Chapter 1 Flashcards
carrying capacity
the level of population and consumption that can be sustained by the available natural resource base
ecological economics
an economic perspective that views the economic system as a subset of the broader ecosystem and subject to biophysical laws
nonrenewable resources
resources that are available in a fixed supply, such as metal ores and oil
renewable resources
a resource that is supplied on a continuing basis by ecosystems
common property resources
a resource that is not subject to private ownership and is available to all, such as the oceans or atmosphere
public goods
goods that are available to all (nonexclusive) and whose use by one person does not reduce their availability to others (nonrival)
externalities
an effect of a market transaction that changes the utility, positively or negatively, of those outside the transaction
third-party effects
effects of market transaction that affect people other than those involved in the transaction, such as industrial pollution that affects a local community
solar energy
the energy supplied continually by the sun, including direct solar energy as well as indirect forms such as wind energy and flowing water
circular flow
a diagram that indicates the ways resources, such as goods, money, waste, and energy, move through an economy or ecosystem
natural resources
resources that occur in a natural state and are valuable for economic activities, such as minerals, timber, and soils
economic valuation
the valuation of a resource in monetary terms
environmental macroeconomics
the analysis approach that places the human economic system within an ecological context to balance the scale of the economic system within ecological constraints
environmental services
ecosystem services such as nutrient cycling, water purification, and soil stabilization; these services benefit humans and support economic production
environmental microeconomics
the use of microeconomic techniques such as economic valuation, property rights rule, and discounting to determine an efficient allocation of natural resources and environmental services
internalizing external costs/externalities
using approaches such as taxation to incorporate external costs into market decision
assets
something with market value, including financial assets, physical assets, and natural assets
intertemporal resource allocation
the way resource use is distributed over time
discount rate
the annual rate at which future benefits or costs are discounted relative to current benefits or costs
property rights
the set of rights that belong to the owner of a resource, such as the right of a landowner to prohibit trespassing
cost-benefit analysis (CBA)
a tool for policy analysis that attempts to monetize all the costs and benefits of a proposed action to determine the net benefit
biodiversity
the maintenance of many different interrelated species in an ecological community
global environmental problems
environmental problems having global impacts such as global climate change and species extinction
ecological cycles
the flow of energy and natural resources throughout ecosystems
throughput
the total use of energy and materials as both inputs and outputs of a process
macroeconomic scale
the total scale of an economy; ecological economics suggests that the ecosystem imposes scale limits on the macroeconomy
sustainable development
development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs
