Environmental Economics,
Politics, and Worldviews
Chapter 17
Three big ideas
• A more sustainable economic system would include the
harmful environmental and health costs of producing and
using goods and services in their market prices,
subsidize environmentally beneficial goods and services,
tax pollution and waste instead of wages and profits, and
reduce poverty.
• Individuals can work together to become part of the
political processes that influence how environmental
policies are made and implemented.
• Living more sustainably means becoming
environmentally literate, learning from nature, living more
simply, and becoming active environmental citizens.
Section 17-1
HOW ARE ECONOMIC
SYSTEMS RELATED TO THE
BIOSPHERE?
Not all market systems are freemarket systems
• Economics is a social science that deals with the
production, distribution, and consumption of
goods and services to satisfy people’s needs
and wants.
• Market-based economic system—buyers and
sellers interact in markets to make economic
decisions about how goods and services are
produced, distributed, and consumed.
– In a free-market economic system, all economic
decisions are governed solely by the competitive
interactions of supply, demand, and price.
Not all market systems are freemarket systems
– If the demand for goods or services is greater than
the supply, the price rises, and when supply exceeds
demand, the price falls.
– Ideally, (1) no company would control the prices of
any goods or services; (2) the market prices would
include direct and indirect costs; and (3) consumers
would have full information about the beneficial and
harmful environmental and health effects of goods
and services.
– Many companies push for government support such
as subsidies, tax breaks, trade barriers, or regulations
that will give their products a market advantage over
their competitors’ products.
Not all market systems are freemarket systems
• Three types of capital, or resources, are used to
produce goods and services.
– Natural capital includes resources and services
produced by the earth’s natural processes, which
support all economies and all life.
– Human capital, or human resources, includes
people’s physical and mental talents that provide
labor, innovation, culture, and organization.
– Manufactured capital, or manufactured resources, are
items such as machinery, equipment, and factories
made from natural resources with the help of human
resources.
Most economic systems use three types of
resources to produce goods and services
Economists disagree over the importance of natural
capital and the sustainability of economic growth
• Economic growth for a city, state, country, or
company is an increase in its capacity to provide
goods and services to people.
• Economic development is the improvement of
human living standards made possible by
economic growth.
• High-throughput economies attempt to boost
economic growth by increasing the flow of
natural matter and energy resources through
their economic systems to produce more goods
and services.
The high-throughput economies of most of the world’s moredeveloped countries rely on continually increasing the flow of
energy and matter resources to increase economic growth
Economists disagree over the importance of natural
capital and the sustainability of economic growth
• Neoclassical economists, following the ideas of
Alfred Marshall (1842–1924) and Milton
Friedman (1912–2006) view the earth’s natural
capital as a subset, or part, of a human
economic system and assume that the potential
for economic growth is essentially unlimited and
is necessary for providing businesses with
profits and workers with jobs.
Economists disagree over the importance of natural
capital and the sustainability of economic growth
• Ecological economists believe that:
– There are no substitutes for many vital natural
resources such as air, water, and biodiversity, or for
nature’s free ecological services such as climate
control, pest control, and nutrient recycling.
– Economic systems are subsystems of the biosphere
that depend heavily on the earth’s irreplaceable natural
resources and services.
– Conventional economic growth eventually will become
unsustainable because it can deplete or degrade
various irreplaceable forms of natural capital, and
because it will exceed the capacity of the environment
to handle the pollutants and wastes we produce.
Economists disagree over the importance of natural
capital and the sustainability of economic growth
• The models of ecological economists are built on
three major assumptions.
– Resources are limited and should not be wasted; there
are no substitutes for most types of natural capital.
– We should encourage environmentally beneficial and
sustainable forms of economic development, and
discourage environmentally harmful and unsustainable
forms of economic growth.
– The harmful environmental and health effects of
producing and using economic goods and services
should be included in their market prices (full-cost
pricing), so that consumers will have more accurate
information about these effects.
