The Desired Ends of Ecological Economics And the relationship between visioning and desirable ends

Announcements Visioning survey will take you 10 minutes. I’ll post it on line after class (or it?). Do it before discussion sessions. Quiz Friday– this is the only one that will be announced. If you’ve gone to lecture and done your readings, it will be a breeze Readings are supplement to lectures, and often will not be covered in lecture. The reflections are designed to make you think for yourself about links between readings, lectures and projects.

Brief introduction to Ecological Economics

What is Economics? Economics is the Science of the Allocation of Scarce Resources Among Alternative Desirable Ends

Questions posed by this definition: What are the desirable ends? What are the scarce resources? What are the characteristics of the resources relevant to allocation? What do we know about human nature and society that will help us allocate? How should the resources be allocated?

Pre-analytic Vision of Ecological Economics Laws of thermodynamics are binding –Can’t create or destroy matter energy –Entropy increases in an isolated system Economic system is sustained and contained by the global ecosystem

Pre-analytic Vision of Ecological Economics (cont.) Economic growth displaces ecological functions through resource depletion and waste Resources are finite, infinite economic growth is impossible Humans are biological organisms that depend on the ecosystem for survival Ecosystem services have become the scarcest resources

What are the desirable ends? The highest possible quality of life for this and future generations Quality of life is a lot more than just what we consume

Instrumental ends What do are the minimal requirements we need for achieving a high QOL for this and future generations? –Ecological Sustainability –Just distribution –Economic efficiency –Participatory democracy?

Ecological Sustainability Sustainable scale –Scale is the size of the economic system relative to the ecosystem that contains and sustains it –Has the history of development in Vermont been sustainable? Is it a desirable end? What’s the future ever done for you? How do we know if we’ve got it? –Scientific question –Can’t be answered using standard science, i.e. experiments and repeatable observations

Whose projects focus on sustainability?

Just Distribution Ethical question Poverty implies a low QOL –If we can’t have growth, we can’t grow our way out of poverty Follows from sustainable scale –How can we care about the well being of future generations and not care about the well being of people alive today? –How can we ask people who don’t have enough today to sacrifice for the future?

Just Distribution How do we know if we’ve got it? Two types of justice –Procedural justice Are markets just? Do we all play by the same rules? –Just deserts Are markets just?

Just Distribution: basic rules? You get to keep what you earn with the sweat of your brow –Locke and Marx –Who creates the 4 capitals? You share in the wealth created by nature or by society as a whole –Alaska permanent fund –Culture, knowledge –Social capital –Built capital You pay for what you take from others –sky trust

Whose projects focus on just distribution?

Efficient Allocation How do we create the most of what is desired from what is available? Is the market best at this? –What role did markets play in the ecological restoration of Vermont? How do we know if we’ve got it? –Pareto optimality and markets –Markets are supposed to balance what is possible with what is desirable –Are there markets in the things we desire?

Whose projects focus on efficiency?

How are these instrumental goals related to each other?

Sustainability and Distribution Same ethical issue The poorest do not care about the future The richest consume the bulk of the world’s resources No sustainability without just distribution

Sustainability and efficiency Supply must be determined by ecological signals, not economic ones –Sustainable scale determines what is available to allocate Economic growth and diminishing marginal utility

Distribution and efficiency Markets balance supply and demand. –Demand is preferences weighted by wealth –Different outcome for different distributions Diminishing marginal utility and distribution –Who gets more QOL out of $1000, a starving Bangladeshi or Bill Gates? Negative externalities –Positional wealth and status –Distribution of built capital vs. natural capital, e.g. mangroves

Distribution and Democracy Wealth, power and rent-seeking behavior "We can have a democratic society, or we can have the concentration of great wealth in the hands of the few. We cannot have both." –Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis

Visioning and Desirable Ends

The Necessity for Vision Current vision is unsustainable in absence of star trek technologies Systemic change requires society’s agreement If we don’t know where we’re going, we might not get there

Is ever increasing consumption the ultimate goal towards which we should strive? Is it even a desirable goal? We might be lost, but we’re making great time. If we’re not careful, we’ll get where we’re going Visioning clarifies alternatives

Visioning and Desirable Ends Visioning is an approach to identifying desirable ends Visioning is a continuous process, not a one time thing Broad participation in the visioning process assures buy in and commitment to goals Sustainability as fulfillment, not sacrifice