Transcript
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Please Note: All materials in these notes are the property of
Benjamin Cummings Publishing company and are taken from
Study Guide for Environment: The Science Behind the Stories. These notes are for classroom use only.
Chapter 2 Overview '
Understanding how humans place value on the environment involves knowledge of a person's culture, perceptions of the world, ethics, and economic values. Different cultures place different values on the environment and the resources it provides. Worldviews of the environment can be shaped by experience, religion, education, social attitudes, and political ideology. Environmental ethics can clarify thinking and help make decisions such as whether to dig a mine or log a forest. After the industrial revolution, writers and philosophers such as Henry David Thoreau, John Muir, Gifford Pinchot, and AIdo Leopold discussed various ethical perspectives on the environment. The ideas involved in deep ecology, ecofeminism, and social justice show that some humans have expanded their domain of ethical concern. In addition to ethical considerations, many people also take into account the economic impact of environ- mental decisions. Whether one believes that environmental protection helps or hurts the economy depends on the time frame involved in the activity, and the economic school of thought to which one subscribes. Several economies exist, depending on who makes decisions about the goods and services produced, and whether the goods and services come from nature or through purchases. However, because all resources ulti- mately come from the environment, the environment and economics are intricately linked. Unfortunately, the capitalist. market system and neo- classical economics can cause severe harm to the environment. Continuous economic growth is generally considered good, but some critics argue that this growth is not sustainable. In response to the environmental
problems humans face, some economists have devised strategies to achieve sustainability.
The Mirrar Clan Confronts the Jabiluka Uranium Mine I
Many of Australia's uranium mines occur on native Aboriginal lands that are also considered to have irreplaceable natural and cultural resources.
The 27 members of the Mirrar clan have lived with a uranium mine,
called Ranger, on their land since 1978, and have been fighting the development of a second uranium mine, Jabiluka, on their land.
The Mirrar didn't want the mine because they felt it threatened their culture, religion, health, and environment.
The mining company promised that the mine would bring jobs, income, development, and a higher standard of living.
In 2002, the Jabiluka mining plans were canceled.
The conflict between a native culture and a mining company shows how values, beliefs, and traditions influence our choice of how humans want to live within their environment.
Culture, Worldview, and Our Perception of the Environment
Conflicts often arise over ethics and economics when dealing with environmental issues.
Ethics and economics are sources of values
The ways that people relate to and value their environment must be known in order to fully understand environmental problems. Both economics and ethics deal with questions of value.
Values, culture, and worldview influence a person's perception of the environment
When humans manipulate the environment to meet their needs, they
make decisions based not only on rational assessments of costs and benefits, but also on their particular culture and worldview.
Culture is defined as the sum of the knowledge, beliefs, values, and
learned ways shared by a group of people.
'" A person's worldview reflects a person's or group's beliefs about the
meaning and purpose of the world, and is influenced by culture.
One person's worldview may lead him or her to think a uranium mine is wonderful (jobs, etc.), while another's worldview may not support the construction of a mine due to its high pollution and radiation levels.
Many factors can shape our worldviews and perception of the environment
The Mirrar use their land for pragmatic reasons, such as food, shelter, and for resources; they worried that the uranium mine would pollute the land and water.
Even more than providing resources, however, the Mirrar believe that the land is sacred; specific landscape features provide spiritual meaning and cultural lessons.
Worldviews of the environment can be shaped by experience, religion, education, social attitudes, and political ideology.
Strong, or vested, interests in the economic outcome of a particular decision influence how people see the world.
Shareholders and company owners have a vested interest in seeing a re- source developed for the economic benefits the resource would bring.
It is critical to understand how culture, worldviews, ethics, and economics
influence how and why humans value the environment.
Environmental Ethics
The field of ethics involves studying the rules and criteria people use to judge right from wrong, good from bad.
The term ethics can also refer to a person's or group's set of moral principles or values.
A person's values and ethical beliefs can influence what is considered right or wrong, and the decisions that person makes.
Ethics is not the same as religion or law, as religion and law both rely on outside evaluation and are subject to the force of some type of authority. Ethical standards can guide people's treatment of individuals. For example, Immanuel Kant proposed the "categorical imperative:' which tells you to treat others as you wish to be treated.
The utilitarian ethical standard states that something is right when it produces the greatest benefits for the greatest number of people.
Environmental ethics is the application of ethical standards to environmental questions
\ Environmental ethics, which involves applying ethical standards to environmental questions, can clarify thinking and help in making decisions when environmental issues-such as mining, or logging a forest arise.
Environmental ethics cover our obligations to future generations, justification for driving a species to extinction, and exposing different communities to pollution.
We have extended ethical consideration to more and more entities through time
Most people feel an ethical obligation to other entities, but people differ in how broad their ethical concern is.
