $6.65 billion.  Pinellas welcomed 13.6 million visitors in 2010 alone, and anyone who frequents Clearwater Beach knows we get a large share of them locally.  In fact, tourism accounts for 20% of our state tax revenue.

But what would happen to our economy if our beach water quality deteriorated?  What if our beaches were impacted by an oil spill like too many unfortunate Gulf Coast communities last year, or if fertilizer, storm water or sewage runoff caused bacteria levels to close our beaches?  Tourists wouldn’t come.  Their vacation dollars would go elsewhere.  Local jobs and our tax base would suffer.     

This is just one very obvious example of how our economic health depends on a healthy environment.  It has been estimated that “ecosystem services”—those benefits we derive from the environment—provide us benefits with an average value of $33 trillion a year globally, according to a May 1997 article in Nature. 

In our case, the eco system services bestowed on us by our natural environment—our sugar-sand beaches, our sunshine, our wildlife, our estuaries and waterways, our semi-tropical climate—are too valuable to measure.  Perhaps especially in Pinellas, it is difficult to imagine what life would be like without the treasures Nature has bestowed.  It’s therefore especially important for us all to do what we can to live sustainably because ultimately, our economic well-being depends on it.