Chapter 23 By: Christian Kearns

Capital and Resources are fundamental Ideas Capital- Is any form of wealth available for use in the production of more wealth. –Natural Capital (Goods, and services provided by nature) –Manufactured or built Capital ( Tools, Infrastructure, and technology) –Human or cultural Capital (knowledge, experience, and human enterprise)

Resources Natural Resources can be either renewable or nonrenewable, as well as tangible or intangible. Nonrenewable Resources are the earth’s geological endowment. ( minerals, fossil fuels, and other materials present in the environment) Renewable Resources are things that can be replenished or replaced and example would be sunlight.

Supply and Demand Supply – the Quantity of a product being offered for sale as various prices. Demand - The amount of a product or service that consumers are willing and able to buy at various possible prices. These two create the supply and demand market which keeps our economy flowing to a certain degree

Classic Supply and Demand Curves

Classical Economics A moral philosophy concerned with how individual interest and values intersect with larger society goals. This was the original view of most people

Economics Political Economy economics concerned with modes of production, distribution of benefits, social institutions, and class relationship Neoclassical economics economics that attempt to apply the principals of modern science to economic analysis in a mathematically rigorous, noncontextual, abstract, predictive manner.. The end of the 19 th Century

Political Economy Concerned with modes of production, distribution of benefits, social institutions, and class relationship Included Karl Marx and Although ignored by scholars in his own lifetime, his social, economic and political ideas gained rapid acceptance in the socialist movement after his death in E. F Schumacher who served as Chief Economic Advisor to the UK National Coal Board for two decades along with many socialist, anarchists, and utopians

Neoclassical economics Continued economic growth is considered to be both necessary and desirable. Growth is seen as the one way to maintain full employment and avoid class conflict arising from inequitable distribution of wealth. Natural resources are viewed as merely a factor of production rather than critical supply of materials, services, and waste sinks.

Ecological Economics Ecological Economics focuses on the value of natural services and tries to include those services into price calculations ecological economics assumes that natural resources are limited and valuable, while manufactured capital is abundant –Unlike natural resources economics, ecological economics assumes that natural resources are limited and valuable

Steady-State This type of economy relies and is characterized by low human birth rates and death rates The use of renewable energy sources, materials recycling, and an emphasis on durability, efficiency, and stability.

The Tragedy of the Commons The tragedy of the commons – An inexorable process of degradation of communal resources due to selfish self-interest of free riders who use or destroy more than their fair share of common property –There are many common example of the tragedy of the commons for example A public grazing area for farmers to let their cows graze, and each farmer gets greedy and adds another cow, and this happens until the land is over grazed and so they all suffer, where if they has just been less selfish the grazing grounds would have maintained a sustainable cycle.

½ Prediction for the future Crash and burn

2/2 Prediction for the future Adapt and change

Sacristy sparks efficiency Examples –When forests were flush and green, Loggers came through and took down everything in their way because it was easier that way. Now since forests are become less available for logging they are becoming more efficient and practical. –Another example is natural gas. Recently the U.S has been able to tripe their natural gas supply by becoming more efficient at extracting it. –Connection What if itunes songs only cost 1 cent, and you could download as many as you wanted, and u had unlimited space on your ipod. but you would only listen to a select few. Now imagine if you had a limited amount of space on your ipod. You would only purchase and keep the songs u wanted or needed.

Spending money to Make money Many large corporations and many people complain about the cost of saving our environment. But what they don’t realize is that our environment Saves us around 4 Trillion dollars in services. Controlling CO2, Water regulation and water cycle, habitat, food. The environment does us many services we take for granted

GDP Vs. GPI Real gain vs. economic gain Gross domestic Product (GDP) has doubled, and is still rising which includes the economic activity within the nation On the other hand Genuine Progress index (GPI) takes into account the measure of real progress in quality of life and sustainability. And although our GDP has increased our GPI has gone almost nowhere

Estimated Annual Value of Ecological Services In 2003, economists from Cambridge University (U.K) estimated that protecting a series of nature reserves representing samples of all major biomes would cost $45 billion (U.S) per year. But would preserve ecological services worth between $4.4 trillion to $5.2 trillion annually

Another way to save Emissions Trading –The government requires companies to pay for the amount of waste or emissions they release each year. And these companies have to pay a certain amount of money depending on their emissions, These new programs allow these companies to give money to target reduction areas. For and example, say a company is emitting a certain amount of Co2 every year, they can donate a set amount of money to Asia or some country for them to buy up rainforests for preserves. This way the rainforest takes out or uses a large amount of co2 from the atmoshpere.

Micro lending A small scale alternative to huge development projects. –The world bank provides community based banking. Giving out small loan directly to the poorest people in a community. –These loans of say a $100 give these people enough money to buy either a sewing machine, bike, a loom, a cow. Its just enough to get these people economically active and able to support their families. –The return rate of these loans is around 98% These loans must be paid back in a regular weekly installment. These loans create a sense of dignity, respect, and mutual support within the group it also encourages individual responsibility and enterprise.

Protection For The environment Environment protection creates jobs –Recycling –Pollution control –Environment protection It voices the importance of efficiency –If we don’t start adapting and taking into account that what we have now wont be around forever we are headed for a lot of trouble.

Overall View Less is More There is an overall benefit in protecting the environment. Yes it costs money but in the long run we are saving billions of trillions of dollars. –The money we spend now is only benefitting us in the future. The environment is a good investment. It save us so much more money than we have to put in to protect it.

Other sources