Transcript This lecture will help you understand

Lecture Outlines
Chapter 6
Environment:
The Science behind the
Stories
4th Edition
Withgott/Brennan
© 2011 Pearson Education, Inc.
This lecture will help you understand:
• Culture, worldviews, and
choices
• Environmental ethics
• Economics and the
environment
• Classical and neoclassical
economics
• Economic growth, wellbeing, and sustainability
• Environmental and
ecological economics
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Central Case: The Mirrar Clan Confronts the
Jabiluka Uranium Mine
• Commercially valuable uranium deposits in Australia
occur on sacred Aboriginal land
• The Mirrar oppose the mine for economic, social,
cultural, spiritual, ethical, and health reasons
- Despite the economic benefits of jobs, income,
development, and a higher standard of living
Mining options may be
revisited due to increased
uranium prices
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Ethics and economics involve values
• Both disciplines deal with what we value
– Values affect our decisions and actions
• Solving environmental problems needs more than
understanding how natural systems work
– Values shape human behavior
– Ethics and economics give us tools to pursue the
“triple bottom line” of sustainability
– Environmental, economic, social
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Culture and worldview
• Our relationship with the environment depends on
assessments of costs and benefits
- But culture and worldview also affect this relationship
• Culture = knowledge, beliefs, values, and learned ways
of life shared by a group of people
• Worldview = a person’s or group’s beliefs about the
meaning, operation, and essence of the world
- How a person sees his or her place in the world
People draw dramatically different conclusions about a
situation based on their worldviews
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Worldviews differ among people
• Well-meaning people can
support or oppose an action
• Some support uranium mines
- Jobs, income, energy,
economic growth
• Opponents see other impacts
- Destroyed land, pollution,
radiation poisoning
- Community disruption,
substance abuse, crime, etc.
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Culture and worldviews affect perceptions
• The landscape is a sacred text to
Australian Aborigines
- Holding their beliefs and values
- Equal to the Christian Bible or
Islamic Koran
• Spirit ancestors leave signs and
lessons in the landscape
- Aborigines construct mental
maps of their surroundings in
“walkabouts”
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Many factors shape worldviews
• Religious and spiritual beliefs shape our worldview
and perception of the environment
• Community experiences shape attitudes
• Political ideology: government’s role in protecting
the environment
• Economics
• Vested interest = the strong interest of an individual
in the outcome of a decision
- Results in gain or loss for that individual
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Environmental ethics
• Ethics = the study of good and bad, right and wrong
- Moral principles or values held by a person or society
- Promoting human welfare, maximizing freedom,
minimizing pain and suffering
- Relativists = ethics varies with social context
- Universalists = right and wrong remains the same
across cultures and situations
• Ethics is a prescriptive pursuit: it tells us how we ought
to behave
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Ethical standards: judging right and wrong
• Ethical standards = criteria that help differentiate right
from wrong
• Categorical imperative: the golden rule
- Most world religions teach this same lesson
- How would you feel if your sacred homeland was
defiled with a uranium mine?
• Principle of utility = something right produces the most
practical benefits for the most people
- A uranium mine could benefit thousands of people
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We value things in two ways
• Instrumental (utilitarian) value: valuing something for
its pragmatic benefits by using it
- Animals are valuable because we can eat them
• Intrinsic (inherent) value: valuing something for its own
sake because it has a right to exist
- Animals are valuable because they live their own lives
• Things can have both instrumental and intrinsic value
- But different people emphasize different values
• How we value something affects how we treat it
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Environmental ethics
• Environmental ethics = application of ethical standards
to relationships between human and nonhuman entities
• Hard to resolve: it depends on the person’s ethical
standards and domain of ethical concern
Should we save
resources for future
generations?
Should humans drive
other species to
extinction?
When is it OK to destroy a
forest to create jobs?
Is it OK for some
communities to be exposed
to more pollution?
