Creating a sustainable and desirable future—Costanza (2008)
Title: Ecological Economics: creating a sustainable and desirable future
Speaker: Dr. Robert Costanza
Date: March 28, 2008
Location: Antioch College
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Fundamental Energy Principles—Cleveland (2008)
Principle #2: Energy from the sun - past and present - creates the conditions necessary for life to exist.
Principle #3: The climate of Earth is determined by the balance between energy entering and leaving the atmosphere.
Principle #4: Natural selection operates on evolutionary strategies that capture and allocate energy among competing uses.
Principle #5: Energy transitions are social transitions.
Principle #6: Energy growth and economic growth go hand-in-hand.
Principle #7: The struggle for the control of energy generates violent conflict.
Principle #8: Energy is a fundamental driver of environmental change and human health at local, regional, and global scales.
Principle #9: Energy quality varies markedly among sources.
Principle #10: Net energy is an ultimate limit to energy supply.
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Vermont Common Assets Trust Bill
Introduced by: Senator Miller of Chittenden District, Vermont
Date: 2007
Subject: Conservation; common assets trust fund
Statement of purpose: This bill proposes to make it clear that state policy is to protect certain common assets (such as air and water) for the benefit of present and future generations, and to establish a framework pursuant to which certain users of those common assets may be assessed fees that would be deposited into a common assets trust fund which would be managed so as to protect those assets and serve the interests of present and future people of the state. It proposes to provide that the common assets trust fund would be managed by a board of trustees, appointed according to the process established in the bill, in the interest of the beneficiaries. It proposes to establish an advisory committee to recommend to the legislature ways in which the framework could be implemented so as to serve the purposes expressed in the bill.
PDF: VCAT_Bill.pdf
Review—The Law and Policy of Ecosystem Services
Book title: The Law and Policy of Ecosystem Services
Book authors: J.B. Ruhl, S. E. Kraft, and C. L. Lant
Reviewer: Dr. Robert Costanza
Appeared in: Ecological Restoration
PDF: Costanza_Ruhl_et_al._2007_.pdf
EcoEco: Creating a Sustainable and Desirable Future—Robert Costanza (2008)
Title: Ecological Economics: Creating a Sustainable and Desirable Future
Speaker: Dr. Robert Costanza
Date: March 28, 2008
Location: Antioch University, New Hampshire
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EcoEco Seminar—Peverse Subsidies—Norman Myers (2003)
Title: Peverse Subsidies and Other Institutional Roadblocks on the way to Sustainable Development
Series: Ecological Economics Seminar Series
Speaker: Dr. Norman Myers
Date: April 17, 2003
Location: University of Vermont
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EcoEco Seminar—Property Rights: An Integrated, Evloutionary Perspective—Peter Brown (2003)
Title: Property Rights: An Integrated, Evolutionary Perspective
Series: Ecological Economics Seminar Series
Speaker: Dr. Peter Brown
Date: March 06, 2003
Location: University of Vermont
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FAQs—Daly (2008)
FAQs—Czech (2008)
Capitalism 3.0: A Guide to Reclaiming the Commons - Barnes
Authors: Peter Barnes
Publisher: Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc.