Economists disagree over the importance of natural
capital and the sustainability of economic growth
• Many environmental economists argue that some
forms of economic growth are not sustainable and
should be discouraged through fine-tuning existing
economic systems and tools.
Ecological economists see all human economies as
subsystems of the biosphere that depend on natural
resources and services provided by the sun and earth
Section 17-2
HOW CAN WE USE ECONOMIC
TOOLS TO DEAL WITH
ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEMS?
Most things cost more than we
might think
• The market price, or direct price, that we
pay for something does not include most
of the indirect, or external, costs of harm to
the environment and human health
associated with its production and use.
• Hidden costs are the indirect or external
costs that can have short- and long-term
harmful effects on other people, on future
generations, and on the earth’s lifesupport systems.
Most things cost more than we
might think
• Analysts say that full-cost pricing would:
– Reduce resource waste, pollution, and
environmental degradation.
– Improve human health by encouraging
producers to invent more resource-efficient
and less-polluting methods of production.
– Enable consumers to make more informed
decisions about the goods and services they
buy.
Most things cost more than we
might think
• Phase in shift to full-cost pricing so that
environmentally harmful businesses would have
time to transform themselves and consumers
have time to adjust their buying habits.
• Resistance to full-cost pricing.
– Opposition from producers of harmful and wasteful
products and services who would have to charge
more for them and might go out of business.
– Difficulty estimating environmental and health costs
and how they might change in the future.
Environmental economic indicators could
help us reduce our environmental impact
• Gross domestic product (GDP) is the annual
market value of all goods and services produced
by all firms and organizations, foreign and
domestic, operating within a country.
• The per capita GDP is the GDP divided by the
country’s total population at midyear.
• GDP provides a standardized, useful method for
measuring and comparing the economic outputs
of nations, and does not distinguish between
goods and services that are environmentally or
socially beneficial and those that are harmful.
Environmental economic indicators could
help us reduce our environmental impact
• Environmental and ecological economists and
environmental scientists call for new indicators help
monitor environmental quality and human well-being.
– Genuine progress indicator (GPI) is the GDP plus the
estimated value of beneficial transactions that meet
basic needs, but in which no money changes hands,
minus the estimated harmful environmental, health, and
social costs of all transactions.
– In the U.S., between 1950 and 2004 the per capita
GDP rose sharply and the per capita GPI stayed nearly
flat and even declined slightly, which shows that even if
a nation’s economy is growing, its people are not
necessarily better off.
Comparison of the per capita GDP and
GPI in the US between 1950 and 2004
We can reward environmentally
sustainable businesses
• Governments can use several strategies,
including subsidies, to encourage or force
producers to work toward full-cost pricing.
• Perverse subsidies and tax breaks enable
businesses to operate in such a way that they do
damage to the environment or to human health,
such as:
–
–
–
–
Extracting minerals and oil.
Cutting timber on public lands.
Irrigating with low-cost water.
Overfishing commercially valuable aquatic species.
We can reward environmentally
sustainable businesses
• Companies spend considerable money lobbying, or
trying to influence governments to continue and even
increase their subsidies.
• Some countries have begun reducing these subsidies.
• Governments could phase in environmentally beneficial
subsidies and tax breaks for:
–
–
–
–
–
–
Pollution prevention.
Ecocity development.
Sustainable forestry, agriculture.
Sustainable water use.
Energy efficiency and renewable energy use.
Actions to slow projected climate change.
Tax pollution and wastes
instead of wages and profits
• Use green taxes, or ecotaxes, to help include
many of the harmful environmental and health
costs of production and consumption in market
prices.
• To many analysts, the tax system in most
countries is backward because it discourages
what we want more of—jobs, income, and profitdriven innovation—and encourages what we
want less of—pollution, resource waste, and
environmental degradation.
Tax pollution and wastes
instead of wages and profits
• Three requirements for successful
implementation of green taxes.
– Phased in over 10–20 years to allow
businesses to plan for the future.
