There's something troublesome to me about the terms, even though I recognize their utility and inevitability. There's just something disturbing about thinking about Mother Nature (aka the earth ecosystem and all its little ecosystems, as it were) "servicing" humans.
As a practical matter, though, why not break the terms down into their constituent meanings and compare them? What does "ecosystem" mean, and what does "environment" mean? And what are "services," exactly? I find that this exercise, silly though it may seem at first glance, and even unnecessary, often gives me insights I never would have otherwise seen. Looking at the etymology can sometimes be particularly enlightening. "Definitions" have their uses; they also can be traps, not to mention semantic devices that can mislead. They tend to freeze the mind. WT At 02:38 PM 10/2/2007, Fabrice De Clerck wrote: >A quick question for the group - is there a distinction between >ecosystem services and environmental services, or are both terms >synonymous? > >Cheers, >Fabrice
