Transcript Day 24

End-of-term social for
Geography tomorrow at
3:30 in lounge next door
(followed by pub crawl);
also scholarship
applications available for
students completing 2nd
and 3rd years of their
Geography programs
GEOG 101: Days 21 and 22
The Big Issues: Ethics, Economics, and Policy
Special guest on Tuesday, so please attend!
Housekeeping Items
• About half of the class went on the field trip. Any shared
reactions for those who couldn’t make it?
• The final exam will be on Wednesday, April 23rd downstairs in
Room 111 at 9 a.m. We will review for the exam next week.
• We are running out of time, so we will have to skip Chapters
18 and 19, but you are liable for their contents, so please read
them. Today I will start in on Chapters 21 & 22, though please
read the chapters and the notes on your own.
• The media analyses are due today; will get your assignments
back at the exam.
• The film on Guatemala on Tuesday night was quite good.
Tonight at 7 in 356, Room 109, “Genetic Roulette: The Gamble
of Our Lives” is showing on GMOs.
• Any first year students with really high GPAs?
Environmental Ethics
• Ethics is about how we relate to and treat other people or
things. A major environmental thinker, Aldo Leopold, said
humans have gradually enlarged the circle of the beings we
feel we have an obligation to treat well.
• Some hunting and gathering and some civilized cultures did
not consider others not of their race or ethnicity to be worthy
of decent treatment. Until 1863, slavery was legal on the
North American continent and it still exists in some parts of
the world.
• During the Nazi years, millions of Jews, Roma, gays, Slavs, and
the disabled were put to death for being “inferior.”
• As the video on Tuesday showed, throughout Latin America
even today, the Ladino elite looks down on the indigenous
majority as not worthy of the same consideration and human
rights as they expect for themselves, and there is a whole
history of genocide and other atrocities against First Nations.
Environmental Ethics
• Dehumanization is a part of what
makes it easier for soldiers and their
officers, to fight in wars.
• During the Vietnam War, U.S.
soldiers referred to the Vietnamese
as “gooks,” “dinks” and
“slopeheads” because it made it
easier to kill them.
• In World Wars I and II, Germans
were referred to as “Huns,” “Krauts”,
and “Gerries,” and the Japanese as
“Japs.”
• Soviet propaganda, in the closing
months of the war, encouraged
soldiers to brutalize German civilians
and condoned the rape of at least
half a million German women.
Environmental Ethics
• For the longest time, women were considered inferior to
men – and still are in many cultures, not even allowed to go
outside on their own without a male escort. Until 1920 (and
even later in Quebec), they were not allowed to vote (too
‘irrational’) and were discouraged from going to college
(except maybe to meet a husband).
• They were not allowed to own property or to get a bank
loan, and most occupations were closed to them. Though we
now have woman premiers and CEOs, women as a group
earn far less than men and are greatly over-represented in
service professions. They are also exploited sexually in a way
that men rarely are.
• There are many other forms of discrimination in our and
other societies – based on ethnicity, class, religion, sexual
orientation, political views, and much more. These all reflect
a view that it’s OK to treat certain people a certain way.
Environmental Ethics
• So what about the ‘environment,’ or what some
cultures call ‘all my relations’? I want to break you into
small groups to talk about the following questions and
then report back your answers to the whole group:
What it the predominant Canadian ethic towards the
environment? (and do different groups have different
ethics?)
How does this manifest itself?
Do other cultures view things differently?
Will there be any changes in our environmental
ethic as we move towards sustainability?
YOUR IDEAS….
Environmental Policy
• Policy, regardless of what it’s applied to, is comprised of
a)what we’re trying to change and b)how we’re trying to
change (and ‘best practices’ from elsewhere). As we
discussed before, when we talked about social change,
policy development is one of the strategies for influencing
behaviour change in institutions and individuals/
households.
• A concrete example is something I’ve been working on with
my Work Opportunity student – campus sustainability. We
did a study of three universities – VIU, UNBC, and Royal
Roads – to see how they compared in making progress
towards being more sustainable.
Environmental Policy
• We also wanted to see what lessons could be learned
about overcoming the obstacles and barriers that
inevitably accompany trying to make change and what
factors seem to facilitate progress.
• Of the three, VIU has made the least progress. The
others are definitely out in front.
• We looked at a number of areas: energy, water, food,
waste, curriculum, governance, and others.
• Our basic assumption was that universities should model
sustainability for their students and for the wider
community.