– Income, payroll, or other taxes would have to
be reduced or replaced so that there is no net
increase in taxes.
– The poor and middle class would need a
safety net to help provide them with essentials
such as fuel and food.
Tax pollution and wastes
instead of wages and profits
• Polls indicate that once such tax shifting is
explained to voters, 70% of European and
U.S. voters support shifting toward a green
tax.
• In some countries in Europe, green taxes
have helped to create jobs, lower taxes on
wages, and increased use of renewable
energy resources.
Using green taxes to help reduce pollution and
resource waste has advantages and disadvantages
Environmental laws and regulations can
discourage or encourage innovation
• Environmental regulation is a form of government
intervention in the marketplace that is widely
used to help control or prevent pollution and to
reduce resource waste and environmental
degradation.
• Laws that:
– Set pollution standards.
– Regulate harmful activities such as the release of toxic
chemicals into the environment.
– Protect certain irreplaceable or slowly replenished
resources such as public forests.
Environmental laws and regulations can
discourage or encourage innovation
• Currently most environmental laws enforced
through a command-and-control approach; often
concentrating on cleanup instead of prevention.
• Incentive-based environmental regulations use
the economic forces of the marketplace to
encourage businesses to be innovative in
reducing pollution and resource waste.
• Innovation-friendly environmental regulation sets
goals and frees industries to meet them in any
way that works, and allows enough time for
innovation.
Using the marketplace to reduce
pollution and resource waste
• One incentive-based regulation system allows
the government to set acceptable pollution/use
limits or caps and gives or sells companies a
certain number of tradable pollution or resourceuse permits.
• The U.S. has used this cap-and-trade approach
to reduce the emissions of sulfur dioxide and
several other air pollutants.
• Effectiveness depends on how high or low the
initial cap is set and on the rate at which the cap
is reduced to encourage further innovation.
Using tradable permits to reduce pollution
and resource waste has advantages and
disadvantages
Reducing pollution and resource waste
by selling services instead of things
• A proposed new economic model would provide
profits while greatly reducing resource use, pollution,
and waste for a number of goods by shifting from the
current material-flow economy to a service-flow one.
– Customers rent/lease services that goods provide.
– A manufacturer or service provider makes more money if its
product uses the minimum amount of materials, lasts as long
as possible, is energy efficient, produces as little pollution as
possible in its production and use, and is easy to maintain,
repair, reuse, or recycle
– Since 1992, Xerox has been leasing most of its copy
machines as part of its mission to provide document
services instead of selling photocopiers.
Reducing poverty can help us deal
with environmental problems
• Poverty is defined as the inability to meet
one’s basic economic needs.
– 1.4 billion people struggle to survive on an
income equivalent to less than $1.25 a day.
– Poverty has numerous harmful health and
environmental effects.
– Reducing poverty benefits individuals,
economies, and the environment and helps to
slow population growth.
Reducing poverty can help us deal
with environmental problems
• Ways to reduce poverty and its harmful effects:
– Mount a massive global effort to combat malnutrition and
the infectious diseases that kill millions of people
prematurely.
– Provide primary school education for all children and for
the world’s nearly 800 million illiterate adults.
– Stabilize population growth.
– Sharply reduce the total and per capita ecological
footprints.
– Large investments in small-scale infrastructure and
sustainable agriculture projects.
– Encourage lending agencies to make small loans to poor
people who want to increase their income.
The Millennium Development
Goals present challenges
• Millennium Development Goals included sharply
reducing hunger and poverty, improving health care,
achieving universal primary education, empowering
women, and moving toward environmental sustainability
by 2015.
• More-developed countries agreed to devote 0.7% of their
annual national income toward achieving the goals.
• By 2009, only five countries—Denmark, Luxembourg,
Sweden, Norway, and the Netherlands—had donated
what they had promised; the U.S.—the world’s richest
country—gives only 0.16% of its national income to help
poor countries.
What should our priorities
be?
