Chapter 6
Compare GDP to DPI
GPI adds to the GDP benefits such as volunteering and parenting...the GPI then subtracts external environmental costs such as pollution, social costs, and economic costs. Since 1950, the GDP has increased and GPI leveled off after 1975.
Habitat Island
Geographical boundaries due to habitat fragmentation like deforestation, isolation, roads, and highways.
Gross Domestic Product (GDP)
The total monetary value of final goods and services produced in a country each year. GDP sums all economic activity, whether good or bad, and does not account for nonmarket values.
Development
The use of natural resources for economic advancement (as opposed to simple subsistence, or survival). Improvements to quality of life.
Biodiversity
The variety of life across all levels of biological organization, including the diversity of species, genes, populations, and communities.
What incident precipitated the movement of environmental justice?
This principle is a response to the perception that minorities and the poor suffer more pollution than the majority and the more affluent: Industrial Revolution
Weak Sustainability vs. Strong Sustainability
Weak Sustainability= the idea that natural capital can be depleted as long as human-made capital increases to compensate Strong Sustainability= natural capital cannot be allowed to diminish because human capital cannot replace it.
What is the underlying tenet as expressed by Adam Smith?
When people pursue their own economic self-interest under the conditions of classical economics, the market place will behave as if guided by "an invisible hand" to benefit society as a whole.
How does discounting play into deforestation concerns?
With deforestation, the more quickly trees are cut, the more they are worth
Carbon Sequestration
a natural or artificial process by which carbon dioxide is removed from the atmosphere and held in solid or liquid form.
Aldo Leopold
Forest manager who helped implement a government policy of shooting predators to increase populations of game animals. He changed his perspective, though, arguing that "a thing is right when it tends to preserve integrity, stability, and beauty of the biotic community". His book, "A Sand Country Almanac", is one of the most influential in environmental ethics. His essay "An ethic"
Classical Economics
Founded by Adam Smith, holds that individuals acting in their own self-interest may benefit society, provided that their behavior is constrained by the rule of law. Under the right conditions, the marketplace will behave as if guided by an "invisible hand" to benefit society. Believed in free market place.
Why is cost-benefit analysis controversial?
It is controversial when not all costs and benefits can be easily identified, defined, or quantified.
Conservation Reserve Program in the US
pays farmers to retain natural vegetation...program seeks to defuse the dilemma of landowners who feel short-term pressure to clear forest for agriculture in spite of their ethical concerns about doing so
Ecolabeling
practice of advertising sustainable practices on the labels of certain products attract more consumers.
Green Washing
the practice of promoting environmentally friendly programs to deflect attention from an organization's environmentally unfriendly or less savory activities. this reduces costs and attracts more consumers for companies.
Describe two methods of coping with market failure with respect to the environment.
1. Government Intervention= can make laws and regulations, tax harmful activities, and design economic incentives to promote economic sustainability 2. Ecolabeling empowers consumers= better educated consumers can counteract market failure.
How can economic growth occur?
1. Increasing inputs (labor or natural resources) 2. Improving the efficiency of production with better methods or technology
What are the 4 assumptions of neoclassical economics?
1. Replacing Resources: natural resources and human resources are either infinite or largely substitutable and inter-changeable 2. External Costs: all costs and benefits associated with an exchange of goods or services are borne by individuals engaging directly in the transaction 3. Discounting: short term costs and benefits are granted more importance than long term costs and benefits 4. Economic Growth: an increase in an economy's production and consumption of goods and services
Market economies generally do not value ecosystem goods and services. Describe 7 nonmarket values.
1. Use Value= the worth of something we use directly 2. Existence Value= worth of knowing that something exists 3. Option Value= the worth of something we may use later 4. Aesthetic Value= the worth of something's beauty or emotional appeal 5. Scientific Value= the worth of something for research 6. Educational Value= the worth of something for teaching and learning 7. Cultural Value= worth of something that sustains or helps define a culture
Larger Island= _____________________ Biodiversity Smaller Island= ___________________ Biodiversity
1. more 2. less
Externalities (External Cost)
A cost borne by someone not involved in an economic transaction. They affect others besides the buyer and seller. Ex: health issues from pollution, decline in resources, such as fish in a stream, and aesthetic damage
Ethical Standards
A criterion that helps differentiate right from wrong. Ex: golden rule and principle of utility, which holds that something is right when it produces the greatest practical benefits for the most people.
Sustainable Development
A form of economic progress that maintains resources for the future. It meets the needs of the present without sacrificing the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. Sustainable development involves environmental protection, economic well-being, and social equity.
