1. Environmental Ethics and Economics

2. Outline
Perception of Environment
Environmental Ethics
Economics

3. Perception of Environment
Culture: the ensemble of knowledge, beliefs, values, and learned ways of life shared by a group of people
Worldview: person’s perception of the world and their place within it
Factors
Religion
Community Experience
Political Ideology
Scientific Understanding

4. Environmental Ethics
Ethics: set of moral principles or values held by a person or society
study of good and bad
criteria, standards, rules people use to make decisions
Environmental ethics: application of ethical standards to relationships between humans and nonhuman entities

5. Weighing the Issue
Do you think that nations with larger ecological footprints have an ethical obligation to reduce their environmental impact, so as to leave more resources available for nations with smaller footprints?
We have extended ethical consideration to more and more things over time…
Women’s right movement 1920’s
Enslavement of human beings
Welfare of domesticated animals - humane societies

6. Three Ethical Perspectives
anthropocentrism - human centered view of our relationship with the environment
biocentrism - value to certain living things or to the biotic realm in general
ecocentrism - benefit or harm to the integrity of whole ecological systems

7. Development Ethic People are and should be masters of nature
Prevailing ethic of American government

8. Conservation & Preservation In Response to Development Ethic
Conservation Ethic
conservation: people should put natural resources to use but they have a responsibility to manage them wisely
Preservation Ethic
preservation: people should protect the natural environment in a pristine, unaltered state

9. Hurricane Katrina

10. Environmental Justice
Fair and equitable treatment of all people with respect to environmental policy and practice, regardless of their income, race, or ethnicity.
Movement fueled by perception that poor people and minorities tend to be exposed to a greater share of
pollution
hazards
environmental degradation

11. Were the events of Katrina a form of “environmental racism”?

12. Slumdog Millionaire Movie Trailer
Inside Slumdog: Boyle on Destiny

13. An International Issue
Wealthy nations impose pollution on poorer nations
Millions of tons of waste
Dump in nations with lax restrictions
Basal Convention
prohibits international export of waste, trade, and illegal dumping
169 countries ratified (US, world’s largest exporter, did not)

14. Ethics & Eco-nomics Is environmental policy good for the economy?
Economics: study of how people decide to use scarce resources to provide goods and services in the face of demand for them
Environmental problem = Economic problem
Pollution - depletion of scarce resources (clean air, water, or soil)

15. Ethics & Eco-nomics
Economy: social system that converts resources into goods, material commodities manufactured for and bought by individuals and businesses; and services, work done for others as a form of business

16. Economy & the Environment
Economies exist within the environment
inputs from the environments
discharge outputs (waste) into environment
Natural resources are “goods” produced by the environment
Environment supports economy.
Ecosystem services: essential services that support economic activity
i.e. cycling nutrients, purifying air and water

17. Millenium Ecosystem Assessment
15 of 24 ecosystem services are being used unsustainably
Negative impact on economy
Harming poor people more than wealthy
Restoring ecosystem services -> primary avenue for alleviating poverty
Millenium Ecosystem Assessment: 2,000 environmental scientists from 100 countries met in 2005

18. Neoclassical Economics
Can have implications for the environment
4 Assumptions
Resources are infinite or substitutable
Was this true for the Easter Islanders?
2. Costs and benefits are internal (buyer and seller)
3. Long term effects should be discounted
4. Growth is good
1. Once we have depleted a resource we should be able to find a replacement
Was this true for the Easter Islanders?
Is this true for the Mirrar Clan?
2. externalities: costs or benefits that involve people other than the buyer or seller
external cost: cost borne by someone not involved in the transaction
I.e. human health problems, property damage, aesthetic damage, declining real estate value
3. none
4. growth is required to keep employment high and maintain social order
growth is depicted as good, decline as bad

19. Is growth good? Is “more and bigger” always better?
US frenzy of consumption due to:
advertising
technology
availability of goods (global trade)
affluenza: the way material goods fail to bring contentment to people affluent enough to afford them
Is economic growth like cancer?
technology can push back the limits on growth - will it last forever? is it sustainable?

20. Market Failure & Ecolabeling
When markets do not reflect the full costs and benefits of actions
Economists contrive ways to use aspects of the market to counteract market failure
Ex: labels showing how the products were grown, harvested, or manufactured
Promote socially responsible purchasing and investing