Do we need nature?

There's less than a month left in which to write the next award-winning essay in the Shell Economist Writing Prize. If you are not familiar with the competition, the winning entries from previous years have been impressive. A Ramble to Africa (Adobe Acrobat Reader required), which addressed the question Going faster, but where? in 2001, was particularly memorable.

This year's topic is Do we need nature? and a quick search of Daypop reveals that a couple of weblogs have already discussed it. For an analysis of the strategic options available to aspiring authors see Secretly Ironic: Do we need nature. For a less than rigorous debate featuring some serious cynics see MetaFilter for June 19, 2003.

So hurry up and get writing. You could win $20,000 US.