sustainable old forestry and impact of economic growth

Question 1

what does sustainability mean?

Answer 1

seeks to meet the needs and aspirations of the present without compromising the ability to meet those of the future”

Question 2

what are the two components of economic efficiency?

Answer 2

there is static and dynamic

Question 3

what is the first law of thermo dynamics?

Answer 3

Energy can be neither created nor destroyed. It can only be converted from one form (chemical as in coal) to another (electricity)

Question 4

what is the direction of the energy gradient?

Answer 4

nuclear -> solar -> chemical -> heat -> mechanical

Question 5

what is the second law of thermodynamics?

Answer 5

All energy conversions are less than 100% efficient (not all energy in coal becomes electricity)

Question 6

what is entropy?

Answer 6

Entropy is a measure of unavailable energy

Question 7

what is the entropy law?

Answer 7

all energy conversions are irreversible

Question 8

what is the implication of the entropy law and the second law of thermo dynamics?

Answer 8

in a closed system the avaliable energy can only decrease

Question 9

what is the matters balance principle?

Answer 9

‘The materials balance principle’: known as ‘the law of conservation of mass’; matter can neither be created nor destroyed

Question 10

can economic activity create anything in a material sense and what does this mean for materials extracted?

Answer 10

economic activity cannot create anything in a material sense but instead transforms material extracted from the enviroment into more valuable forms to humans. hence all materials extracted will eventually return to the enviroment albeit in a transformed sense

Question 11

what are the goals of ecological economics?

Answer 11

to develop scientific understandings of the complex linkages between human and natural systems
to use the understanding to develop ecologically sustainable policies
to obtain a fair distribution of resources between generations and groups and also different species
to efficiently allocate scarce resources including natural and social capital

Question 12

what does ecological economics remind us about sustainability?

Answer 12

Ecol Econ reminds us that “sustainability” is a multi-faceted goal by focusing on the complex interrelationship between different elements of sustainability: ecological, social and economic (ESE). it is concerned with the problem of assuring sustainability in the face of uncertainty and aims to maintain the resilience of ecological and socioeconomic systems by conserving and investing in natural, social and human assets

Question 13

what is impact?

Answer 13

Can be in the form of ‘resource extraction’ from the environment or ‘returning waste and pollution’ to it

Question 14

what is the IPAT identidy?

Answer 14

I = P x A x T
I is the impact measured as mass or volume
P is the population size
A is the per capita income in currency units
T is technology, amount of the resource used waste generated per unit of production

Question 15

what is the view that greater economic activity inevitably hurts the environment based on?

Answer 15

The view that greater economic activity inevitably hurts the environment is based on static assumptions about technology, tastes and environmental investments

Question 16

how does is the enviromental kuznets curve be derived?

Answer 16

assume the per capita emission of a pollutant as ‘e’ and per capita income as ‘y’
e = A x y so where a is some constant so e increases linearly with ‘y’
if you assume the A = B0 - B1xy so e = B0y - B1y^2

Question 17

what occurs to the enviromental degradation when the income per capita grows in the pre industrial economies?

Answer 17

the enviromental degradation increases rapidly

Question 18

what occurs to the environmental degradation when the income per capita grows in the industrial economies?

Answer 18

it increases at a slower rate then the pre industrial economies until it reaches the turning point where it will then decrease after.

Question 19

what occurs to the enviromental degradation when the income per capita grows in the post industrial economies

Answer 19

the enviromental degradation decreases when income per capita grows

Question 20

if the enviromental kuznets curve holds what does it imply?

Answer 20

there is no need to curtail growth and trade to protect the environment
instead of being a threat, they can be the means to environmental improvement

Question 21

what are examples for the EKC hypothesis holding?

Answer 21

sulphur dioxide, nitrogen oxide, suspended particulate matter and deforestation . all the fitted relationships are inverted U shaped

Question 22

what is the turning point for SO2?

Answer 22

3000 dollars per capita

Question 23

how is EKC supported across location scale?

Answer 23

there are some support for local/regional impact such as SOx , but not for global impacts such as CO2

Question 24

what does shafik and bandyopadhyay summarise the EKC?

