- Choices:
- price and markets
- accessibility (limit accessibility-->queue)
- e.g. Oklahoma--first come, first got the land.
- Merit/Public good
- Lottery
- Problems faced in Enviro Economics
- Rationing system (willingness to pay)
- pollution clean up
- public vs. private resource
- externalities
- subsidies for the kind of development you want
- valuation
- property rights/access
- biological issues that markets do not pick up on.
- markets are short term oriented but the environment is about longevity.
- market failure--a matter of degree
- Public's price of a good is equal to the private price
- market failure occurs when these aren't equal
- Some ways of dealing with market failure
- Raise price- tax
- Lower price- subsidy
- Regulations->technology, raise standards across the board
- The economics looks something like this: http://marketpower.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/2007/05/31/beermarket2.jpg
- Increase price of oil
- income effect: it's a big impact on peoples' income
- substitution effect: people drive less
- OPEC: Just reduced the production of oil so people will use less (cause price is increasing). We will have oil for longer because of the glorious OPEC cartel. God Bless.
- Inelastic demand: you are dealing with a good you have to have. Reduce supply-->increase demand-->make more monehhhh
- Common Property Resource
- Entry
- Technology
- Population growth
- I=PAT
- e.g. Oceans and fish
- global fisheries are not in good shape
- difficulty limiting entry--limiting boats
- technological advancements in fishing make the fish not stand a chance
- demand increase?
- Safe havens (Australia)--> sink the ships of those who fish Pategonian tooth fish
- if it is a luxury good it has an elastic demand curve which allows you to make more money by increasing price
- Valuation
- ANWR
- Ask public how they value ANWR/Public WTP
- Option Demand-->6 months of oil compared to how much we would pay to go to the ANWR and visit--as if!
- Glennon and water
- What is the price on groundwater?
- nothing. it is free.
- extraction costs
- distribution
- Who owns the water?
- water as a public trust-->VT and Hawaii (government has the responsibility of managing goods for society: yet still issues between public trust and private resource)
- National water policy?
- None. Blasphemous.
- Water charge per square acre makes California farmers consume shitloads of water because hey! they are paying for it anyway! (not a great conservation policy).
- Ethics-Standards and Philosophy to Live by
- Ecology-the study of interaction of plants and animals and humans in an ecosystem
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gini_coefficient
- Preservationists-keep pristine; wilderness for the sake of nature
- Conservationists-stewardship, manage resources
- John Muir (preservationist) vs Gifford Pinchot (conservationist)
- National Parks--Yellowstone 1872
- 1964 Wilderness Act
- 2000 Clinton "roadless order"
- NY Adirondack Park, Catskill Presere
- NY State OPen Space Plan
- Trustees of Reservations 18902 Mass
- Scenic Hudson--Storm King
- Open Space Institute- Sterling Forest
- 500,000 abandaoned minds
- 500,000 brownfields
- Importing 20 billion in oil each year
- half the topsoil in Iowa eroded in 150 years
- 40% of waterways "impaired
- 80000 dams
- Economic prosperity: living off capital vs living off interest
- physical growth vs the steady state economy (John Stewart Mill)
- Natural Resources Conservation Service
- County Soil Conservation Districts
- NEPA
- Recycling in 9,000 cities and towns
- Renewable Energy
- Farmland Preservation: Fed, State, Local
- Greenways
- The fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race, color or income with respect to the development implementation, and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and policy-EPA
- Every American hs the right to a clean environment
- LULUs
Cornucopians-
- We are in no danger of running out of natural resources. The market system rations natural resources to their highest and best uses. Advances in technology and human ingenuity will work wonders.
- Fact: The US consumes less water today than in 1980
- The US and the World are in serious trouble from depletion of natural resources, global warming and pollution, Action must be taken as soon as possible.
Cautionaries
- Precautionary principle
- Some situations warrant action, others warrant study
- Some environmental situations are improving
- Fact: US air and water quality are better today than 38 years ago. Population growth proses long term concerns.