Environmental Policy
• Questions For Discussion:
What would likely be the greatest obstacles to
change?
What would be some opportunities that the campus
environment would provide (as well as possible
external pressures)?
What would be the most important foci for making
change? What would you like to see?
The Same Could Be Applied to Municipal
Environmental Policy
• Questions For Discussion:
What would likely be the greatest obstacles to change?
What would be some opportunities that the municipal
environment would provide (as well as possible external
pressures)?
What would be the
most important foci
for making change?
What would you like
to see?
21
Environmental Ethics
and Economics:
Values and Choices
PowerPoint® Slides prepared by Stephen Turnbull
Copyright © 2013 Pearson Canada Inc.
© 2010 Pearson Education Canada
21-11
Upon successfully completing this
chapter, you will be able to
• Characterize the influences of culture and world view
on the choices people make
• Outline the nature, evolution, and expansion of
environmental ethics in Western cultures
• Describe some basic precepts of economic theory and
summarize their implications for the environment
• Compare the concepts of economic growth, economic
health, and sustainability
• Explain the fundamentals of environmental economics,
ecological economics, and natural accounting
21-12
Culture, World View, And The
Environment
21-13
Culture, world view, and the
environment
• Environmental issues often highlight trade-offs
between conflicting economic benefits and social or
ethical concerns
• Both disciplines deal with what we value
• Our values affect our environmental decisions and
actions
• In our culture, economic objectives usually trump
ecological or social objectives. Any examples?
21-14
Culture and world view influence our
perception of the environment
• Our relationship with the environment depends on
assessments of costs and benefits, some of which in
turn can be influenced by denial, resistance,
discounting, fear, and cognitive dissonance.
• Culture and worldview also affects this relationship
• Culture = knowledge, beliefs, values, and learned
ways of life shared by a group of people
• World view = a person’s or group’s beliefs about the
meaning, purpose, operation, and essence of the
world
Culture and worldview affect our perception of the
environment and environmental problems. Examples?
21-15
Many factors shape our world views and
perception of the environment (examples?)
• Religion
• Communities
• Political ideology
• Economics
• Individual interests
• Vested interest = an individual with strong interests
in the outcome of a decision that results in gain or
loss for that individual
21-16
weighing
issues
the
Mining in Mecca…?
Suppose a mining company discovered uranium near
the Sacred Mosque at Mecca—or the site in
Bethlehem believed to be the birthplace of Jesus or
the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem.
• What do you think would happen if the company
announced plans to develop a mine close to one of
these sacred locations, assuring the public that
environmental impacts would be minimal and that the
mine would create jobs and stimulate economic
growth?
• Also: why, in contrast with Europe and other parts of
the world, is beauty valued so little in relation to
commercial values? Why are ecosystems valued so
little?
21-17
There are many ways to understand the
environment
• Traditional or indigenous ecological knowledge =
the intimate knowledge of a particular environment
possessed and passed along by those who have
inhabited an area for many generations
• Medicinal properties of local plants
• Migration habits of local animals
• Geographic and microclimatic variations
For more information, see The Earth’s Blanket by Nancy Turner.
21-18
Environmental Ethics
21-19
Environmental ethics
• Ethics = the study of good and bad, right and wrong
• Relativists = ethics varies with social context
• Universalists = right and wrong remains the same across
cultures and situations
• What would be an example of each perspective?
• Ethical standards = criteria that help differentiate right from
wrong
• The golden rule
• Utilitarian principle = something right produces the most
benefits for the most people
21-20
weighing
issues
the
The Atlantic seal hunt
No environmental issue identified with Canada is more
emotionally charged than the Atlantic seal hunt. Each year
environmentalists and animal activists mobilize to try to stop
the hunt, arguing that too many seals are killed and that the
methods used are inhumane.
The hunters and supporters counter that they are continuing
a way of life that has been practiced by Aboriginal people for
at least 4000 years (and also Newfoundlanders and others),
that it is their right to practice their traditional ways, and that
the hunt is vital for the economic well-being and survival of
their communities.
• What do you think?
• Who should decide which of these sets of values—animal
rights or Aboriginal self-determination—should take
precedence in this case?
21-21
Environmental ethics pertains to
humans and the environment
• Environmental ethics = application of ethical standards to
relationships between human and non-human entities
Should we conserve resources
for future generations?
Is is OK to destroy a
forest to create jobs
for people?
