Chapter 2 Worldview, Values and Economics

1. Chapter 2 Worldview, Values and Economics What should be the basis of our decisions? How can we use the understanding of Values and Worldviews to persuade others to make sustainable decisions? Jabiluka Mine https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-BURenJgBRc 4 min

2. What does this look like to you?

3. Environmental ethics • Environmental ethics = application of ethical standards to relationships between human and non-human entities • Hard to resolve; depends on the person’s ethical standards • Depends on the person’s domain of ethical concern Should we conserve resources for future generations? Is is OK to destroy a forest to create jobs for people? Should humans drive other species to extinction? Is it OK for some communities to be exposed to excess pollution?

4. What kind of Values do you place on the environment? • Intrinsic Value • The value of existence • Instrumental Value (Utilitarian) • The value of usefulness

7. We have expanded our ethical consideration • To include animals, communities, nature

8. Decisions • You will be involved in making decisions at some level in the future. • How do you make good decisions? • How do you influence others to make good decisions? • Some levels of decision making: Global (UN, Corporations, NGO’s), ,State and local government, businesses and organizations, the courts, your school, your neighborhood, your family, yourself. • Science, Economics, and Society provide INFORMATION, not decisions • HOW you use this information to make decisions comes from your ethics or worldview.

9. Ethics • Ethics: the study of good and bad or right and wrong. Ethical Standards: • Moral Excellence in Character and Reasoning – Aristotle • The Categorical Imperative - Kant – The Golden Rule: Treat others as you want to be treated. • Utility – John Stewart Mill - The greatest practical benefit for the greatest number.

10. Give an example of how you would use one of these ethical standards to persuadesomeone to follow a certain environmental behavior

11. What type of Ethical Argument is this? • “Surely you agree that you would not want to destroy a religious site like the Vatican because there is Uranium found there. Then you certainly would not support mining the uranium under the religiously significant land of the Mirrar Clan” • (Categorical Imperative)

12. What type of Ethical Argument is this? • “If the entire population of Australia will be able to afford better health care by mining uranium under the Mirrar Clan’s tribal lands, surely it is worth developing some of their tribal lands” • (Utilitarian)

13. Worldviews The “Centrics” • Anthropocentric • Biocentric • Ecocentric • Preservationist • Conservationist • Deep Ecologist • Ecofeminist • Environmental Justice • Neoclassical Economist • Ecological economist • Environmental economist

14. Fundamental Value Dichotomy Intrinsic Value – things have value because they exist. Utilitarian Value- things have value because they are useful to humans.

15. The “Centrics” • Anthropocentric • Biocentric • Ecocentric

16. Anthropocentric • Human Centered • How can it be used by or for the benefit of humans • Use or Utilitarian value

17. Biocentric • Values living things • Living things have intrinsic value

18. Ecocentric • Values living (biotic) and non-living (abiotic) aspects of an ecosystem as well as the processes and cycles that maintain that ecosystem. • Even the landscape, the rivers, the mountains, the rocks, have value • All things have Intrinsic value • Holistic/System/Interrelated • All aspects of the ecosystem are equally valued

19. Give an example of how you would use one of these “Centrics” to persuadesomeone to follow a certain environmental behavior

20. Preservationist • Ecocentric/ Biocentric • All life has equal value/ Intrinsic Value • John Muir (and Roosevelt) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SOeHW-4hyHw (4min) • Aldo Leopold: “The land ethic”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=abiZ3VZ9xxQ (8min) • We should protect the natural environment in a pristine, unaltered state.

21. Conservationist • Gifford Pinchot http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=irGOngj8O88 4:30 • Anthropocentric • People should put natural resources to use • We have a responsibility to manage them wisely • Utilitarian standard: attempt to provide the greatest good to the greatest number of people for the longest time. • Sustainable extraction

22. Deep Ecologist • Poem http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ii8wTCFEIuI&feature=related • Kill bugs for no reason http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=npIWy1zggzw&feature=related • We are inseparable from all other nature and therefore we should protect all other living things as we would protect ourselves. Intrinsic Value • Ecocentric • Transcendentalists: Ralph Waldo Emerson, Walt Whitman, Henry David Thoreau • Nature as divine. Natural entities are symbols or messengers of some deeper truth.