We can use lessons from nature to shift to more
environmentally sustainable economies
• There is a sharp contrast between the
beliefs of neoclassical economists and
ecological economists.
• The best long-term solution to our
environmental and resource problems is to
shift from a high-throughput (high-waste)
to a more sustainable low-throughput (lowwaste) economy.
Learning and applying lessons from nature can help us to design
and manage more sustainable low-throughput economies
Inputs
(from environment)
High-quality
energy
High-quality
matter
System
throughputs
Outputs
(into environment)
Lowquality
energy
(heat)
Energy
conservation
Waste and
pollution
prevention
Low-waste
economy
Pollution
control
Waste and
pollution
Recycle
and reuse
Fig. 17-10, p. 445
We can use lessons from nature to shift to more
environmentally sustainable economies
• Make this transition by:
– reusing and recycling most nonrenewable matter
resources
– using renewable resources no faster than natural
processes can replenish them
– reducing resource waste by using matter and energy
resources more efficiently
– reducing environmentally harmful forms of
consumption
– emphasizing pollution prevention and waste reduction
– slowing population growth to keep the number of
matter and energy consumers growing slowly.
We can use lessons from nature to shift to more
environmentally sustainable economies
• Simple golden rule: “Leave the world
better than you found it, take no more than
you need, try not to harm life or the
environment, and make amends if you do.”
• Large numbers of new green jobs, which
are devoted to improving environmental
quality, developing cleaner and low-carbon
energy resources, and promoting
environmental sustainability.
We can use these strategies for shifting
to eco-economies during this century
Environmentally Sustainable
Businesses and Careers
Section 17-3
HOW CAN WE IMPLEMENT MORE
SUSTAINABLE AND JUST
ENVIRONMENTAL POLICIES?
Dealing with environmental problems in
democracies is not easy
• A government’s policies sets the laws and
regulations it enforces and the programs it
funds.
• Politics is the process by which individuals and
groups try to influence or control the policies and
actions of governments at local, state, national,
and international levels.
• Representative democracy is government by the
people through elected officials and
representatives.
Dealing with environmental problems in
democracies is not easy
• In a constitutional democracy, a constitution
provides the basis of government authority, and,
in most cases, limits government power by
mandating free elections and guaranteeing free
speech.
• Political institutions in most constitutional
democracies allow gradual change to ensure
economic and political stability.
– The U.S. has a system of checks and balances that
distributes power among three branches of
government—legislative, executive, and judicial—and
among federal, state, and local governments.
Dealing with environmental problems in
democracies is not easy
• The major function of government in
democratic countries is to develop and
implement policies for dealing with various
issues.
– Develop a policy and enact it into a law.
– Get funds set aside by an elected legislative
body to implement and enforce the new law.
– Draw up regulations or rules for implementing
a new law.
Dealing with environmental problems in
democracies is not easy
• Pressures from many competing specialinterest groups may influence policy.
– Corporations are profit-making organizations.
– Many nongovernmental organizations (NGOs)
are nonprofits, such as labor unions and
environmental organizations.
Certain principles can guide us
in making environmental policy
• Several principles designed to minimize
environmental harm:
– The humility principle: Our understanding of nature
and how our actions affect nature is quite limited.
– The reversibility principle: Try not to make a decision
that cannot be reversed later if ends up wrong.
– The net energy principle: Do not encourage the
widespread use of energy alternatives or technologies
with low net energy yields.
– The precautionary principle: When substantial
evidence indicates that an activity threatens human
health or the environment, take precautionary
measures to prevent or reduce such harm.
Certain principles can guide us
in making environmental policy
– The prevention principle: Whenever possible, make
decisions that help to prevent a problem from
occurring or becoming worse.
– The polluter-pays principle: Develop regulations and
use economic tools such as green taxes to ensure
that polluters bear the costs of dealing with the
pollutants and wastes they produce (full-cost pricing).