Are humans justified
in driving other
species to extinction?
Is it OK for some communities to be
exposed to excess pollution?
21-22
Environmental ethics pertains to
humans and the environment (cont’d)
• Sustainable development = we
must meet our current needs
without compromising the
availability of natural resources
or the quality of life for future
generations. What’s missing?
• In 2007 and 2008, a pipeline
extension through Jasper
National Park was started; it
was approved in 1952
• Would it have been
approved today?
21-23
We extend ethical consideration to non-human entities
• Why have we expanded our ethical concerns?
• Economic prosperity: more leisure time, less anxieties
• Science: interconnection of all organisms
• Non-western cultures often have broader ethical domains (e.g.
First Nations, Hindus, Jains, and Buddhists, etc.)
• Three perspectives in Western ethics
• Anthropocentrism = only humans have rights
• Biocentrism = certain living things also have value
• Ecocentrism = whole ecological systems have value
In the case of Linley Valley, one could argue that only humans
count, and then only some humans.
21-24
21-25
Environmental ethics has ancient
roots
•
People have questioned our relationship with the
environment for centuries
• Environment as sacred:
• Aboriginal oral traditions
• Jain Dharma (Compassion for all life)
• Anthropocentric view or stewardship over nature?
• Christianity, Judaism, and Islam
• The Industrial Revolution intensified debate about
our relationship with the environment, with the
Romantic Revolution seeking to re-establish the value
of nature. It was felt that contact with nature
refreshed and ennobled people.
21-26
The Industrial Revolution inspired
environmental philosophers
•
•
Transcendentalism = viewed nature as a direct
manifestation of the divine
-
Ralph Waldo Emerson
-
Henry Thoreau
-
Walt Whitman
-
John Muir, and others
-
Transcendentalism = viewed nature as a direct
manifestation of the divine
More recently, two countries in the Western hemisphere
have extended legal rights to ecosystems and their
components: Bolivia and Ecuador.
21-27
Conservation and preservation arose at the
start of the twentieth century
• John Muir (right, with
President Roosevelt at
Yosemite National
Park) had an ecocentric viewpoint
21-28
Conservation and preservation arose at the
start of the twentieth century (cont’d)
• Preservation ethic = holds that we should protect
the natural environment in a pristine, unaltered
state
• James Bernard Harkin was the first commissioner
of Dominion Parks (eventually Parks Canada)
• Conservation ethic = holds that humans should put
natural resources to use but also that we have a
responsibility to manage them wisely
• Clifford Sifton was the first chairman of the
Commission for the Conservation of Natural
Resources
21-29
The land ethic and deep ecology enlarged
the boundaries of the ethical community
• Aldo Leopold – “The Land Ethic” in 1949
• humans should view themselves and “the land” as
members of the same community
• People are obligated to treat the land in an ethical
manner based on mutual respect
• Deep ecology = humans are inseparable from nature
-
Since all living things have equal value, they should
be protected
21-30
Ecofeminism recognizes connections between the
oppression of nature and women
• Ecofeminism = the patriarchal structure of society is the root
cause of both social and environmental problems
-
A world view traditionally associated with women
(interrelationships and cooperation) is more compatible
with nature than that associated with men (hierarchies
and competition)
-
Ecofeminists note that women have also been traditionally
associated with nature (e.g. Mother Nature, and the
naming of hurricanes until relatively recently). God has, in
the Abrahamic tradition, has always been seen as male.
21-31
Environmental justice seeks equitable access to
resources and protection from environmental
degradation
• Environmental justice = based on the principle that all
people have the right:
-
To live and work in a clean, healthy environment
-
To receive protection from the risks and impacts of
environmental degradation
-
To be compensated for having suffered such impacts
-
To have equitable access to environmental resources
-
A good example is the campaign, led by Majora Carter,
to create a “Sustainable South Bronx.”
21-32
Economics: Approaches and environmental
implications
•
Conflict between ethical and economic motivations is a
recurrent theme in environmental issues
•
Environmental protection works in opposition to
economic progress
•
Arguments are made that environmental protection
costs too much money, interferes with progress, and
leads to job loss (short-term view)
•
Environmental protection can be good for the economy
both in terms of creating jobs, preserving needed
resources (long-term view). As the organization Earth
First! used to say, “there are no jobs on a dead planet!”
21-33
Economics studies the allocation of
scarce resources
•
Economics = the study of how people decide
to use scarce resources to provide goods and
services in the face of demand for them
•
Most environmental and economic problems
are linked, including through the process you
have studied with the LCAs – throughput: the
transformation of raw materials into products,
waste, and pollution.
•
Root “oikos” (household) gave rise to both
ecology and economics
21-34
Several types of economies exist today
• 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
• Subsistence economy = people get their daily needs
directly from nature; they do not purchase or trade
• 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
21-35
Environment and economy are intricately
linked
• Economies receive inputs from the environment,
process them in complex ways
• Open system = economies are open systems
integrated with the larger environmental system of
which they are part of
• Closed system = earth is a closed system, the material
inputs Earth can provide are finite and so is the wasteabsorbing capacity
biosphere
“Over-full world”
biosphere
economy
21-36
i.e. cyclical not linear
21-37
21-38
Environment and economy are
intricately linked (cont’d)
• Ecosystem services = essential services support the life that
makes economic activities possible
• Soil formation
• Pollination
• Water purification
• Nutrient cycling
• Climate regulation
• Waste treatment
• These services have only recently become widely recognized,
and still don’t have dollar values put on them.
21-39
Classical economics promoted the free market
•
Competition between people free to pursue their
own economic self-interest will benefit society as
a whole (Adam Smith, 1723-1790)
•
The market is guided by an “invisible hand”
•
This idea is a pillar of free-market thought today
•
It is also blamed for economic inequality
•
Critics think that market capitalism should be
regulated by government where it conflicts with
the public interest
21-40
Neoclassical economics considers price,
supply, and demand
21-41
Neoclassical economics considers price, supply, and demand
(cont’d)
21-42
Cost-benefit analysis is a useful tool
• Cost-benefit analysis = the costs of a
proposed action are compared to the benefits
that result from the action
• If benefits > costs: pursue the action
• Not all costs and benefits can be identified or
quantified
Marginal benefit and cost curves determine an “optimal” level of
resource use or pollution mitigation
21-43
Aspects of neoclassical economics have
profound implications for the environment
• Assumptions of neoclassical economics:
• Resources are infinite or substitutable
• Costs and benefits are internal to the
production and consumption process (not!)
• Long-term effects are discounted – i.e. “a
bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.”
• Growth is good and necessary!
21-44
Aspects of neoclassical economics have profound
implications for the environment (cont’d)
• Assumption: Resources are infinite
• Economic models treat resources as
substitutable and interchangeable
• A replacement resource will be found
• But, Earth’s resources are limited
• Nonrenewable resources can be depleted
• Renewable resources can also be depleted
• Moreover, some ‘resources,’ such as
biodiversity, clean air and water, and a
stable climate cannot be substituted for.
21-45
Aspects of neoclassical economics have profound
implications for the environment (cont’d)
• Assumptions: Long-term effects should be
discounted
• A future event counts less than a present one
• Discounting = short-term costs and benefits are more
important than long-term costs and benefits
• Policymakers ignore long term consequences of our
actions
• Economic growth is necessary to maintain employment
and social order
• Promoting economic growth creates opportunities for
poor to become wealthier
• Progress is measured by economic growth
21-46
Aspects of neoclassical economics have profound
implications for the environment (cont’d)
• Assumption: Costs and benefits are internal
• Costs and benefits are experienced by the buyer and seller alone
• Do not affect other members of the society or other species or
ecosystems
• Pricing ignores social, environmental or economic costs
• Externalities = costs or benefits involving people other than the
buyer or seller
• External costs = cost borne by someone not involved in a
transaction
• Human health problems
• Resource depletion
• Hard to account for and eliminate
21-47
Is the growth paradigm good for us?
• More and bigger is better
• The dramatic rise in per-person consumption has severe
environmental consequences
• Critics fear that economic growth will destroy the
ecological system on which we all depend
ECOSPHERE
ECONOMY
21-48
Economists disagree on whether
economic growth is sustainable
• Are endless improvements in technology
possible?
• Ecological economists argue that civilizations do
not overcome their environmental limitations in
the long run
• Could we continue this activity forever and be
happy with the outcome?
• Environmental economists argue that economies
are unsustainable if population growth is not
reduced and resource use is not made more
efficient
21-49
Economists disagree on whether economic
growth is sustainable (cont’d)
• Steady-state economy = economies that do not
grow and do not shrink but rather are stable and
mirror natural ecological systems
• Will not evolve on its own from a capitalist market
system
• Critics assume that an end to growth means an
end to a rising quality of life; is this necessarily
true?