Anthropocentrism
A human-centered view of our relationship with the environment. Nonhuman things are given little or no intrinsic value. Costs and benefits of actions are evaluated solely on the positive and negative impacts on people.
Do payments help preserve the forest in Costa Rica? Before PSA, the deforestation rate was slowing. Can FONAFIFO distribute the PSA in a more economical way that will benefit the economy and the environment?
A key decision was to pay landholders to conserve forest on private land. The payments preserved forests by paying farmers to preserve forest, replant cleared areas, allow forest to regenerate naturally, and establish sustainable forestry systems. A more economically and environmentally friendly way is to make the program more accessible to small farmers and target payments to locations where forest is most at risk and environmental assets are greatest. The program had critics--some payments were wasted on people who had no plans to remove trees, and much of the money went to the wealthy landowners.
Watershed Protection
A means of protecting a lake, river, or stream by managing the entire watershed that drains into it.
Cost-Benefit Analysis
A method commonly used in neoclassical economics, in which estimated costs for a proposed action are totaled and then compared to the sum of benefits estimated to result from the action.
Contingent Valuation
A method of assigning market values: uses surveys to determine how much people would be willing to pay to protect a resource or to restore it after damage has been done.
Ecofeminism
A philosophical and political movement that combines ecological concerns with feminist ones, regarding both as resulting from male domination of society.
What is discounting?
A practice in neoclassical economics by which short-term costs and benefits are granted more importance than long-term costs and benefits. Future effects are thereby "discounted," because the idea is that an impact far in the future should count much less than one in the present.
Environmental Economists
A school of economics that modifies the principles of neoclassical economics to address environmental challenges. The goal is to attain sustainability within our economic systems. Whereas ecological economists call for revolution, environmental economists call for reform. The goal is to attain sustainability within our economic systems.
Economy
A social system that converts resources into goods and services.
Nonmarket Values
A value that is not usually included in the price of a good or service. Ex= ecosystem services
Worldview
A way of looking at the world that reflects a person's (or a group's) beliefs about the meaning, purpose, operation, and essence of the world.
Ecosystem Goods
Also known as natural resources, include fresh water, trees that provide timber, and the energy from the sun, wind, water, and fossil fuels.
Triple Bottom Line
An approach to sustainability that attempts to meet environmental protection, economic advancement, and social goals simultaneously.
Genuine Progress Indicator (GPI)
An economic indicator that attempts to differentiate between desirable and undesirable economic activity. The GPI adds benefits such as volunteerism and subtracts costs such as environmental degradation and social upheaval. This is an example of full cost accounting because it includes all costs and benefits.
Deep Ecology
An environmental movement and philosophy that regards human life as just one of many equal components of a global ecosystem.
Conservation
An ethic holding that people should put natural resources to use but also have a responsibility to manage them wisely. (in response to the industrial revolution)
Preservation
An ethic holding that we should protect the natural environment in a pristine, unaltered state.
Universalists
An ethicist who maintains that there exist objective notions of right and wrong that hold across cultures and situations.
Biocentrism
Ascribes intrinsic value to both human and nonhuman life. The biocentrist evaluates an action in terms of its overall impact on living things, including—but not exclusively focusing on—human beings. Biocentrists may oppose clearing a forest, even if it would increase food production for people.
Cornucopians vs. Cassandras
Cornucopians assume that human ingenuity can overcome environmental constraints, allowing indefinite growth. Cassandras believe indefinite growth is not possible.
Internal Costs
Costs directly borne by individuals taking part in an exchange of goods and services.
Neoclassical Economics
Describes a conflict between buyers (who want a low price) and sellers (who want a high price). The compromise is the result of supply and demand. The market moves toward an equilibrium point, where supply equals demand. Only takes into account internal costs. Economics come first and everything else will follow.
How is sustainable development pursued worldwide?
Development involves making purposeful changes invented to improve the quality of human life. Sustainable development occurs when social, economic, and environmental goals overlap. -end poverty, hunger -promote health, build hospitals -ensure education, build schools -gender equality -sustainable energy, build power plants -promote jobs -infrastructure, build homes
How are economics related to the environment?
