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ENST 500 Exam 1 > Environmental Ethics, Economics & Policy > Flashcards

Environmental Ethics, Economics & Policy Flashcards

1
Q

Policy

A

Plans and principle that address problems and guide decision making

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2
Q

Environmental policy

A
  • Policies that regulate resource use and decrease pollution. Dual goals of 1) promoting human welfare and 2) protecting natural systems
  • Input from science, ethics, and economics is required for successful environmental policy
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3
Q

Why do capitalistic systems create the need for strong environmental policy?

A
  • Capitalistic systems are driven by short-term economic gains – conflicts with long-term environmental and social stability
  • Little incentive for businesses to decrease environmental impact
  • Market prices do not consider the value of environmental contributions/cost of environmental degredation
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4
Q

Tragedy of the commons

A
  • The tendency of an individual to abuse commonly held resources in order to maximize his or her own personal interest
  • Without oversight, people deplete commonly held resources for their own self-interest
  • Thus guidelines are needed for use of resources, e.g. restriction of use or management
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5
Q

Ways to prevent the tragedy of the commons

A
  • Government regulations
  • Subdividing the resource so each individual is responsible for conserving their personal allotment
  • Resource users cooperate to prevent overexploitation
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6
Q

Conditions for avoiding tragedy of the commons without government regulation or privatization of resources

A
  • Commonly pooled resources are within clearly defined boundaries
  • Rules are set collectively by local users with shared moral/ethical standards
  • Users are have increased value from or are dependent upon the sustainability of the resource
  • Graduated sanctions are in place for users who violate community rules
  • Higher authorities recognize the self-determination of the local community
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7
Q

Free riders

A
  • When competitors agree to decrease environmental exploitation, one or more may be tempted to cheat to get ahead
  • Eventually, more of the competitors begin cheating, and the whole effort will collapse
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8
Q

Ways to prevent free riders

A
  • Public policy is generally more effective than private voluntary efforts
  • With public policy, violators are more likely to be caught and punished
  • More challenging with international issues–who provides oversight?
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9
Q

External costs

A
  • A cost associated with a product or service that is not taken into account when a price is assigned to that product or service but rather is passed on to a third party who does not benefit from the transaction
  • Ex: Until the mid 20th century, many Pittsburgh factories increased profit margins by dumping waste into the nearby river rather than paying for waste disposal/recycling. The external costs on downstream users included increased pollution, decreased fish population, and decreased recreational value.
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10
Q

Why are some people resistant to environmental policy?

A
  • Property owners/businesses see regulations as inconvenient and stifling to the economy
  • Environmental problems develop gradually over the long-term, so it may be hard to see the necessity of environmental policy
  • Individuals, businesses, news media, politicians, etc. each have short-term needs and interests that may be in opposition to environmental policy
  • Many citizens are ill-informed on environmental issues
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11
Q

Why is it better to retain strong federal control over environmental policy (vs states/local governments)?

A
  • All citizens deserve equal protection against environmental and health impacts
  • Economy of scale in resources: strong national efforts are more efficient that individual state efforts
  • Many environmental problems involve transboundary disputes; nationwide effort decrease disputes among states
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12
Q

Keystone XL Pipeline

A
  • 36” diameter pipeline carrying crude oil

- 1,700mi from tar sands in Alberta, Canada to refineries on Texas Gulf Coast, USA

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13
Q

14th amendment

A
  • Prohibits states from denying “equal protection of its [government’s] laws”
  • Used in environmental justice cases
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14
Q

5th amendment

A
  • Private property cannot “be taken for public use without just compensation”
  • Courts interpretation: bans taking of public property and regulatory taking
  • Can be used to fight environmental policy, if policy is interpreted as the government depriving landowners of some/all economic use of their property
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15
Q

Homestead Act

A
  • Allowed anyone to buy or settle on 160 acres of public land
  • Encouraged widespread national land conversion
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16
Q

General Mining Act

A
  • Allowed anyone to mine on public land for $5/acre with no government oversight
  • Encouraged widespread national land conversion
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17
Q

National Environmental Policy Act

A
  • Passed in 1970

- Requires Environmental Impact Statement for any federal action that might seriously impact the environment

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18
Q

Endangered Species Act

A
  • Passed in 1973

- Makes illegal the extinction of any species due to human activity

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19
Q

Superfund Act

A
  • Passed in 1980
  • EPA program to clean up 1,700+ hazardous waste sites
  • 1/6 of people live within 3 miles of a hazardous waste site
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20
Q

3 major types of policy approaches

A
  • Litigation
  • Government regulations
  • Market-based approach
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21
Q

Litigation

A
  • # 1 means of environmental justice pre-1970’s
  • Individuals suffering from pollution seek redress from lawsuits
  • If convicted, polluters fined, BUT often remain in business and many increase profit margins by continuing to pollute and paying off fines (rather than stop polluting)
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22
Q

Boomer v. Atlantic Cement (1970)