Date: 2006
Source: Encyclopedia of Earth
URL: http://www.eoearth.org/article/Capitalism_3.0:_A_Guide_to_Reclaiming_the_Commons_%28e-book%29
Creating an Earth Atmospheric Trust
Title: Creating an Earth Atmospheric Trust
Authors: Peter Barnes, Robert Costanza, Paul Hawken, David Orr, Elinor Ostrom, Alvaro Umana, Oran Young
Date: 8 February 2008
Journal: Science
Volume: 319
Pages: 725-726
Open PDF: Barnes, Costanza et al. 2008
Economic Reasons for Conserving Wild Nature
Title: Economic Reasons for Conserving Wild Nature
Authors: Andrew Balmford, Aaron Bruner, Philip Cooper, Robert Costanza, Stephen Farber, Rhys E. Green, Martin Jenkins, Paul Jefferiss, Valma Jessamy, Joah Madden, Kat Munro, Norman Myers, Shahid Naeem, Jouni Paavola, Matthew Rayment, Sergio Rosendo, Joan Roughgarden, Kate Trumper, R. Kerry Turner
Date: 9 August 2002
Journal: Science
Volume: 297
Pages: 950-953
Open PDF: Balmford et al 2002
Principles for Sustainable Governance of the Oceans
Title: Principles for Sustainable Governance of the Oceans
Authors: Robert Costanza, Francisco Andrade, Paula Antunes, Marjan van den Belt, Dee Boersma, Donald F. Boesch, Fernando Catarino, Susan Hanna, Karin Limburg, Bobbi Low, Michael Molitor, Joao Gil Pereira, Steve Rayner, Rui Santos, James Wilson, Michael Young
Date: 10 July 1998
Journal: Science
Volume: 281
Pages: 198-199
Open PDF: Costanza et al. 1998
The value of the world’s ecosystem services and natural capital
Title: The value of the world’s ecosystem services and natural capital
Authors: Robert Costanza, Ralph d’Arge, Rudolf de Groot, Stephen Farberk, Monica Grasso, Bruce Hannon, Karin Limburg, Shahid Naeem, Robert V. O’Neill, Jose Paruelo, Robert G. Raskin, Paul Suttonkk, & Marjan van den Belt
Date: May 15, 1997
Journal: Nature
Volume: 387
Pages: 253-260
Open PDF: Costanza et al. 1997 (Nature)
Eflornithine
In neoclassical economic theory, the rationing function of price apportions commodities to the individuals willing to pay the most for them. If willingness to pay reflects value, then the rationing function of price maximizes value across all consumers. The allocative function of price apportions factors of production to whatever industry is able to pay the most for them, which in theory is the industry that adds the most value to the factor, maximizing value across all producers. If we accept that willingness to pay reflects value, then markets maximize the value of both inputs and outputs. However, it is not at all clear to some of us that willingness to pay actually reflects value. Consider the following case study, which you can read about in more detail here.
Aventis developed a compound, eflornithine, with promising pharmaceutical characteristics. Scientists discovered in 1979 that the compound killed trypanosomes, the parasite responsible for African sleeping sickness, a contagious and debilitating disease transmitted by the tsetse fly. Since 1970, an epidemic of the disease has threatened 70 million Africans. Although the only other treatment for second-stage sleeping sickness is extremely painful to administer, often ineffective and often lethal, Aventis could not profit from selling the drug to poor Africans and discontinued production for that purpose. At the same time, however, Bristol Myers Squibb (BMS) and Gillette were producing eflornithine to remove unwanted facial hair in women, a very profitable enterprise. Aventis and BMS agreed to again produce eflornithine for the treatment of African sleeping sickness only after the NGO Medecins Sans Frontieres threatened to publicize the issue (Gombe 2003; WHO 2006). Had the market been left to its own devices, the rationing function of price would have continued apportioning eflornithine to the individuals who value it the most in economic terms, which is to say rich hairy women rather than destitute Africans. The allocative function of price still apportions far more resources toward industries that supply cosmetics for the rich rather than those that supply cures for lethal diseases that afflict the poor. Although most people would presumably think saving lives is a more valuable use of resources than developing cosmetics, markets allocate resources toward those who have money and unmet wants, not toward those who have unmet needs. The allocative and rationing functions of price were working as intended. Was value maximized?