– The environmental justice principle: Establish
environmental policy so that no group of people bears
an unfair share of the burden created by pollution,
environmental degradation, or the execution of
environmental laws.
Individuals can influence
environmental policy
• History shows that significant change usually
comes from the bottom up, when individuals join
together to bring about change.
• Without grassroots political action by millions of
individual citizens and organized citizen groups:
– The air you breathe and the water you drink today
would be much more polluted.
– Much more of the earth’s biodiversity would have
disappeared.
Individuals can influence
environmental policy
• At a fundamental level, all politics is local; what
we do to improve environmental quality in our
own neighborhoods, schools, and work places
has national and global implications.
• “Think globally; act locally.”
• Environmental leaders can make a big
difference.
– Lead by example, using our own lifestyle and values
to show others that change is possible and can be
beneficial.
Individuals can influence
environmental policy
– Campaign and vote for informed and eco-friendly
candidates, and by communicating with elected
officials.
– Vote with our wallets—not buying their products or
services and letting them know why.
– Choose one of the many rapidly growing green
careers.
– Run for some sort of local office.
– Propose and work for better solutions to
environmental problem.
These are some ways in which you can
influence environmental policy
U.S. environmental laws and
regulations have been under attack
• U.S. Congress enacted a number of important
federal environmental and resource protection laws,
most of them in the 1970s.
• U.S. environmental laws have been highly effective
but since 1980 a strong campaign to weaken or
repeal them, such as:
– Some corporate leaders and other powerful people who
see them as threats to their profits, wealth, and power.
– Citizens who see them as threats to their private property
rights and jobs.
– State and local government officials who resent having to
implement federal laws and regulations with little or no
federal funding.
U.S. environmental laws and
regulations have been under attack
• Since 2000, efforts to weaken most major U.S.
environmental laws and regulations have
escalated.
• Some concerned citizens have worked together
to improve environmental quality in their local
communities.
• More than 80% of the U.S. public strongly
support environmental laws and regulations and
do not want them weakened, but less than 10%
of the U.S. considers the environment to be one
of the nation’s most pressing problems.
Some major environmental laws and their
amended versions enacted in the US, 1969-1983
Citizen environmental groups
play important roles
• The spearheads of the global conservation,
environmental, and environmental justice
movements are the tens of thousands of
nonprofit NGOs working at the international,
national, state, and local levels.
– Grassroots groups with just a few members.
– Mainline organizations like the World Wildlife
Fund (WWF), a 5-million-member global
conservation organization, which operates in
100 countries.
Citizen environmental groups
play important roles
– Groups with large memberships include
Greenpeace, the Nature Conservancy,
Conservation International, and the Grameen Bank.
– More than 8 million U.S. citizens belong to more
than 30,000 NGOs that deal with environmental
issues.
– A loosely connected worldwide network of
grassroots NGOs working for bottom-up political,
social, economic, and environmental change can
be viewed as an emerging citizen-based global
sustainability movement.
Citizen environmental groups
play important roles
– Some grassroots environmental groups use:
• Nonviolent and nondestructive tactics of protest
marches, tree sitting and lawsuits that generate bad
publicity for practices and businesses that threaten or
degrade the environment.
• Militant environmental groups use violent means
such as destroying bulldozers and SUVs, and
breaking into some types of research laboratories.
Students and educational institutions
can play important environmental roles
• Since the mid-1980s, there has been a boom in
environmental awareness on U.S. college
campuses and in public and private schools
across the U.S..
• Students, faculty, and administration work
together to make environmental improvements.
– Environmental audits of campuses or schools gather
data on practices affecting the environment and are
used it to propose changes.
– Environmentally sustainable practices usually save
money in the process.
Environmental security is as important
as military and economic security
• Ecologists and many economists point out that all
economies are supported by the earth’s natural
capital.
• Serious new threats to global and national military and
economic security are the potential for rapid climate
change, increasing hunger and malnutrition, spreading
water shortages, and environmental degradation.
