Economics, Politics, Worldviews
and the Environment
Chapter 14
Economic Resources
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Capital
Natural resources
Human resources
Physical resources
Neoclassical vs. Ecological
Economists
• Differing views of natural resources
• Differing views on economic growth
• “Eco-economy”
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indicators of economic and environmental health
full-cost pricing
swap subsidies
green taxes
stricter pollution laws
tradable permits
reduce poverty
Monitoring Environmental Progress
• Gross domestic
product (GDP)
• Per capita GDP
• Genuine progress
indicator (GPI)
• GPI = GDP + noneconomic goods and
services – harmful
costs
Harmful External Costs and FullCost Pricing
• Internal costs (direct)
• External costs (indirect)
• Full-cost pricing
Improving Environmental Quality
and Shifting to Full-Cost Pricing
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Government subsidies and tax breaks
Green taxes
Environmental tax reform
Innovation-friendly regulations
Tradable pollution and resource-use rights
Market forces
Reducing Poverty to Improve Environmental
Quality and Human Well-Being
• Poverty
• Premature death and
health problems
• Environmental impact
of poverty
• Role of the World
Bank
• Poor help themselves
Developing, Influencing, and
Implementing Environmental Policy
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Humility Principle
Reversibility Principle
Precautionary Principle
Prevention Principle
Polluter Pays Principle
Integrative Principle
Public Participation Principle
Human Rights Principle
Environmental Justice Principle
Opponents of Environmental Groups
and their Claims
• Threatened by environmental regulations
• Threats to private property rights and jobs
• Local and state governments resent
unfunded federal regulations
• Businesses and individuals resent
complex and expensive federal regulations
• View environmental regulations as
unnecessary, ineffective and too costly
Global Environmental Policy
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Military security, economic security
Environmental security
International organizations and meetings
International agreements
Effects of GATT and the WTO
What Can You Do?
Influencing Environmental Policy
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Become informed on issues
Run for office (especially at local level)
Make your views known at public hearings
Make your views known to elected
representatives
Contribute money and time to candidates for
office
Vote
Form or join nongovernment organizations
(NGOs) seeking change
Support reform of election campaign financing
Environmental Worldviews in Industrial
Societies
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Self-centered
Anthropocentric
Biocentric
Ecocentric
Biosphere- or earth-centered
Environmental Worldviews in Industrial
Societies
Planetary Management Worldview
• As the planet’s most important species, we
are in charge of the earth.
• Because of our ingenuity and technology
we will not run out of resources.
• The potential for economic growth is
essentially unlimited.
• Our success depends on how well we
manage the earth’s life-support systems
mostly for our benefit
Stewardship Worldview
• We are the planet’s most important species but
we have an ethical responsibility to care for the
rest of nature.
• We will probably not run out of resources, but
they should not be wasted.
• We should encourage environmentally beneficial
forms of economic growth and discourage
environmentally harmful forms.
• Our success depends on how well we manage
the earth’s life-support systems for our benefit
and for the rest of nature
Environmental Wisdom Worldview
• Nature exists for all species and we are not in
charge of the earth.
• Resources are limited, should not be wasted,
and are not all for us.
• We should encourage earth-sustaining forms of
economic growth and discourage earth
degrading forms.
• Our success depends on learning how the earth
sustains itself and integrating such lessons from
nature into the ways we think and act.