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We have expanded our ethical consideration
• People have granted intrinsic value and ethical
consideration to more and more people and things
– Including animals, communities, and nature
– Animal rights activists voice concern for animals that
are hunted, raised in pens, or used for testing
• Rising economic prosperity broadens our ethical domain
• Science shows people are part of nature
– All organisms are interconnected
• Non-Western cultures often have broader ethical domains
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Three ethical perspectives
• Anthropocentrism = only humans have intrinsic value
• Biocentrism = some nonhuman life has intrinsic value
• Ecocentrism = whole ecological systems have value
- A holistic perspective that preserves connections
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History of environmental ethics
•
Christianity’s attitude toward the environment:
anthropocentric hostility or stewardship?
•
The Industrial Revolution increased consumption and
pollution
– John Ruskin: people no longer appreciated nature
•
Transcendentalism = nature is a manifestation of the
divine
– People need to experience nature
– Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau’s
Walden
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The preservation ethic
• Unspoiled nature should be protected
for its own intrinsic value
• John Muir had an ecocentric
viewpoint
– He was a tireless advocate
for wilderness preservation
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The conservation ethic
• Use natural resources wisely for the greatest good for the
most people (the utilitarian standard)
– Gifford Pinchot had an anthropocentric viewpoint
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The land ethic
• Healthy ecological systems
depend on protecting all
parts
– Aldo Leopold believed
the land ethic changes
the role of people from
conquerors of the land to
citizens of it
• The land ethic can help
guide decision making
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Deep ecology, ecofeminism, and justice
• Some scholars feel that male-dominated societies cause
both social and environmental problems
– Domination and competition degrade women and the
environment
• Ecofeminism = the female worldview interprets the
world through interrelationships and cooperation
– More compatible with nature
• Environmental justice = the fair and equitable treatment
of all people regarding environmental issues
– The poor and minorities have less information, power,
and money
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Environmental justice (EJ)
• The poor and minorities are exposed to more pollution,
hazards, and environmental degradation
North Carolina wanted to put a toxic waste site in the
county with the highest percentage of African Americans
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Environmental justice and Native Americans
• From 1948 to the 1960s, neither the U.S. government nor
industry provided Navajo miners with information or
protection
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Significant inequities still remain
• Significant inequities remain despite progress toward
racial equality
– Economic gaps between rich and poor have widened
– Minorities and the poor still suffer substandard
environmental conditions
• Poor Latino farm workers in California suffer from
unregulated air pollution (dairy and pesticide emissions)
– Organized groups convinced regulators to enforce the
Clean Air Act and state legislatures to pass new laws
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Environmental justice and Hurricane Katrina
People most affected by the hurricane and its aftermath
were poor and nonwhite
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Environmental justice: an international issue
• Wealthy nations impose pollution on poorer nations
- Hazardous waste is expensive to dispose of
• Companies pay poor nations to take the waste
- It is dumped illegally
- It may be falsely labeled as harmless or beneficial
- Workers are uninformed or unprotected
• The Basel Convention prohibits international export of
waste
- But illegal trade and dumping continue
- The United States has not ratified this treaty
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The environment vs. economics
•
Friction occurs between ethical and economic impulses
•
Is there a trade-off between economics and the
environment?
•
–
People say protection costs too much money, interferes
with progress, or causes job loses
–
But environmental protection is good for the economy
Traditional economic thought ignores or underestimates
contributions of the environment to the economy
–
Human economies depend on the environment
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Uranium mining: ethics vs. economics
• Uranium mining provides jobs and income
- Unemployment is above 16% among Aborigines
- 20% of mine employees are Aboriginal
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Economics
•
Economics studies how people use resources to provide
goods and services in the face of demand
•
Most environmental and economic problems are linked
•
Root oikos, meaning “household,” gave rise to both
ecology and economics
•
Economy = a social system that converts resources into:
– Goods: manufactured materials that are bought, and
– Services: work done for others as a form of business
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Types of modern economies
• Subsistence economy = people get their daily needs
directly from nature or their own production
– They do not purchase or trade products
• Capitalist market economy = buyers and sellers interact
to determine prices and production of goods and services
• Centrally planned economy = the government
determines how to allocate resources
• Mixed economy = governments intervene to some extent
– Unregulated financial practices caused the 2009
recession
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Governments intervene in a market economy
• Even in mixed market economies, governments
intervene to:
– Eliminate unfair advantages held by single buyers or
sellers
– Provide social services (national defense, medical
care, education)
– Provide safety nets for elderly, disaster victims, etc.