• Requires reforms
21-50
We can measure economic progress
differently
• Gross Domestic Product (GDP) = total
monetary value of final goods and services
produced
-
Does not account for nonmarket values
-
Not necessarily desirable economic
activity
-
A large oil spill would increase GDP, as
would people dying of cancer from
smoking or poor diets.
21-51
We can measure economic progress
differently (cont’d)
• GPI: An alternative to the GDP
• Genuine Progress Indicator (GPI) = differentiates
between desirable and undesirable economic
activity
• Positive contributions (i.e. volunteer work) not
paid for with money are added to economic
activity
• Negative impacts (crime, pollution) are
subtracted
21-52
21-53
Although GDP of Alberta has increased, GPI shows a decline
21-54
Other Alternatives to GDP
• The Kingdom of Bhutan a number of years ago adopted
what they called “Gross National Happiness,” in which
every national decision was supposed to be based on
making people better off.
• The New Economics Index has created the “Happy Planet
Index” to measure how happy people in different
countries relative to their ecological footprint.
• The UN also has the Gender Empowerment Index (GEI)
and other measures for determining how well off people
are. [add others]
We can give ecosystem goods and
services monetary values
• Economies receive from the environment vital resources
and ecosystem services
• Ecosystem services are said to have nonmarket values,
values not usually included in the price of a good or service
• Existence values
• Option values
• Aesthetic values
• Scientific values
• Educational values
• Cultural values
• Use values
21-56
Markets can fail
• Market failure occurs when markets do not account for:
• the environment’s positive effects on economies
• the negative effects of economic activity on the
environment or people
• Government intervention counters market failure
• Laws and regulations
• Green taxes = penalize harmful activities
• Economic incentives to promote conservation and
sustainability
21-57
Corporations are responding to
sustinability concerns
• Industries, businesses, and corporations can make
money by “greening” their operations
• Corporate sustainability has gone mainstream
• Be careful of greenwashing, where consumers are
misled into thinking companies are acting sustainably
21-58
Conclusion
• Corporate responsibility, alternative ways of measuring
growth, and the valuation of ecosystem goods and
services offer different, but potentially complementary,
economic approaches to environmental protection
• Environmental ethics has expanded people’s ethical
consideration
• Distributional equity = equal treatment for all
• True income is sustainable income
• If economic welfare can be enhanced in the absence of
growth, economies and environmental quality can
benefit from one another
21-59
Environmental Policy
(Chapter 22?)
22-60
Upon successfully completing this
chapter, you will be able to
• Describe environmental policy and assess its societal
context
• Identify the institutions important to Canadian
environmental policy
• Recognize major Canadian environmental laws
• List the institutions involved with international
environmental policy
• Categorize the different approaches to environmental
policy
• Describe how nations handle transboundary issues
22-61
Central Case: The Death And Rebirth Of
Lake Erie
“When you get ready to vote, make sure you know what you’re
doing.”
– Bob Hunter,
Journalist and Co-founder of Greenpeace
• 1970s: Lake Erie “died” of pollution
• International effort brought Lake Erie back using touch legal
restrictions on both sides of the border
• Canada-U.S. Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement
• 42 Areas of Concern with tailored Remedial Action Plans
• One example of how people and organizations work
together
22-62
Environmental policy
• Policy = a formal set of general plans and principles
to address problems and guide decisions
• Public Policy = policy made by governments that
consists of laws, regulations, orders, incentives, and
practices
• Environmental Policy = pertains to human
interactions with the environment
• Regulates resource use or reduce pollution
22-63
22-64
Environmental policy addresses
issues of equity and resource use
• The tragedy of the commons = the idea that a
resource held in common that is accessible to all
and is unregulated will eventually become
overused and degraded
• Free Riders = reducing pollution tempts any one
person to cheat
• Private voluntary efforts are less effective than
mandated efforts
• External Cost = harmful impacts result from market
transaction but are borne by people not involved in
the transaction
22-65
Many factors hinder implementation of
environmental policy
• Environmental laws are challenged, derided, and
ignored
• Environmental policy involves government
regulations
- Businesses and individuals view laws as overly
restrictive and unresponsive to human needs
• Most environmental problems develop gradually
- Human behavior is geared toward short-term
needs
- News media have short attention spans
- Politicians often act out of their own short-term
interest
22-66
Environmental goals and best practices
can be promoted by voluntary initiatives
• Voluntary guidelines
• Sector-based and self-enforced
• Canadian mining industry has undertaken some
voluntary initiatives
• ISO 14001 standards for environmental management
• Promote consistency and best practices in
environmental management
22-67
Environmental goals and best practices
can be promoted by voluntary initiatives
• Voluntary guidelines = sector-based and selfenforced policing
• ISO 14000 series was designed to promote
consistency and best practices in environmental
management
• Are they as effective as legislation?