Economies receive inputs (such as natural resources and ecosystem services) from the environment, process them, and discharge outputs (such as waste) into the environment
Land Ethic
Help guide decision making= a thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability, and beauty of a biotic community
Intrinsic Value
If something is believed to have a right to exist and is valuable for its own sake. Market values can not be easily assigned to intrinsic values. Ex: a forest provides homes for other organisms that have a right to live
Instrumental Value
If something is value for the pragmatic beliefs that it brings us. Market values can be easily assigned to instrumental values. Ex: a forest has instrumental value due to its timber, game hunting, recreational uses, and water filtration
What was conservation and preservation in response to?
In response to the industrial revolution
Economics disagree on whether economic growth is sustainable. A steady-state economy is an alternative to growth. What must be done to obtain a steady-state economy?
It requires the reforms of environmental economists and the change in attitude of ecological economists. One approach is to assign monetary values to ecosystem goods and services and to better integrate them into traditional cost-benefit analysis.
Ecocentrism
Judges actions based on their effects on ecological systems, including both living and nonliving elements. For an ecocentrist, the well-being of an individual is less important than the long-term well-being of a larger integrated ecological system. It is the belief that preserving systems also preserves their components, including life, water quality, etc.
What are the environmental consequences of neoclassical economics?
Neoclassical economics assumes that natural and human resources are either infinite or can be substituted easily when used up. Therefore, fossil fuels can be depleted, soil, fish stocks, and forest products can be overexploited, and inexhaustible resources like water can become contaminated.
Subsistence Economy
Non-monetary economy which relies on natural resources to provide for basic needs, through hunting, gathering, and subsistence agriculture.
Development Ethic
People should be masters of nature and promote economic development as a priority
Ecosystem Services
Processes and the results of those processes that naturally result from the normal functioning of ecological systems and from which human beings draw benefits. Examples include nutrient cycling, air and water purification, climate regulation, pollination, waste recycling, and more.
Relativists v. Universalists
Relativists believe that ethics vary depending on the context of the problem. Universalists define objective notions of right and wrong that hold across many cultures and contexts.
John Muir
Scottish immigrant to the US who is the person most strongly associated with the preservation ethic. He argued that nature deserved protection for its own intrinsic value but also claimed that nature facilitated human happiness. He is the father of the national parks and started the environmental movement. He was an ecocentrist and anthropocentrist.
Adam Smith
Scottish philosopher argued that self-interested economic behavior can benefit society, as long as it is controlled: "father of classical economics". He proposed an "invisible hand" saying that the marketplace will behave as if guided by an "invisible hand" to benefit society.
Ethics
Set of moral principles or values used to determine right and wrong.
Economics
The study of how we decide to use scarce resources to satisfy demand for goods and services.
PSA (-Costa Rica)
Since the 1980s, Costa Rica has regained much of its forest cover through a program called Pago por Servicios Ambientales (PSA)--Payment for Environmental Services. In 1996, the government began paying farmers and ranchers to preserve forest on their land, replant cleared ares, allow forests to regenerate, and establish sustainable forestry systems. Funding came from beneficiaries of these ecosystem services such as irrigators and water suppliers. A 3.5% tax on fossil fuels was also levied. By 2015, more than 20% of the country's land area was registered in the program. Overall, the program was highly successful as forest cover rose from 17% in 1983 to 53% today, income has risen 60%, and 2 million tourists visit the country's vast system of natural parks each year.
FONAFIFO
The National Forestry Financing Fund, created by Forest Act 7575 in 1995. The general objective of Fonafifo is to finance small and medium producers for the handling of processes of reforestation, forestation, greenhouses and agroforestry systems, and for the recovery of deforested areas and the necessary technological changes in the use and industrialization of forest resources.
Environmental Ethics
The application of ethical standards to environmental questions. Making ethical judgements is grounded in certain values, such as promoting human welfare, protecting individual freedom, or minimizing suffering.
Deforestation
The clearing and loss of forests.
Market Failure
The failure of markets to take into account the environment's positive effects on economies (for example, ecosystem services) or to reflect the negative effects of economic activity on the environment and thereby on people (external costs).
Environmental Justice
The fair and equitable treatment of all people with respect to environmental policy and practice, regardless of their income, race, or ethnicity
Gifford Pinchot
The first professionally trained American forester. He helped establish the US forest service. He is the most closely associated person with the conservation ethic: "Provide the greatest food for the greatest number of people for the longest time". He had an anthropogenic view.
LEED Certification
The leading set of standards for certification of a green building.
Culture
The overall ensemble of knowledge, beliefs, values, and learned ways of life shared by a group of people.
Eco Labeling
The practice of designating on a product's label how the product was grown, harvested, or manufactured, so that consumers can judge which brands use more sustainable processes.