– Manage the commons
– Mitigate pollution and other threats to health and
quality of life
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The economy exists within the environment
• Economies receive inputs
(resources)
– Process them
– Discharge outputs (waste)
• Traditional economics
– Ignores the environment
– Resources are “limitless”
– Wastes are absorbed at no
cost
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Environmental view of economics
Human economies exist within, and depend on, the
environment for goods and services
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Environmental systems support economies
• Environmental goods = natural resources (sun’s energy,
water, trees, rocks, fossil fuels)
• Ecosystem services = essential services support the life
that makes economic activities possible
* Soil formation
* Pollination
* Water purification
* Nutrient cycling
* Climate regulation
* Waste treatment
• Economic activities affect the environment
– Depleting natural resources, generating pollution
15 of 24 ecosystem services are being degraded or
used unsustainably
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Adam Smith’s “invisible hand”
• Classical economics: when people pursue economic
self-interest in a competitive marketplace
– The market is guided by an “invisible hand”
– Society benefits
• This idea is a pillar of free-market thought today
– It is also blamed for economic inequality between
rich and poor
• Critics feel that market capitalism promotes
environmental degradation
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Neoclassical economics includes psychology
• What psychological factors
underlie consumer choices?
• Market prices reflect supply
vs. demand
– Buyers vs. sellers
• The “right” quantities of a
product are produced
– “Optimal” levels of
pollution, resource use
The market favors equilibrium between supply and demand
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Cost-benefit analysis
• Cost-benefit analysis = costs of a proposed action are
compared to benefits that result from the action
– If benefits > costs: pursue the action
• Cost-benefit analysis is controversial: not all costs and
benefits can be identified or defined
– It is easy to quantify wages paid to miners
– But hard to assess the cost of a scarred landscape
• Monetary benefits are overrepresented
– Analysis is biased in favor of economic development
– Biased against environmental protection
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Neoclassical economics
• Capitalist market systems operate according to
neoclassical economics
- Enormous wealth and jobs are generated
- Environmental problems are also created
• Assumptions of neoclassical economics:
- Resources are infinite or substitutable
- Costs and benefits are internal
- Long-term effects are discounted
- Growth is good
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Assumption: resources are infinite
• Economic models treat resources as substitutable and
interchangeable
- A replacement resource will be found
• Goods and services are treated as “free gifts of nature”
- Infinitely abundant, resilient, and substitutable
• But Earth’s resources are limited
- Nonrenewable resources can be depleted
- Renewable resources (e.g., forests) can also be
depleted
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Assumption: costs and benefits are internal
• Only the buyer and seller experience costs and benefits
- Pricing ignores social, environmental, or economic
costs of pollution and degradation
• Externalities = costs or benefits involving people other
than the buyer or seller
• External costs = borne by someone not involved in a
transaction
- Health problems, resource depletion, property damage
• Governments develop laws and regulations
- But how do you assign monetary value to illness?
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People suffer external costs
External costs include water pollution, health problems,
property damage, and harm to other organism
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Assumption: discounted long-term effects
• A future event counts less than a present one
• Discounting = short-term costs and benefits are more
important than long-term costs and benefits
- Present conditions are more important than future ones
- Cutting trees now brings in more money than cutting
them in the future
• Policymakers ignore long-term consequences of actions
- Puts costs of degradation, resource depletion, pollution
on to future generations
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Assumption: growth is good
• Economic growth = an increase in an economy’s
production and consumption of goods
- It is necessary to maintain social order
• Promoting economic growth creates opportunities for
poor to become wealthier
- Progress is measured by economic growth
• But economic activity and true wealth are not the same
- Affluenza = material goods do not always bring
contentment
- Runaway growth can destroy our economic system
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We live in a growth-oriented economy
• Growth is used to measure progress
- All economic growth is seen as good and necessary
- Economic growth is always good news
• Modern global economic growth is unprecedented
- Higher trade, production, amount and value of goods
• The United States has a “more and bigger” attitude
- Americans are in a frenzy of consumption
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Is the growth paradigm good for us?