Some people limit their concern to humans only, while others include nonhuman entities.
Many people have expanded their sphere of ethical consideration to include animals, and are concerned over the treatment of domestic livestock, wild animals, and laboratory animals.
Still others, such as Roderick Nash in his book The Rights of Nature (1989), have included the well-being of all of nature in their concern. People expanded their sphere of ethical consideration because economic growth provides more leisure time to think and learn; ecology shows how organisms are interconnected; and evolution shows that humans are a part of the millions of species on this planet.
Environmental science rejects this "dualism" of humans and nature, and believes that recognizing that humans are part of nature is critical to re- solving environmental problems.
There are three ethical perspectives concerning the environment: anthropocentrism, biocentrism, and ecocentrism.
Anthropocentrism involves measuring costs and benefits of an action strictly in terms of their impact on humans.
Human health, economics, and aesthetics are important, whereas anything that does not provide some benefit to humans is worthless.
Biocentrism grants that nonhuman species have value, and because all life has ethical standing, an action must be evaluated in terms of its overall impact on living things.
Ecocentrism considers the effect of an action on the entire ecological system, both abiotic and biotic components.
With this perspective, an action may be allowed that actually harms humans, if the action protects a species, community, or ecosystem.
Because ecocentrism includes a wide variety of entities, and the connections between them must be preserved, it is a more holistic perspective than the others.
Environmental ethics has ancient roots
Culture and religion influence how humans feel toward the environment. Many native cultures view their environment as having moral significance. Some western philosophers such as Plato maintained that humans must cherish Earth.
The Christian religion has been blamed for being hostile to the environment; however, other passages in the Bible talk about responsibility and stewardship toward "God's creation."
The industrial revolution inspired environmental philosophers
The industrial revolution impacted the environment, not only in terms of resource use, but in terms of human perception of the environment.
Machines used increasing amounts of natural resources, pollution . ~ increased rapidly, and people moved off farms and into cities.
The writer, John Ruskin (1819-1900), criticized the pollution in cities, and that people no longer valued nature for its spiritual benefits.
The transcendentalist movement of the early 1800s, embraced by Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau, viewed nature as being
divine, where everything is a symbol or deeper message of some truth.
The conservation and preservation movements arose around the turn of the 20th century
John Muir, an avid advocate for wilderness, believed in the preservation ethic, which promotes the idea that the natural environment should be kept in a pristine condition because it holds inherent value.
Gifford Pinchot held an anthropocentric viewpoint, and his conservation ethic states that humans should use resources responsibly.
Pinchot (the utilitarian) and Muir (the spiritualist) often clashed over policy issues. .
Aldo Leopold's land ethic arose from the conservation and preservation ethics
AIdo Leopold moved away from an anthropocentric perspective toward an ecocentric, holistic one.
He believed that "to keep every cog and wheel is the first precaution of tinkering."
Leopold's land ethic states that a human is not a conqueror of the land, but is a citizen of it.
Deep ecology is a recent philosophical extension of environmental ethics Deep ecologists believe that humans are inseparable from nature and must protect all living things..
Ecofeminism draws parallels between male attitudes toward nature and toward women
, Ecofeminists believe that male-dominated societies are a root cause of
both social and environmental problems.
Male worldviews involve domination and conquest, whereas female world- views involve cooperation and interrelationships, which are more in tune with nature.
Environmental justice seeks equal legal treatment for all races and classes in environmental matters
Environmental justice is defined as the fair treatment of all people regarding environmental laws, regulations, and policies.
Studies have shown that toxic waste sites and other highly polluted sites occur more often in communities where people of color live.
Aside from ethical considerations, people also take into account the economics of environmental actions.
Economics: Old Approaches, New Approaches, and Environmental Implications
Conflicts between ethical concerns and economic factors are common
when dealing with environmental issues.
there a trade-off between economics and the environment?
Although some economists believe that environmental protection opposes economic health, many others say that environmental protection is good for the economy.
Economics is the study of our use of scarce resources for competing purposes
Economics involves the examination of how humans use resources to fulfill the demands for goods and services.
Resource consumption and pollution are also economic problems, because humans must decide how to use limited resources, and the use of these resources often increases environmental problems.
Several types of economies exist today and have borrowed from one another
In the social system called an economy, materials are transformed into
goods, which are bought by people, and services consist of work done for others.
People who meet all of their needs directly from nature, without buying materials, belong to a subsistence economy.
In a capitalist market economy, buyers and sellers decide what will be made, how much to make, and how goods and services should be produced.
In a centrally planned economy, the government makes all of these decisions.
In reality, there is no pure capitalist or pure centrally planned economy. Governments often interact with the private sector, such as by providing social services and education, which would not occur in a pure capitalist economy.