There is one more part to this story. Markets fail when resources are nonrival. Something is nonrival if use by one person does not leave less for another person to use, which is certainly true for information. Although the marginal value of a rival resource is determined by the greatest amount any individual is willing to pay for the last unit provided, that of a non-rival resource is determined by the amount all beneficiaries together are willing to pay for one more unit. With the exception of patented information, virtually all non-rival resources are also non-excludable, and if individuals will be able to use the resource whether or not they pay for it, they have little incentive to pay or even to divulge their true willingness to pay. As explained above, one function of price is to ration the use of resources, but if use of a non-rival resource does not diminish the quantity available, if use provides utility, and our goal is to maximize utility, then using prices to ration consumption is irrational. In other words, although markets lead to the suboptimal supply of nonexcludable resources, they lead to the suboptimal demand for non-rival resources. If the ‘recipe’ for eflornithine is patented, patent owners can charge a monopoly price. If the ‘recipe’ is freely available to all, companies will compete to see who can produce it at the lowest cost. Which approach do you think would create most value?
Costanza - Beyond Environmentalism: Envisioning a Sustainable and Desirable Future
Title: Beyond Environmentalism: Envisioning a Sustainable and Desirable Future
Author: Robert Costanza
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Farley - Ecosystem Services: What are they, we need them, and how to preserve them
Title: Ecosystem Services: What are they, we need them, and how to preserve them
Author: Joshua Farely
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The nature of human altruism
Title: The nature of human altruism
Authors: Ernst Fehr & Urs Fischbacher
Date: 23 October 2003
Journal: Nature
Volume: 425
Pages: 785-791
Open PDF: Fehr’s - The nature of human altruism.pdf
Altruism, evolution, and welfare economics
Title: Altruism, evolution, and welfare economics
Author: John M. Gowdy
Year: 2004
Journal: Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization
Volume: 53
Pages: 69-73
Open PDF: Gowdy_economic_altruism_2004.pdf
Towards a Just Distribution of Resources—Josh Farley (2003)
Title: Towards a Just Distribution of Resources
By:Dr. Joshua Farley, University of Vermont
Date: February 6, 2003
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EcoEco Seminar—The Psychology of Well-Being—Richard Howarth (2003)
Title: The Psychology of Well-Being
By: Richard Howarth, Dartmouth College
Date: January 30, 2003
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Norman Myers on Institutional Roadblocks to Sustainability—Norman Myers (2008)
Title: Norman Myers on Institutional Roadblocks to SustainabilitySpeaker: Dr. Norman Myers
Date: March 2008
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FAQs—Costanza, Farley, & Erickson (2008)
Envisioning a Sustainable and Desirable Future—Robert Costanza (2006)
Title: Envisioning a Sustainable and Desirable Future
Speaker: Dr. Robert Costanza
Location: University of Vermont
Date: January 19, 2006
PowerPoint slides: Download here
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Wants
Source: New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics
Authors: Mary Douglas
Article: “Wants”
Economic Man
Source: New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics
Authors: Shuan Hargreaves-Heap and Martin Hollis
Article: “Economic Man”
EcoEco Seminar—Reintegrating the Study of Humans and the Rest of Nature—Robert Costanza (2003)
Title: Reintegrating the Study of Humans and the Rest of Nature
Series: Ecological Economics Seminar Series
Speaker: Dr. Robert Costanza, Gund Institute for Ecological Economics, University of Vermont
Date: January 23, 2003
Location: University of Vermont
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Down To Earth—Dana Meadows (1994)
Title: Down To Earth
Speaker: Dana Meadows
Date: October 1994
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Arithmetic, Population, and Energy—Albert Bartlett
Speaker: Dr. Albert A. Bartlett
Part 1
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The early history of modern ecological economics
Authors: Inge Ropke
Date published: 2005
Journal: Ecological Economics
Issue: 50
Pages: 293-314
Full article: Ropke_2004.pdf
Trends in the development of ecological economics from the late 1980s to the early 2000s
Authors: Inge Ropke
Date published: 2005
Journal: Ecological Economics
Issue: 55
Pages: 262-290
Full article: Ropke_2005.pdf
Stewardship for a “Full” World
Authors: Robert Costanza
Date published: 2008
Publisher: Current History
Issue: 107
Pages: 30-35
Full article: Costanza_Stewardship_2008.pdf
Principles of economics, translated—Yoram Bauman (Standup Economist) (2007)
The L-Curve: Income Distribution of the U.S.—David Chandler
Corrupt Banking System
1. Corrupt Banking System - Cartels Robbing the Public
2. Corrupt Banking System - How Money is Created
3. Corrupt Banking System - Money is Debt
4. Corrupt Banking System - Monetary Reform
Corrupt Banking System - Warning About the NWO
Renewable resources assignment
Figure 1: The sustainable yield curve for north Atlantic cod. Pf= price of fish, and total private cost is the cost of a sustainable harvest at a given stock.