The dramatic rise in per-person consumption has severe
environmental consequences
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Can growth go on forever?
• Economic growth comes from:
- Increased inputs (labor, natural resources)
- Economic development = improved efficiency of
production (technology, ideas, equipment)
• Uncontrolled economic growth is unsustainable
- Technology can push back limits, but not forever
- Efficient resource extraction and production
perpetuate the illusion that resources are unlimited
• Many economists believe technology can solve anything
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Cornucopians vs. Cassandras
• Cornucopians = economists, businesspeople,
policymakers
- Improved technology allows continued economic
growth
- Human innovation, technologies, and market forces
increase access to resources and avoid depletion
• Cassandras = scientists and others
- Limits to Growth, Beyond the Limits, Limits to
Growth: The Thirty-year Update
- Computer models predict economic collapse as
resources become scarce
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Computer simulations project future
trends
Current consumption
patterns predict economic
collapse
Results of policies
of sustainability
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Other types of economies
• Environmental economics = unsustainable economies
have high population growth and inefficient resource use
- Modify neoclassical economics to increase efficiency
- Calls for reform
• Ecological economics = civilizations cannot overcome
environmental limitations
- Endless economic growth is not possible
- Calls for revolution
• Steady-state economies mirror natural ecological
systems—they neither grow nor shrink
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A steady-state economy
• As resources became harder to find, economic growth
slows and stabilizes (John Stuart Mill, 1806–1873)
– Individuals and societies exist on steady flows of
natural resources
• Herman Daly does not think a steady state will evolve
on its own
– We must fundamentally change our economics
– This does not mean a lower quality of life
– Technology and behavior will enhance sustainability
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Measuring economic progress: GDP
• Gross Domestic Product
(GDP) = the total monetary
value of goods and services
a nation produces
– Does not account for
nonmarket values
– Does not express only
desirable economic
activity
– Pollution, oil spills,
disasters, etc. increase
GDP
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GPI: An alternative to the GDP
• Genuine Progress Indicator (GPI) = differentiates
between desirable and undesirable economic activity
- Positive contributions (e.g., volunteer work) not paid
for with money are added to economic activity
- Negative impacts (crime, pollution) are subtracted
In the United States, GDP has risen greatly, but not GPI
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More green accounting indicators
• Net Economic Welfare (NEW) = adjusts GDP by adding
the value of leisure time and personal transactions
- While deducting costs of environmental degradation
• Human Development Index = assesses a nation’s standard
of living, life expectancy, and education
• Sustainable Economic Welfare (ISEW) = based on
income, wealth distribution, resource depletion
• These indicators give a more accurate indication of a
nation’s welfare
- Very controversial, hard to practice
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Valuing ecosystem goods and services
• Our society mistreats the very systems that sustain it
- The market ignores/undervalues ecosystem values
• Nonmarket values = values not included in the price of a
good or service (e.g., ecological, cultural, spiritual)
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Assigning value to ecosystem services
• Contingent valuation = uses surveys to determine how
much people are willing to pay to protect or restore a
resource
- Measures expressed preferences
- But since people don’t really pay, they may overinflate
values
• Revealed preferences = revealed by actual behavior
- Time, money, effort people spend
- Measures actual costs of restoration, cleanup, etc.
