Chapter 2: Environmental Ethics and Economics

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Chapter 2 Environmental Ethics and Economics

• values and choices

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Culture, Worldview and the Environment

• Culture is the ensemble of knowledge, beliefs,
  values and learned ways of life shared by a group
  of people.

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• Worldview is a personal culture and experiences
  that influence his/her behavior towards meaning,
  operation and essence (point of view).
• Guns, Germs Steel?"why is it that you white
  people developed so much cargo and brought it
  back to New Guinea but we had little cargo of our
  own"

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• World Map

Tropic of Cancer
Arctic circle
Equator
Tropic of Cancer
Tropic of Capricorn
Equator

Tropic of Capricorn
Antarctic circle
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Factors shaping the worldview and perception of
the environment

• Religion
• some sites may be sacred in some religions but
  not others for some people, as they migrated,
  they consider the new place hostile
• Political idiology
• should government intervene to protect the
  environment?
• Economic factors
• interest in using proper technology vs own gains

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Environmental Ethics

• Ethics set of moral values/principles
• relativists ethics change with each society,
  values may change
• universalist different societies do agree in
  many moral standards, values are not that
  different.
• Ethical Standard criteria that helps
  differentiate right from wrong

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Ethical Consideration

• Anthropocentrism humans are the center of the
  universe, the rest does not matter
• Biocentrism evaluates actions in terms of the
  impact on the local environment and other
  species. All living things have equal value.
• Ecocentrism evaluates actions in terms of the
  integrity of the ecological system
• Ecofeminism argues that the female point of view
  is more in tune to the environment than that of
  men.

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Conservation Preservation

• conservation natural resources are there to be
  used, but with it comes the responsability of
  managing it wisely.
• preservation we should protect all natural
  environment in a pristine, unaltered state.

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Environmental Justice

• Involves the fair and equitable treatment of all
  people with respect to environmental policy and
  practice, regardless of their income, race or
  ethnicity
• Consider de place where you grew up. Where were
  the factories, waste dumps and polluting
  facilities located? Who lives near by?

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Economics Aproaches and Environmental
Implications

• Environmental protection is generally good for
  the economy.
• Types of economies
• capitalist relation between buyers and sellers
  determines the market
• centrally planned government determines the
  allocation of resources.
• mixed economies capitalism-socialism mixed
  economies.

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Economy Environment linkage

• Ecosystem services support the life that makes
  our economic activity possible. Some examples
  are
• air cycle
• water cycle
• nutrient cycles
• recycling systems
• pollination by animals

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• Economic Activity

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Economic Philosophy

• Classical when free to pursue their own economic
  self-interest in a competitive marketplace,
  marketplace will behave as if guided by an
  "invisible hand" that ensures their actions will
  benefit society as a whole.
• Neoclassical supply and demand are the rules for
  the pricing of the goods.

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Neoclassical Economics and its Implications

• The four fundamental assumptions of neoclassical
  capitalism are
• resourses are infinite or sustainable
• Easter island
• costs and benefits are only between buyer and
  seller
• ocean pollution today
• long-term effects should be discounted
• forestry decision
• growth is good
• used as measurement of development

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Ecological vs Environmental economists

• Ecological economists argue that the natural
  systems operate in a self-renewing cylce, it is
  not a linear progressive manner and because of
  it growth can not be sustained as it is today
  they advocate steady-state economies.
• Environmental Economists on the other hand argue
  that it can be obtained if following the
  neoclassical principles and improving it with
  newer and better technologies.

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Measurement of Economic Progress

• Gross Domestic Product (GDP)
• Genuine Progress Indicator (GPI)
• conventional economy in which
• positive contributions which are not paid with
  money are added (volunteer work, parenting)
• negative impacts are then substracted (crime,
  pollution, social gaps, etc)
• It is controversial

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Giving Monetary Value to Ecosystem Goods and
Services

• can you give monetary value to rain? clean air?
• can you value natural meadows or lakes or rivers?
• ecosystems are said to have nonmarket values
  (intangible cultural, ecological, spiritual)
• These are said to be not compatible with the
  system of monetary valuation used today.
• Contingent valuation uses surveys to determine
  how much people are willing to pay to protect or
  restore a resource.

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Other Means of Evaluating Ecosystem Goods

• comparison of prices between homes near parks and
  similar ones in size and types, but away from
  parks. Gives dollar value to landscape, views,
  peace, quiet.
• measuring the cost required to restore natural
  systems that have been damaged or to mitigate
  harm from pollution

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Responce of Corporations

• green wave
• consumer preference is now more towards
  sustainable products and businesses
• improve labor conditions (responce to media
  coverage and consumer concern)
• energy efficiency
• less toxic materials
• minimize greenhouse gas emissions
• THE END