23. Ecofeminism • The male-dominated structure of society is the root cause of both social and environmental problems • Before the advent of the agricultural revolution women and nature were mystical and respected • The agricultural revolution resulted in males gaining control of nature. • Nature and women were obstacles to be conquered and dominated. • Video (37 minutes but only watch a little)http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BTbLZrwqZ2M&feature=share

24. Environmental Justice • Priority is for equal treatment of humans and respect for culture and values of poor and powerless. • Environmental policy and practice should treat all people fairly and equitably regardless of race, religion, income or ethnicity. • Sustainability is the key to ethical treatment of future generations of humans, as well as of the nonhuman environment; this is environmental justice. • Anthropocentric

25. Environmental Justice Links • What is environmental Justice (1min)http://www.ehow.com/video_4871898_environmental-justice_.html • Environmental Justice Video (3min)http://vimeo.com/8659603 • Environmental Justice Coca cola in India (6min)http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fajiWmAuvSY • Environmental Justice Texas PowerPlant 2012 (7 minutes)http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLN_z4_n5E4 • Bhopal Documentary (6min)http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Up5rbkS4CGI&feature=related • Bhopal, India (2min)http://www.pbs.org/wnet/need-to-know/five-things/the-bhopal-disaster/1316/ • More on Bhopal (4min)http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B84EoIH_CTE • Graphic Bhopal story (3min)

26. Give an example of how you would use one of these worldviews to persuadesomeone to follow a certain environmental behavior • Preservationist • Conservationist • Deep Ecologist • Ecofeminism • Environmental Justice

27. Economics 0.01 As compared to Econ 101

28. Which one of these economic world views are best? Explain your reasoning. • Classical Economist • Neoclassical Economist • Ecological Economist • Environmental Economist You will be able to answer this at the end of the lecture.

29. Economic Market • A mechanism that uses the interaction between the Buyer and Seller to set the price (Value) of a resource (good or service). • The use of Cost-Benefit Analysis (Internal Costs & supply and demand) to price or “value” resources. If resources are properly valued then they will be used in sustainable way.

30. The Function of the Market • The Function of the market is to set a price that will distribute resources appropriately or sustainably.

31. Everything is too cheap! We are rarely paying the “true cost” of products • True cost • External Cost • Costs outside the Market • Costs outside the Buyer and Seller If we did pay the true cost, we would consume less and consume at a sustainable rate

32. Externalities Impacts outside of the buyer/seller relationship • Pollution • Physical Habitat Destruction • Cultural Damage (to cultural sites or practices) • Aesthetic damage • Economic or Property Damage to someone besides the buyer or seller) • Human health problems Externalities of Obesity • http://marketplace.publicradio.org/display/web/2010/09/15/am-obesity-costs-go-beyond-medical-bills/

33. Internal vs. External Costs Internal Costs External Costs Not reflected in Price Pollution Habitat Destruction Worker Safety and Health Cultural Damage Aesthetic Damage Quality of life Reflected in the price • Labor • Materials • Machinery • Packaging • Shipping • Energy for Facility

34. Market Failure: • When the Market Price is less than the Costs. When the Market does not accurately price or value resources and they become unsustainable. • Neoclassical Failure: • Caused by mistakes in calculating costs or supply and demand. • Caused by ignoring externalities

35. Response to market failure In trying to correct market failure, • Regulation (Taxes, incentives, fees, etc.) • Government uses regulations to adequately value external resources for the long term so the Market will value them. If the Market values those resources for the long term, they will be used in an sustainable way.

36. Ecosystem Services Reservoir of medicines Providing Genetic resources Pollinating plants Treats Sewage Dampening Disturbances (Erosion Control, Flood control, Hurricane Protection) Promotes Education Promotes Recreation Cultural, Spiritual, and Aesthetic Quality • Regulating atmospheric gases • Regulating climate • Purifying Water, Soil, and Air • Cycling, storing, and Cleaning water • Cycling nutrients • Controlling populations • Providing food • Providing habitats • Supplying raw materials • Soil Formation

37. Non-market values • Aesthetic Value • Scientific Value • Existence Value • Option Value • Use value • Educational Value