A
  • Litigation case
  • Dirt, smoke, and vibration created by Atlantic Cement caused nuisances for nearby landowners
  • $185K awarded to plaintiff; cement company valued at $45 million stayed in business
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23
Q

Government regulations

A
  • Command and control approach: regulatory agencies set rules and threaten punishment for violators
  • Often produces good results: of 107 EPA regulations enacted 1992-2002, cost of $40 billion/year to enforce, produced benefits of $200 billion/year to public
  • Problematic because of lobbyists working against public interests, citizens viewing regulations as restrictions of freedom
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24
Q

Examples of market based approach

A
  • Green taxes
  • Permit trading
  • Cap and trade
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25
Q

Green taxes

A
  • Taxes on activities harmful to the environment
  • Businesses reimburse public for damages caused
  • Amount of pollution correlated with cost of payment
  • Financial incentive to companies to decrease pollution, gives freedom to devise own solution
26
Q

Subsidies

A
  • Often hurt environment by giving taxpayer dollars to polluting industries
  • From 2002-2008, US fossil fuel companies received $72 billion in subsidies while renewable energy receiver less than half of that ($29 billion)
27
Q

Permit trading

A

-Government issues permits to pollute which businesses buy, sell, and trade

28
Q

Cap and trade

A
  • Government “caps” pollution level and issues permits
  • Polluters buy, sell, and trade permits
  • Creates economic incentive to decrease pollution
  • Constrained by cap, polluters will innovate
  • Successfully implemented in US to decrease SO2 emissions and associated acid rain, even as output from coal-fired plants increased
  • Cheaper and more efficient that command and control regulations
29
Q

California Cap and Trade

A
  • Goals to reduce emissions of 6 greenhouse gases set by Gov. Schwarzenagger in 2006, implemented by Gov. Brown 2012-13
  • Aim 1: Reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020
  • Aim 2: Reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 40% of 1990 levels by 2030
  • Requires oil refineries, power plants and other facilities to buy permits (allowances) to release greenhouse gases
  • Generates billions for CA’s green energy economy
30
Q

7 steps to make environmental policy

A
  1. Identify problem
  2. Pinpoint problem
  3. Envision solution
  4. Organize
  5. Cultivate access/influence
  6. Shepherd solution into law
  7. Implement, assess, and interpret policy
31
Q

Give examples of how religious beliefs shape people’s relationship to the environment.

A
  • some Aboriginal people view landscape as a “sacred text”
  • some Christians use the Bible to justify man subjugating nature (i.e. “Let them have dominion over […] every creeping thing that creeps on the earth”
32
Q

Give examples of how shared community experience shape people’s relationship to the environment

A

- Settlers in Australia viewed the environment as hostile because they perceived the weather as harsh in comparison to what they were used to

33
Q

Give examples of how political ideology shape people’s relationship to the environment

A

-Impacts views on the wisdom of government intervention in market economy to protect environmental quality

34
Q

Give examples of how economic factors shape people’s relationship to the environment

A

-Loggers see the spotted owl as a nuisance affecting their livelihood in the Pacific Northwest

35
Q

Environmental ethics

A
  • Application of ethical standards (good/bad/right/wrong) to relationship between human and nonhuman entities
  • Address questions such as:
  • Are we obligated to save resources for future generations (i.e. live sustainably)?
  • Is it ok to drive other species to extinction to meet our own needs?
  • Is it ok for some communities to be exposed to more pollution than others?
36
Q

Anthropocentric perspective

A

Only humans have intrinsic value

37
Q

Biocentric perspective

A

Some or all nonhuman life has intrinsic value

38
Q

Ecocentric perspective

A

Whole ecosystems have value

39
Q

How did Plato view humanity’s relationship with the environment?

A

“The land is our ancestral home and we must cherish it more than children cherish their mother”

40
Q

Transcendentalist perspective

A

Nature is the direct manifestation of the divine

41
Q

Which ethic was Muir a proponent of?

A

Preservation

42
Q

Which ethic was Pinchot a proponent of?

A

Resource conservation ethic

43
Q

Which ethic was Leopold a proponent of?

A
  • Changed from anthropocentic to ecocentric over his lifetime
  • Land Ethic: People and land are members of the same community, therefore we have an obligation to treat the land in an ethical manner
44
Q

Environmental justice movement

A
  • Movement influenced by the Civil Rights and Feminist movements of the 60’s and 70’s
  • Poor and minorities are often exposed to more pollution, pesticides, and environmental degredation
45
Q

Which protests acted as the starting point for the environmental justice movement?

A

Protests in the 1980’s against a toxic waste dump in North Carolina. The dump was going to be located in the county with the highest % of African Americans.

46
Q

Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (1990)

A

Compensated Navajo miners, who had high rates of lung cancer from unprotected work in uranium mines during the 1940’s-1960’s.