The environment and economy are intricately linked
Although Earth itself is a closed system, with no new inputs of material,
human economies are open systems, in which resources from the environment are transformed into usable products, which are then discarded back into the environment.
Traditional economists view the environment as a part of the human economy.
Environmental economists believe that the human economic system is a part of the environment, but all resources ultimately come from the environment.
Ecosystem services are services that are provided free by Earth and include water purification, nutrient cycling, and plant pollination.
Economic activities can also influence the environment through production of pollution and depletion of resources.
Adam Smith and other philosophers founded classical economics Economics and ethics share common bonds that involve individual decision making and the well-being of society.
Adam Smith (1723-1790), the father of classical economics, believed that the marketplace benefits society only when people can pursue their own economic self-interest.
Neoclassical economics incorporates human psychology and behavior
Modern neoclassical economics explains market prices in terms of consumer preferences.
A conflict between the seller-who wants the highest price-and the buyer-who wants the lowest price results in the appropriate price being charged.
As prices of a product fall, demand (the amount people will buy at a given price) increases and supply (the amount of product produced) decreases.
Several aspects of neoclassical economics contribute to environmental problems The assumptions involved in modern economic systems have caused severe environmental problems.
Resources are infinite: According to neoclassical economics, resources are infinite or substitutable, but outside of that system it is clear that resources are limited.
Long-term effects are discounted: Another assumption is that future events are worth less money than current events, so a forest needs to be cut down immediately, because it will be worth less in the future.
In economic terminology, future effects are discounted, which places more importance on short-term costs and benefits, while the long-term consequences are downplayed.
Costs and benefits are internal: Neoclassical economics also assumes that
all costs and benefits occur only to the buyer and seller, and do not affect other people or entities.
However, pollution affects many people other than the buyer and seller.
External costs are experienced by people not involved in a transaction and can result in health problems, property damage, declines in the quality of living, and stress.
Although externalities are hard to calculate, regulations can protect people and the environment from these unwanted effects of production of goods , and services.
Growth is good: The fourth assumption of neoclassical economics is that
all growth is good and creates opportunities for the poor to become rich.
Is the growth paradigm good for us?
All measures of the economy (trade, goods manufactured, etc.) are at an
all-time high and are still growing.
Critics of this economic growth believe that resources necessary for growth are limited, and so this growth cannot continue.
Growth has been possible because of technological improvements in resource (oil, minerals, groundwater, etc.) extraction, and faster, more powerful machines.
Economists disagree on whether economic growth is sustainable
Ecological economics, which combines the principles of ecology and economics, states that humans cannot overcome their environmental limitations.
In ecological economics, the steady state of natural systems should be the model for human economics. I Environmental economists believe that the current economic system can bring sustainability if the system is modified.
Ecological economists call for a revolutionary change in the economic sys- tem, whereas environmental economists call for reform of the system.
A steady-state economy is a revolutionary alternative to growth
A steady-state economy does not grow or shrink but remains stable.
The philosopher John Stewart Mill (1806-1873) believed that a stabilized economy would evolve naturally as resources became harder to find.
Other economists believe humans will have to make radical changes in their thoughts and actions to achieve a steady state.
The key to a steady-state economy is to obtain wealth through technology and environmentally sound behavior, but not to have continued economic growth.
Some economists have developed several strategies to achieve sustainability.
Ecosystem goods and services can be given monetary values
Environmental destruction occurs because elements of the environment- trees, water, air, species-are either not valued or are undervalued by the market, and the market suffers no financial losses for degradation of the environment.
Environmental economists have tried to assign nonmarket values to ecosystem services in order to quantify their value.
Contingent valuation attempts to determine how much people would be willing to pay to protect or restore a resource.
Environmental economists have developed other approaches to quantify the value of an intangible entity.
Expressed preferences are measured by contingent valuation, while revealed preferences are shown by data resulting from actual behavior.
Economists have also given environmental amenities value by measuring the costs required to restore natural systems.
The calculated overall economic value of all services provided by ecosystems shows that the economic benefits of conserving the world's remaining natural areas outweigh the costs by a factor of 100 to 1.
Markets can fail
Market failure occurs when the market does not account for the good the environment provides, or the bad effects of environmental harm. Governments can counter market failure through green taxes, laws, and regulations.
Ecolabeling and permit trading are two of several ways to address market failure Ecolabeling tells consumers which products have been made using less environmentally damaging processes.
"Dolphin safe" tuna has been enormously effective in the market.
A government can determine an acceptable level of pollution and issue permits, which can be bought and sold by companies, to emit pollution. Companies that emit fewer pollutants make money, as they can sell their unused permits.
Companies that pollute must buy more permits, which costs them money and encourages them to install pollution control devices.
One problem of permit trading is that large companies can hoard
permits, which prevents smaller companies from entering the market.