• There is an increase in the number of failing states
where governments can no longer provide security
and basic services such as education, health care,
and safe supplies of water for their citizens.
Environmental security is as important
as military and economic security
• The United Nations houses a large family
of influential organizations including:
– the U.N. Environment Programme (UNEP).
– the World Health Organization (WHO).
– the U.N. Development Programme (UNDP).
– the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
Environmental security is as important
as military and economic security
• The United Nations houses a large family of
influential organizations including:
–
–
–
–
the U.N. Environment Programme (UNEP).
the World Health Organization (WHO).
the U.N. Development Programme (UNDP).
the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
• Other organizations that make or influence
environmental decisions include the World Bank,
the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and the
World Conservation Union (IUCN).
Environmental security is as important
as military and economic security
• These and other international organizations
have played important roles in:
– Expanding global understanding of environmental
issues;
– Gathering and evaluating environmental data.
– Developing and monitoring international
environmental treaties.
– Providing grants and loans for sustainable economic
development and reducing poverty.
– Helping more than 100 nations to develop
environmental laws and institutions.
Section 17-4
WHAT ARE SOME MAJOR
ENVIRONMENTAL
WORLDVIEWS?
There are a variety of
environmental worldviews
• People disagree on how serious various
environmental problems are as well as on
what we should do about them.
– Environmental worldviews are how people
think the world works and what they believe
their role in the world should be.
– Widespread lack of understanding of how the
earth works, keeps us alive, and supports our
economies.
A comparison of three major
environmental worldviews
There are a variety of
environmental worldviews
• Environmental ethics—what one believes
about what is right and what is wrong in
our behavior toward the environment.
• People with widely differing environmental
worldviews can take the same data, be
logically consistent, and arrive at quite
different conclusions.
Most people have human-centered
environmental worldviews
• The planetary management worldview sees
humans as the planet’s most important and
dominant species, and we can and should
manage the earth mostly for our own benefit.
– The values of other species and parts of nature are
based primarily on how useful they are to us.
– Human well-being depends on the degree of control
that we have over natural processes.
– We can also redesign parts of the planet and its lifesupport systems to support us and our ever-growing
economies.
Most people have human-centered
environmental worldviews
• The stewardship worldview assumes that
we have an ethical responsibility to be
caring and responsible managers, or
stewards, of the earth.
– Using the earth’s natural capital is borrowing
from the earth and from future generations.
• Human-centered worldviews assume that
we have enough knowledge to be effective
managers or stewards of the earth.
Some environmental worldviews are lifecentered and others are earth-centered
• Recognize the inherent or intrinsic value of all
forms of life, regardless of their potential or
actual use to humans.
• Life-centered worldview states that we have an
ethical responsibility to avoid hastening the
extinction of any species through our activities.
– Each species is a unique storehouse of genetic
information that should be respected and protected
simply because it exists.
– Every species has the potential for providing
economic benefits.
Some environmental worldviews are lifecentered and others are earth-centered
• The earth-centered environmental
worldview is devoted to preserving the
earth’s biodiversity and the functioning of
its life-support systems for the benefit of
humans and other forms of life, now and in
the future.
– Earth-centered worldviews believe that
humans are not in charge of the world and
that human economies and other systems are
subsystems of the biosphere.
Some environmental worldviews are lifecentered and others are earth-centered
• The environmental wisdom worldview sees us
as part of—not apart from—the community of life
and the ecological processes that sustain all life.
– We should work with the earth to promote
environmental sustainability instead of trying to
conquer and manage it mostly for our own benefit.
– The earth has been around for billions of years and
doesn’t need saving.
– We need to save our own species and cultures, well
as other species that may become extinct because of
our activities
Section 17-5
HOW CAN WE LIVE MORE
SUSTAINABLY?
We can become more
environmentally literate
• Increase literacy by understanding three
important ideas:
– Natural capital matters because it supports
the earth’s life and our economies.
– Our ecological footprints are immense and
are expanding rapidly.