Answer 24

it is possible to grow out of some environmental problems but there is nothing automatic about doing so. action tends to be taken where there are generalized local costs and substantial private and social benefits.

Question 25

what does arrow et al (1995) say about the environmental Kuznets curve?

Answer 25

Policies that promote gross national product are not substitute for environmental policy

Question 26

what are the conventional measures of development?

Answer 26

Focus on output measures - Which tell us the economic worth of goods & services produced, but not how well off we are (not our level of welfare)

Question 27

what are the unconventional measures of development?

Answer 27

Focus on welfare measures - Attempt to answer whether or not we are better off than in the past

Question 28

what is GDP ?

Answer 28

Is the most common measure. Sum of the outputs of goods / services produced in any year

Question 29

what is the net domestic product (NDP)

Answer 29

s GDP minus depreciation of capital stock

Question 30

what is the constant-dollar GDP and NDP?

Answer 30

Adjust GDP and NDP for the effect of price rises. However, not all components of GDP contribute equally to welfare

Question 31

what is the purchasing power parity (PPP)?

Answer 31

Adjust for purchasing power, for int’l comparisons

Question 32

what is the real consumption per capita?

Answer 32

This measure is as close as we get to a welfare measure, but is not ideal

Question 33

how is the hicksian income defined?

Answer 33

Hicksian income is defined as “the maximum value a man can consume in a week and still be as well off at the end of the week as he was at the beginning”

Question 34

what is the main issue with GDP based measures of development?

Answer 34

it ignores the depreciation of natural capital.

Question 35

what is the issue with the Net domestic product?

Answer 35

although the NDP takes into account depletions in the capital stock, it does not take into account the depletions in natural capital that is still incorrectly measured as income

Question 36

what are alternative measures of development?

Answer 36

adjusted net savings, wealth estimates, the genuine progress indicator, ecological footprint, human development index

Question 37

what is the adjusted net savings?

Answer 37

it attempts to provide an empirical method for judging whether we are fufiling the weak sustainability criterion

Question 38

what is the wealth estimates.

Answer 38

Include produced capital, natural capital and intangible capital,

Question 39

what is the genuine progress indicator?

Answer 39

Focuses on an adjusted measure of consumption (rather than savings), and includes more categories of adjustment

Question 40

what is the ecological footprint measure?

Answer 40

it Attempts to measure the amount of renewable and non-renewable ecologically productive land area required to support the resource demands and waste absorption needs of a particular population

Question 41

what is the human development index?

Answer 41

it is a measure of development that uses 3 components:
longevity, knowledge and income

Question 42

what are the social limits to growth?

Answer 42

as average consumption rises, an increasing portion of consumption takes on a social as well as an individual aspect so that the satisfaction that individuals derive from goods and services depends in increasing measure not only on their own consumption but on consumption by others as well
once basic needs are satisfied, further growth is associated with an increasing proportion of income being spent on positional goods . therefore growth in developed economies is a less socially desirable objective as it does not deliver personal satisfaction.
utilities are interdependent

Question 43

what are postional goods?

Answer 43

Positional goods are goods and services that people value because of their limited supply, and because they convey a high relative standing within society.

Question 44

what are examples of positional goods?

Answer 44

Positional goods may include brand-name luxury handbags, a custom Feadship motor yacht, or front-row tickets to the Super Bowl

Question 45

what are the evidence for the social limits of growth?

Answer 45

since the 1950s, surveys have asked individuals how satisfied they are with their lives or how happy they are. the evidence from the data is consistent with hirschs arguements as across rich countries additional per capita national income delivers little in terms of self assessed hapiness

Question 46

what is the paradox about income and happiness?

Answer 46

looking across individuals and countires at a point in time, income and happiness are positvely related albeit with declining marginal utility. however if we look at a rich economy over time then rising GDP per capita does not go with increasing self assessed hapiness/satisfaction

Question 47

what is the economics of happiness?

Answer 47

The economics of happiness or happiness economics is the quantitative and theoretical study of happiness, positive and negative affect, well-being, quality of life, life satisfaction and related concepts, typically combining economics with other fields such as psychology, health and sociology.