1. Environmental Laws, Economics, and Ethics
Chapter 2
Environmental Laws, Economics, and Ethics

2. Wilderness
What makes wilderness - wilderness?

3. Cohutta Wilderness

4. Legends of the Frontier

5. Spotted Owl
10%
Automation
Sustainability
Continued Battles
Jobs
ESA

6. Manifest Destiny Dominated by the frontier attitude
1600
1700
1800
1900
Dominated by the frontier attitude
What is a frontier attitude?
What is manifest destiny?

7. Columbia
Painted By John Gast

8. Gifford Pinchot

9. Gifford Pinchot Appointed by Theodore Roosevelt
Forest service motto "greatest good for the greatest number.”
Department of the Interior to the Department of Agriculture
Conservation Vs. Preservation Vs. Environmentalist

10. Historical Figures James Audubon 1785-1851
Henry David Thoreau
Theodore Roosevelt
Gifford Pinchot 1905
John Muir
Franklin Roosevelt 1930’s
Aldo Leopold 1949
Bob Marshal 1930
Rachel Carson 1962
Paul Ehrlich 1968
Gaylord Nelson 1970

11. World Views
Western (anthropocentric) Vs. Deep Ecology (spiritual life centered connection)
“Could support only a fraction of world population”
“Would need to give up many comforts and modern benefits”

12. Environmental Justice
Site Selection:
Low Income
Minority Based
Little Voice
Lacking:
Few Natural Areas or recreational areas
Availability of Healthcare
Availability of Fresh Foods
Availability of Education
Applies to countries as well as regions – hazardous waste

13. Environmental History of U.S.

14. General Revisions Act
The General Revision Act of 1891 authorizes the President, to create forest preserves “wholly or in part covered with timber or undergrowth, whether of commercial value or not....” on federal lands

15. Environmental History of U.S.
1st National Park: Yellowstone (Est.1872)
1850
Yosemite and Sequoia National Parks
1900
1950
General Revision Act
Several presidents, particularly Theodore Roosevelt, used this Act to establish 43 million acres of forest reserves. Republican

16. Antiquities Act 1906
The Antiquities Act of 1906 resulted from concerns about protecting mostly prehistoric Indian ruins and artifacts-collectively termed "antiquities ” Authorized presidents to proclaim historic landmarks as national monuments

17. 1970 EPA & EIS’s Proposed federal action or funding EIS’s Why needed
Short & Long Term impacts
Alternatives
Includes public comments
Other laws Page 27 of book

18. 1970’s Nixon
Clean Air Act 1970: Mobile and Stationary - Smokestack Vs. Scrubbers
Clean Water Act 1972 – targeted point sources – swimmable, fishable, drinkable by?
Endangered Species Act 1973

19. Optimal Amount of Pollution
Cost-Benefit Analysis
Red = Cost of Damage
Green = $ for pollution control
Intersection – optimal benefits at reasonable cost
Marginal = ?

20. Economics and the Environment
First graph - harm caused by pollution exceeds cost of reducing it - so it makes sense to control the pollution
Second Graph - Cost of reducing pollution exceeds the harm of the pollution - so it makes sense to pollute
Cost-Benefit Analysis

21. Economics and the Environment
Economy
Production
Consumption
Products
Money
Source
Raw Materials
Sinks
Waste
1. Economic systems Vs. natural systems ?
2. Why compare them?

22. Full Cost Accounting
Internal cost Vs. external costs?

23. National Accounting Gross Domestic Product (GDP) – Happiness?
Net Domestic Product (NDP)
NDP = GDP - depreciation / capital expenses
External Costs?
Environmental degradation is not considered as a loss of capital
Black Triangle = cost of ignorance

24. Environmental Performance Index

25. Regulation & Market Corrections
1) Command and control regulations
A set of standards that all must meet - auto emissions – Catalytic Converter
2) Incentive-based regulation - Market Based - Cap & Trade system (tradable Permits) In effect, the buyer is being fined for polluting, while the seller is being rewarded for having reduced emissions. Over time the cap can be lowered. Uses market forces & ideally value increases with time, like a stock.
Which imposes solutions? .