– Ecological and climate change tipping points
are irreversible and should never be crossed.
Achieving environmental literacy
We can learn from the earth
• Appreciation for ecological, aesthetic, and spiritual value
of nature.
• Not simply a lack of environmental literacy but also many
people lack intimate contact with nature and have a
limited understanding of how it sustains us.
• Humans have more power than ever before to disrupt
nature.
• Direct experiences with nature reveal parts of the
complex web of life that cannot be built with technology
or in a chemical lab, bought with money, or reproduced
with genetic engineering.
• The healing of the earth and the healing of the human
spirit are one and the same.
We can live more simply and
lightly on the earth
• Sustainability is about sustaining the entire
web of life.
• Ethical guidelines for achieving more
sustainable and compassionate societies
by converting environmental concerns,
literacy, and wisdom into environmentally
responsible actions:
– Use the three principles of sustainability to
mimic the ways in which nature sustains itself.
We can live more simply and
lightly on the earth
– Do not deplete or degrade the earth’s natural
capital.
– Do not waste matter and energy resources.
– Protect biodiversity.
– Repair ecological damage that we have
caused.
– Leave the earth in as good a condition as we
found it, or better.
We can live more simply and
lightly on the earth
• People who have a habit of consuming
excessively should to learn how to live more
simply and sustainably.
– Seeking happiness through the pursuit of material
things is considered folly by almost every major
religion and philosophy.
– Modern advertising persistently encourages people to
buy more and more things to fill a growing list of
wants as a way to achieve happiness.
– Mark Twain put it: “Civilization is the limitless
multiplication of unnecessary necessities.”
We can live more simply and
lightly on the earth
• Research shows that what a growing number of
people really want is more community, greater
and more fulfilling interactions with family,
friends, and neighbors, and a greater
opportunity to express their creativity and to
have more fun.
• Some affluent people are adopting a lifestyle of
voluntary simplicity, in which they seek to learn
how to live with much less than they are
accustomed to having.
– A life based mostly on what one owns is not fulfilling.
We can live more simply and
lightly on the earth
– Living with fewer material possessions and
using products and services that have a
smaller environmental impact
– Instead of working longer to pay for bigger
vehicles and houses, they are spending more
time with their loved ones, friends, and
neighbors.
– Shifting from a culture of “faster, bigger, and
more” to one of “slower, smaller, and less.”
We can live more simply and
lightly on the earth
• Practicing voluntary simplicity is a way to
apply Mahatma Gandhi’s principle of
enoughness: “The earth provides enough
to satisfy every person’s need but not
every person’s greed. . . . When we take
more than we need, we are simply taking
from each other, borrowing from the
future, or destroying the environment and
other species.”
The sustainability eight: ways in which
people can live more lightly on the earth
We can bring about a sustainability
revolution during your lifetime
• Time for an environmental or sustainability revolution.
• Three social science principles of sustainability:
– Full-cost pricing (from economics): in working toward this goal,
we would find ways to include in market prices the harmful
environmental and health costs of producing and using goods
and services.
– Win-win solutions (from political science): by focusing on
solutions that will benefit the largest possible number of people,
as well as the environment, we might learn to work together
consistently in dealing with environmental problems.
– A responsibility to future generations (from ethics): through this
principle, we would accept our responsibility to leave the planet’s
life-support systems in at least as good a shape as what we now
enjoy, for all future generations.
Cultural shifts in emphasis that will be
necessary to bring about the environmental
or sustainability revolution.
The three social science
principles of sustainability
Change can occur very rapidly
Three big ideas
• A more sustainable economic system would include the
harmful environmental and health costs of producing and
using goods and services in their market prices,
subsidize environmentally beneficial goods and services,
tax pollution and waste instead of wages and profits, and
reduce poverty.
• Individuals can work together to become part of the
political processes that influence how environmental
policies are made and implemented.
• Living more sustainably means becoming
environmentally literate, learning from nature, living more
simply, and becoming active environmental citizens.