47
Q

Mountaintop removal mining

A
  • Method of surface coal mining that destroys mountaintops and ridgelines
  • Mountaintop removal mining in Appalachia to provide 3% of US energy needs
  • High correlation with poverty
  • Coal waste leads to poisoned/clogged waterways
  • White House recently ordered NHS to halt a $1 million review of links between mountaintop mining and human health impacts (birth defects, lung cancer, cardiovascular disease, respiratory disease)
  • Weak regulations and officials afraid to stand up to coal companies means there is no end in sight to mountaintop removal
48
Q

Give examples of international environmental justice issues.

A
  • Developed nations impose pollution on developing nations:
  • Most carbon dioxide emissions are from developed nations
  • Developed nations buy hazardous waste disposal sites in developing nations
49
Q

Describe how the proposed development of West Coyote Hills in Fullerton for housing represents an example of the inherent conflict between the ecological and economic realms.

A
  • Chevron owns West Coyote Hills in Fullerton
  • Coyote Hills is a 510 acre biodiversity hotspot, watershed, and recreation area
  • North OC has 40% of OC’s total population, but only 1% of its parks
  • Converting Coyote Hills to a housing development benefits few (economic profit to Chevron) while converting to a park benefits many (continued ecosystem services)
50
Q

Mainstream economics vs Ecological economics

A
  • Mainstream economics assumes:
    (1) environmental resources (inputs) are free and limitless
    (2) wastes (outputs) can be endlessly exported/absorbed by environment at no cost
  • Ecological economics recognizes:
    (1) human economy exists within natural environment
    (2) Economic health depends to some degree on environmental health
51
Q

Name some assumptions of mainstream economics and refute them.

A
  • A1: Resources are infinite/substitutable
  • R1: Many exceptions (ex. fossil fuels)
  • A2: Costs and benefits are internal (experienced only by the buyer and seller)
  • R2: externalities are common, ex. the devastation of Coyote Hills harms many
  • A3: Growth is good and can continue forever
  • R3: This posits that material wealth is equivalent to happiness; studies show that emotional well-being increases with wealth only up until $75K
52
Q

Ecological economics

A
  • Applies principles of ecology to analysis of economic systems
  • Civilizations, like natural populations, cannot permanently overcome environmental limitations therefore we cannot expect infinite economic growth
  • Economy should neither grow nor shrink rapidly, like natural populations
53
Q

GDP

A
  • Gross Domestic Product
  • Total monetary value of goods and services per year
  • Increases even when economic actions harm society (ex. oil spills, natural disasters, radiation leaks, pollution, crime, etc.)
54
Q

GPI

A
  • Genuine Progress Indicator
  • GDP+(positive societal actions)-(negative societal actions)
  • Positive societal actions: volunteer work, parenting, etc.
  • Negative societal actions: oil spills, crime, etc.
55
Q

Describe attempts to assign ecosystems/biodiversity economic value.

A
  • R. Costanza et al. 1997: quantified 17 services provided by Earth’s major ecosystems. Nutrient cycling considered most valuable at $17 trillion. Value of ecosystem services on earth $33 trillion/yr, or GDP of all nations combined in 2011.
  • R. Costanza et al. 2002 compared benefits of preserving ecosystems intact vs conversion to agriculture, logging, or fish farming. Examined 15% of land, 30% of oceans. Left intact worth $5 trillion, converted worth $50 billion (100x less)
56
Q

Bioprospecting

A
  • Discovery of organisms used to fight diseases, control pests, etc.
  • 25% of medicine comes from rainforest plants/animals, generates $150 billion in sales and many lives saved annually
57
Q

Biopiracy

A
  • Bioprospectors refusing to share profits with the country of origin
  • More common in the past than today
  • Difficult to enforce regulations against biopiracy
58
Q

What did Thomas Brock discover, and what advance(s) did it lead to?

A
  • Brock discovered Thermus aquaticus, a microorganism that lives in Yellowstone’s hotsprings
  • Kary Mullis, an inventor for a biotech company, uses enzymes from T. aquaticus to develop PCR
  • PCR w/ Taq polymerase highly effective, allowed scientists a convenient way to study DNA
59
Q

Social traps

A
  • Decisions that seem good at the time, but hurt society in the long run
  • Includes tragedy of the commons, time delay, and sliding reinforcer
60
Q

Time delay

A
  • Actions that produce a benefit today and set into motion events that cause problems later on
  • Ex. catching as many fish as possible increases short term profits. Over the long term, overfishing depletes the fish population so much fishers can’t catch enough to meet needs.
61
Q

Sliding reinforcer

A
  • Actions that are beneficial at first but that change conditions such that the benefit decreases over time.
  • Ex. use of pesticides leads to pesticide resistance; over time, more pesticide may be necessary to produce the same effect, or the pesticide may be rendered completely ineffective.
62
Q

According to Stern et al., how much will it cost society if we do nothing about climate change?

A
  • in 2006: climate change will cause a 5-20% reduction in annual GDP in the future, but paying 1% of GDP yearly to fight climate change will offset it
  • in 2008: would need to pay 2% of GDP yearly to offset climate change
  • The quicker we start, the better off we’ll be

ENST 500 Exam 1 (10 decks)

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