38. Classical Economics • Adam Smith • Self Interest: If everyone acts in their own self-interest, resources will be valued correctly by the market. • The “Invisible hand” will guide the economic system to value things properly. • Ignores power and access imbalances

39. Neoclassical economist • Resources are infinite or substitutable • Cost and benefits are internal • Long term effects should be discounted • Includes psychological effects on the Market found in Supply and Demand. • Growth Paradigm: Growth is good. • Uses GDP to measure economic growth • Cornucopian

40. Neoclassical economics • Examines the psychological factors underlying consumer choices • Market prices are explained in terms of consumer preferences • Buyers vs. sellers • The “right” quantities of a product are produced The market favors equilibrium between supply and demand

41. Neoclassical EconomicsSupply and Demand What happens if the supply increases? decreases? What happens if the demand increases? decreases?

42. Ecological Economics • Uses the economy of nature as a model for the human economy • Growth is not an absolute good • Ecosystems do not grow, they function through cycles for stability and evolve in complexity not quantity. • Advocates Steady State economy (no growth) as only sustainable economy. • Resources are finite, • The future (sustainability) is important, • Externalized costs are real • Current practices (population growth and use of resources) are unsustainable • Overuse of resources will doom us if we don’t stop growth • Cassandra

43. Environmental economist • Current practices (population growth and use of resources) are unsustainable • We can become sustainable and grow by modifying the current economic model (neoclassical) to include externalities, non market values, ecosystem services in its cost/benefit analysis. • Use GPI instead of GDP • Environmental economics adopts the goals of Ecological economics (e.g., sustainability) but tries to achieve them within a neoclassical economic framework (Growth, Supply/Demand) • Cornucopian

44. Comparing Economic Models

45. Ecosystem A group of living and non-living things that work together to • Capture energy and nutrients • Distribute energy and nutrients • Cycle nutrients through the ecosystem for reuse. • Control Populations • Apply pressures for evolution of species

46. Ecosystem Services Reservoir of medicines Providing Genetic resources Pollinating plants Treats Sewage Dampening Disturbances (Erosion Control, Flood control, Hurricane Protection) Promotes Education Promotes Recreation Cultural, Spiritual, and Aesthetic Quality • Regulating atmospheric gases • Regulating climate • Purifying Water, Soil, and Air • Cycling, storing, and Cleaning water • Cycling nutrients • Controlling populations • Providing food • Providing habitats • Supplying raw materials • Soil Formation

47. Non-market values • Aesthetic Value • Scientific Value • Existence Value • Option Value • Use value • Educational Value

48. GPI: An alternative to the GDP • Genuine Progress Indicator (GPI) = differentiates between desirable and undesirable economic activity • Positive subtracted • contributions (i.e. volunteer work) not paid for with money are added to economic activity • Negative impacts (crime, pollution) are In the U.S., GDP has risen greatly, but not GPI

49. GDP vs GPI • GDP values grows with consumption • GPI values grows when the environment benefit • Deciding not to build homes on wild land will not increase the GDP but would increase the GPI

50. Kennedy on Monetization of GDP • To my knowledge, no one has summarized the essential message of this chapter better than Robert F. Kennedy, in a speech given at the opening of his ill-fated 1968 campaign: • “Too much and for too long we seem to have surrendered personal excellence and community values for the mere accumulation of material things. The Gross National Product .., if we judge the United States by that, counts air pollution and cigarette advertising, and ambulances to clear our highways of carnage. It counts special locks for our doors and the jails for the people who break them. It counts the destruction of the redwoods and the loss of our natural wonders in chaotic sprawl. It counts napalm and nuclear warheads and armored cars for the police to fight the riots in our cities. It counts [the killer's] rifle and [the rapist's] knife and the television programs which glorify violence in order to sell toys to our children. Yet the Gross National Product does not [include] the health of our children, the quality of their education, or the joy of their play. It does not include the beauty of our poetry, or the strength of our marriages, the intelligence of our public debate or the integrity of our public officials. It measures neither our wit nor our courage, our wisdom nor our learning, neither our compassion nor our devotion to our country. It measures everything, in short, except that which makes life worthwhile, and it can tell us everything about America, except why we are proud that we are Americans.”32