- Nature has a right to exist separate from benefits to humans
- Nature is sacred
Aldo Leopold- A sand County Almanac: the realtionship between humans and the land
land as a community not acommodity
masters over nature or stewards of the land
Ecology I
Ecology and ecnoomics both are from the Greek, oikos, which means "household." Ecology is the study of the household or one's surroundings. Economics refersto the management of the household.
Ecology is the science of how plants, animals, air, water, soil, and climate interact in a specific...
Ecology II
An ecosystem consists of individual organisms, a pop of each type of species, and a community of several types of species,
the diversity of plant and animal species defines the health of eco systems
ecos are thought to evolve through the state from immaturity ot a more stable climax stage. the greatest amount of species diversity and reilience is thought to occur at the climax stage. this ecosystem is most able to maintain a closed loop of growth, death, decay, and reuse.
key: maintianing "biodiversity" in a community or region
Frogs are an indicator species--> indicate toxins in water
Ecology III
Ultimately, humans depend upon ecosystems for food, water wuality and wuantity, air wuality, and the absorption of waste. Thus humans have a cery real interest in making a sustainable environment
three lawseverything is connected to everything else
first law of thermodynamics-matter cannot be created or destroyed everything has to go somewhere
there is no such thing as a free lunch
every action has a a cost
you can't fool mother nature.
Natural Cycles
- Hydrologic- rainfall and evaporation
- dams, raising the level of humidity
- carbon-atmosphere, plants, fossil fuels
- acid rain, green house effect
- oxygen- humans inhale and plants exhale
- air pollution makes it harder to inhale (childhood asthma is on the rise)
- using up the ability for lakes to hold oxygen
- nitrogen-plant and animal nutrient
- algae blooms that choke out other forms of aquadic life
- phosphorus-plant and animal nutrient
- nutrients are building blocks of amino acids so everyone needs them to sustain life
- pollution disrupts these cycles
- Different types of Law
- Constitutional Law
- Legislative
- Judicial
- Quasi-Judicial
- Administrative
- Common Law
- Common Law-inhereited from English Law
- No one can use their land so as to harm another person-common law
- (freedom only has meaning within limits, otherwise it is chaos)
- Public Trust Doctrine- Mono Lake
- LA was sucking water out of Mono Lake, lowering the water in the lake so the cayotes could get to the islands and eat the birds so a judge ruled that they have to keep a certain amount of water in the lake
- Federal Environmental Laws
- National enironmental Policy Act
- Required a review
- Lead Agency coordinates review
- Determine whether an Environmental Impact statment is need or issue a FONSI
- Public comment is allowed
- EIS elements
- Current conditions and impact of action
- Unavoidable adverse environmental effects
- Alternative to the proposed action
- The relationship between local short term uses and maintaince and enhancement of long term productivity
- Any irreversible and irretrievable commitments of resources in the proposed action and;
- Ways to minimize the negative impacts of proposed action.
- An EIS can be a very long doc
- Can be challenge d in fed court
- most EIS Statements are for highways
- EPA exempt from...
- reactionary
- Calvert Cliffs'Voordinating Committeev. Atomic Energy Commission
- Chelsea Neighborhood Associations . U.S. Postal Serice
- Named Individual Members of the San Antonio Consercation Society v. Texas Highway Department
- Mineral King Case (sierra Club v. Morton)
- Disney Wants to build a Ski Area in a national forest
- Won the Case but ever built
- Should nature have a representative?
- Present testimony on Environmental Impcat Statements through the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA)
- Block large development projects that EPA feels would do irreversible damage
- clean up hazardous waste sites
- ban the production of hazardous substance
- require states to link land use planning and management of air quality
- withold federal highway funds from states and metro regions that do not meet national ambient air quality standards and
- conduct research on toxic substances and set safety standards for air and water quality based on "good science."
- 22 states have SEPAs
- Covers all public and some private actions by state and local governments
- eis process (or neg dec)
- fox guarding hen house problem
- SEPAs, like NEPAare reactive not proactive
- what about developments of regional impact
- NY example?
Attitude L a make it do b do without c use it up or d wear it out (minimize waste)
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