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The global value of all ecosystem services
• The global economic value
of all ecosystem services
equals $46 trillion
- More than the GDP of all
nations combined
• Protecting land gives 100
times more value than
converting it to some other
use
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Markets can fail
• Market failure = occurs when markets ignore:
- The environment’s positive impacts
- The negative effects of activities on the environment
or people (external costs)
• Government intervention counters market failure
- Laws and regulations
- Green taxes = penalize harmful activities
- Economic incentives to promote fairness,
conservation, and sustainability (e.g., pollution
permits)
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The market can counter market failure
• Ecolabeling = tells
consumers which brands
use environmentally
benign processes
- A powerful incentive
for businesses to
change
- Dolphin-safe tuna,
organic food
• Socially responsible
investing in sustainable
companies
- $2.7 trillion in 2007
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Corporations are responding to concerns
• Industries, businesses, and
corporations make money by
“greening” their operations
- Ben & Jerry’s (ice cream),
Patagonia (clothing)
• Industries donate to
environmental groups,
preserve land, etc.
• Manufacturers use recycled
materials, cut energy use, etc.
• Local sustainable businesses
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A “green wave” of consumer preferences
• Large corporations are riding the “green wave” of
consumer preference for sustainable products
- McDonald’s, Starbucks, Intel, Ford, Dow, etc.
• Greenwashing: consumers are misled into thinking
companies are acting more sustainably than they are
- “Pure” bottled water may not be safer or better
• Any changes made by large companies will help
- Hewlett-Packard, Wal-Mart
• Corporate actions hinge on consumer behavior
- People must support sustainable economics
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Conclusion
• Recent developments have brought economic approaches
to bear on environmental protection and conservation
- Corporate sustainability, ecolabeling, new ways of
measuring growth, valuation of ecosystem services
• Environmental ethics has expanded people’s ethical
considerations
- Environmental justice
• Economic welfare can be enhanced without growth
- Increasing economic health and environmental quality
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QUESTION: Review
An anthropocentric worldview would consider the impact
of an action on:
a) Humans only
b) Animals only
c) Plants only
d) All living things
e) All nonliving things
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QUESTION: Review
Which ethic holds that unspoiled nature should be
protected for its own intrinsic value?
a) Land ethic
b) Preservation ethic
c) Conservation ethic
d) Deep ecology
e) Biocentrism
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QUESTION: Review
Which of the following is an ecosystem service?
a) Water purification in wetlands
b) Climate regulation in the atmosphere
c) Nutrient cycling in ecosystems
d) Waste treatment by bacteria
e) All of the above are ecosystem services
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QUESTION: Review
Which is NOT an assumption of neoclassical economics
that can lead to environmental degradation?
a) Resources are unlimited
b) Long-term effects are downplayed
c) Costs and benefits are experienced by buyers,
sellers, and the public
d) Growth is good
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QUESTION: Review
Which of the following statements would be spoken by
an environmental economist?
a) The current economic system is working well.
b) The current economic system simply needs to be
fine-tuned.
c) The current economic system is broken and a new
one needs to be developed.
d) Economic systems never work.
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QUESTION: Interpreting Graphs and Data
Market equilibrium, which sets the price of a product, is
reached:
a) When supply exceeds
demand
b) When demand exceeds
supply
c) By demand when quantity
is low, and supply when
quantity is high
d) When supply equals
demand
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QUESTION: Interpreting Graphs and Data
Which conclusion can you draw from this graph?
a) GDP has not increased
since 1950.
b) Despite spending more
money, our lives are
not much better.
c) We are spending less
money, and our lives
are much better.
d) The GPI is not as
accurate as GDP.
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QUESTION: Viewpoints
Think of an issue in your community that could pit
environmentalists against economic development. What
do you think should prevail: environmental protection or
economic development?
a) Economic growth; we need the jobs
b) Environmental protection; we need the environment
c) Both; a compromise must be reached
d) Whatever costs the taxpayers the least
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QUESTION: Viewpoints
What entities do you include in your domain of ethical
concern?
a) Humans only
b) Humans and pets
c) Humans, pets, and other animals
d) Humans, pets, other animals, and nature
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