22-68
Canadian environmental policy arises
from all levels of government
• Canadian Environmental Protection Act (1999)
• Federal government shares responsibility for
environmental protection
• Provinces/territories (principal responsibility)
• Aboriginal
• Municipal/local governments
• Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment
(CCME)
22-69
Canadian Environmental Law
And Policy
22-70
Canada’s environmental policies are
influenced by our neighbour
• Influenced by the U.S. in its environmental
management approach because of:
• The trading relationship (e.g. NAFTA)
• The environmental resources we share
• Canada-U.S. binational management of
transboundary pollution has been characterized
by cooperation and dialogue
22-71
Legal instruments are used to ensure that
environmental goals are achieved
• Acts = laws, or statutes, proposed and voted upon
by the Parliament
• Regulations = specific legal instruments, a detailed
set of requirements established by governments to
allow them to enforce acts
• Agreements = enforceable or voluntary; with the
goal of streamlining, clarifying, or harmonizing the
administration of environmental legislation
• Permits = document that grant legal permission to
carry out an activity
22-72
Legal instruments are used to ensure that
environmental goals are achieved (cont’d)
• Federal (e.g. Canadian Environmental Protection Act,
Fisheries Act, Canadian Wildlife Act)
• Provincial (e.g. limits on discharging harmful
substances, require permits or approvals )
• Aboriginal governments (e.g. resource extraction on
aboriginal lands)
• Municipal/local governments (e.g. water and sewage,
noise, waste, zoning, pesticide use)
• International agreements (e.g. U.N. Convention on
International Trade in Endangered Species)
22-73
Government and ENGOs work together on
environmental issues
• Stakeholder = any person or group that has an
interest in, or might be affected by, the outcome of
a particular undertaking
• ENGOs = environmental nongovernmental
organizations
• Round table = a multi-stakeholder working group
established to consult on a particular issue
22-74
Different environmental media require different
regulatory approaches
• Water law in Canada developed from two historical
legal concepts:
• Riparian law = anyone who has legal access to the
water’s edge has the legal right to withdraw water
from the resource
• Prior appropriation = first come, first right principle,
by which one’s right to withdraw water is established
by historical precedent
22-75
Environmental policy has changed with the society
and the economy
• 1780s to 1800s: frontier ethic to tame and conquer the
wilderness
• 1800s: regulate resource use, conservation and
preservation ethics
• 1900s: immigrants encouraged to convert Prairie
grasslands into farms; soil conservation
• Late 1900s: policy responded to pollution and
environmental crises (Silent Springs, 1962)
• 2000s: public enthusiasm for environmental protection
22-76
The social context for environmental policy
changes over time
• Factors that allowed advances in environmental
policy
- Wide evidence of environmental problems
- People could visualize policies to deal with
problems
- The political climate was ripe, with a supportive
public and leaders who were willing to act
- Economic confidence (willingness-to-pay
transition)
22-77
22-78
22-79
22-80
The concept of sustainable development now
guides environmental policy
• Sustainable development = “development that
meets the needs of the present without
compromising the ability of future generations to
meet their own needs.”
1987, United Nations Commission on Environment
and Development
• Has not been without controversy
• Too vague
• prone to misuse and misinterpretation
• Contradiction in terms
22-81
Scientific monitoring and reporting helps
with environmental policy decisions
• State-of-the-environment reporting (SOER) = the
collection, organization, and reporting of
information that can be used to measure and
monitor changes in the environment
• Indicators = values that can be measured and in
comparison to which changes can be assessed
22-82
Scientific monitoring and reporting helps with
environmental policy decisions (cont’d)
• Purpose of SOER
• What is happening in the environment?
• Why is it happening?
• Why is it significant?
• What is being done about it?
• Is this response sustainable?
22-83
Scientific monitoring and reporting helps
with environmental policy decisions
(cont’d)
• Environment Canada takes the lead role on SOER
• Other federal-levels
• Fisheries and Oceans Canada
• Parks Canada
• Many municipalities also produce SOE reports
• Many corporations have adopted reporting as well
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SOER presents organizational challenges
• So much environmental information that can be
measured and reported
• How to sub-divide the information
• Pressure–state–response (PSR) model = based on
establishing linkages and causalities
• Cause-and-effect feedback loops
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International Environmental
Law and Policy
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International Environmental Law
and Policy
• International issues can be addressed through
creative agreements
• Customary law = practices or customs held by
most cultures
• Conventional law = from conventions or
treaties
• Montreal Protocol: nations agreed to reduce
ozone-depleting chemicals
• Kyoto Protocol: reduces fossil fuel emissions
causing climate change (Canada withdrew in
2011)
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Several organizations help shape
international environmental policy
• The United Nations helps nations understand and solve
environmental problems
• The European Union seeks to promote Europe’s unity
and economic and social progress
• The World Trade Organization has authority to impose
financial penalties and can shape environmental policy
(has interpreted some environmental laws as unfair
barriers to trade)
• The World Bank funds economic development
including some unsustainable projects
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Several organizations help shape international
environmental policy (cont’d)
• Organization of the Petroleum Exporting
Countries (OPEC) is concerned some countries may
impose policies that are harmful to those who rely
on fossil fuels for a substantial part of their income
• International ENGOs provide funding, expertise,
and research to environmental problems in diverse
ways
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Approaches to Environmental
Policy
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Science plays a role in policy, but it can be
politicized
• Effective policy decisions are informed by scientific
research
• Sometimes policymakers ignore science
• Cod fisher in Atlantic Canada for example
• They let political ideology determine policy
• Scientists at government agencies have had their
work suppressed or discredited
• Their jobs were threatened
When taxpayer-funded research is suppressed or distorted
for political ends, everyone loses
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Command-and-control policy has
improved our lives, but it is not perfect
• Command-and-control approach: environmental
policy sets rules or limits and threatens
punishment for violators
• Heavy-handed
• Alternative approaches involve using economic
incentives to encourage desired outcomes and
use market dynamics to meet goals
• Most current environmental laws
• Have resulted in safe, healthy, comfortable lives
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Command-and-control policy has improved
our lives, but it is not perfect (cont’d)
• Drawbacks of command-and-control
• Government actions may be well-intentioned but not
informed
• Interest groups–people seeking private gain–unduly
influence politicians
• Citizens may view policies as restrictions on freedom
• Costly and less efficient in achieving goals
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Economic tools also can be used to
achieve environmental goals
• Subsidy
• Green taxes and “polluter pays”
• Permit trading
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Economic tools also can be used to
achieve environmental goals (cont’d)
• Subsidy = a government giveaway of cash or
resources to encourage a particular activity
• Have been used to support unsustainable
activities
• Could subsidize environmentally sustainable
activities instead
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Economic tools also can be used to achieve
environmental goals (cont’d)
• Green taxes = taxes on environmentally harmful
activities
• Polluter pays principle = the price of a good or service
includes all costs, including environmental degradation
• Gives companies financial incentives to reduce pollution
• Costs are passed on to consumers
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Economic tools also can be used to
achieve environmental goals (cont’d)
• Permit trading = government-created market in
permits
• Businesses buy, sell, trade these permits
• Emissions trading system = government-issued
permits for an acceptable amount of pollution and
companies buy, sell, or trade these permits with
other polluters
• Cap-and-trade system = a party that reduces its
pollution levels can sell this credit to other parties
- Pollution is reduced overall, but does increase
around polluting plants
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Market incentives are being tried widely
on the local level
• Charges for waste disposal according to the
amount of waste they generate
• Rebates to residents who buy water-efficient
toilets
• Discounts from power companies for using
high-efficiency light bulbs and appliances
• Rebate programs aimed at providing rewards
for behavioural changes
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Eco-labelling gives some choice back to
the consumer
• Ecolabelling = tells consumers which brands use
environmentally benign processes
• Consumers provide businesses with a powerful
incentive to switch to more sustainable processes
• Socially responsible investing = entails investing
only in companies that have met certain criteria
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Conclusion
• Environmental policy is a problem-solving tool that
uses science, ethics and economics
• Conventional command-and-control approach of
legislation and regulation are most common
• Environmental issues often overlap political boundaries
• Approaches to environmental management are
currently emerging in Canada
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