Conservation in Politics

Question 1

Explain negative externalities

Answer 1

Costs not paid by the enterprise, eg. clean-up costs, depletion of resources, pollution, health costs, public infrastructure like landfills, etc. Paid for by future generations.

Question 2

What is natural capital?

Answer 2

AKA monetized ecosystem services.

Provisioning services (=“goods”)
- Food, raw materials, pharmaceuticals, etc.
Supporting services
- Primary prod’n, pollination, nutrient cycles, etc.
Regulating services
- Climate, predator-prey, flood control, detox’n, etc.
Cultural services
- Recreational, spiritual, ecotherapy, science discovery, etc.

Question 3

Explain Carl Safina’s stance on conservation

Answer 3

We don’t “need” species, conservation should take place out of respect for nature

Question 4

What is the rivet-popping hypothesis?

Answer 4

A certain amount of species are “expendable”, in that they are redundant. After passing a threshold we see an exponential increase in extinctions and loss of ecosystem services

Question 5

What is green accounting?

Answer 5

Measure all costs and benefits, including natural capital and internalize costs

Question 6

How might one determine economic values for non-market ecosystem services?

Answer 6

1) assessing economic damages
2) willingness to pay for goods eg. set-asides
3) willingness to accept compensation for losses eg. carbon tax