- Label the minimum viable population, the maximum sustainable yield, the open access harvest equilibrium, and the annual sustainable profit maximizing harvest.
- If the fishery is open access but at the profit maximizing level, explain why the invisible hand will guide it towards the open access equilibrium.
- Assume a single profit-maximizing owner controls the resource. At some point, fish grow faster than money in the bank. In what region of the graph would she favor harvesting? What would happen if the rate of reproduction were lower than returns on the stock market, and the cost of harvest was falling over time?
- What happens to the open access equilibrium, the annual sustainable profit maximizing harvest, and the dynamic profit maximizing harvest if the price of fish goes up?
- Assume the fishery is effectively managed under a global common property regime. The management goal is to optimize the combined value of fish harvests and ecosystem services. In what region of the graph would harvests occur, and why?
An Introduction to Ecological Economics - Costanza
Authors: Robert Costanza, John H. Cumberland, Herman Daly, Robert Goodland, Richard B. Norgaard
Publisher: St. Lucie Press
Date: 1997
Source: Encyclopedia of Earth
URL: http://www.eoearth.org/article/An_Introduction_to_Ecological_Economics_%28e-book%29
Sustainability or Collapse
Authors: Robert Costanza, Lisa Graumlich, Will Steffen, Carole Crumley, John Dearing, Kathy Hibbard, Rik Leemans, Charles Redman and David Schimel
Date published: 2007
Publisher: Ambio—Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences
Full article: Costanza_2007_Ambio.pdf
Abstract: Understanding the history of how humans have interacted with the rest of nature can help clarify the options for managing our increasingly interconnected global system. Simple, deterministic relationships between environmental stress and social change are inadequate. Extreme drought, for instance, triggered both social collapse and ingenious management of water through irrigation. Human responses to change, in turn, feed into climate and ecological systems, producing a complex web of multidirectional connections in time and space. Integrated records of the co-evolving human-environment system over millennia are needed to provide a basis for a deeper understanding of the present and for forecasting the future. This requires the major task of assembling and integrating regional and global historical, archaeological, and paleoenvironmental records. Humans cannot predict the future. But, if we can adequately understand the past, we can use that understanding to influence our decisions and to create a better, more sustainable and desirable future.
Envisioning shared goals for humanity: a detailed shared vision of a sustainable and desirable USA
Authors: Joshua Farley, Robert Costanza
Date published: 2002
Publisher: Ecological Economics
Full article: Farley-Costanza_2002.pdf
Abstract: Economics has been defined as the science of allocation of scarce resources towards alternative ends. This definition implies that the first step in economic analysis is to determine what ends are desirable for society. Most sectors of the society would agree that sustainability is a desirable end, but there is little agreement as to what a sustainable future would look like. The University of Maryland Institute for Ecological Economics sponsored a democratic future search process designed to create a relatively detailed, shared vision of a sustainable and desirable USA in the year 2100. This paper presents the vision developed at that conference, examines the resources required to achieve the vision, and assesses the suitability of market mechanisms for allocating the required resources towards the desired ends. We find that markets are not efficient mechanisms for allocation in this case, and propose the institutions of a ‘strong democracy’ as a promising alternative.
