Chapter 3 Environmental History, Politics, and Economics

1. Chapter 3 Environmental History, Politics, and Economics

2. Jobs Or Owls? • Pacific Northwest • Northern spotted owl • Listed as threatened • Some logging suspended • Northwest Forest Plan • Compromise • Some habitat protected • Some logging resumed • Loggers retrained

3. Jobs Or Owls? • More changes • Loggers got more access • Annual surveys required • Endangered species • Threatened species

4. Conservation & Preservation • Conservation • Sensible management of resources • Sustainable use • Examples? • Preservation • Setting aside areas • Protection from humans • Examples?

5. Environmental Views in the U.S.: 1700s-1800s • Widespread environmental destruction • Promote settlement • Frontier attitude • Resources appeared inexhaustible

6. Early Environmental Movement • Resources quickly being depleted • John James Audubon • Wildlife artist • Aroused public interest

7. Early Environmental Movement • Henry David Thoreau • Writer • Lived simply • George Perkins Marsh • Man and Nature • Humans as agents of change

8. Protecting U.S. Forests • Deforestation happened quickly • American Forestry Association • Formed by citizens • Concerned about forests • Forest Reserve Act • 1891 • President can establish forest reserves • Reversed in 1907: why?

9. Protecting U.S. Forests • Gifford Pinchot • First head of U.S. Forest Service • Appointed by T. Roosevelt • Viewed forests as useful to people • Manage them scientifically • National Forests today have many uses

10. National Parks & Monuments • 1872: Yellowstone • 1890: Yosemite • John Muir • Biocentrist • Preservationist • Sierra Club

11. National Parks & Monuments • National Parks created by act of Congress • National Monuments designated by the President • Today • 58 National Parks • 73 National Monuments

12. Managing National Parks • Originally managed by U.S. Army • Hetch Hetchy Valley • Yosemite NP • 1913: dam built • Parks needed more protection • National Park Service: 1916

13. Mid-20th Century Conservation • Great Depression: FDR • Civilian Conservation Corps • Soil Conservation Service • Aldo Leopold • Game Management • A Sand County Almanac • Developed a land ethic

14. Mid-20th Century Conservation • Rachel Carson • Marine biologist • Silent Spring • Dangers of pesticides • Heightened public awareness • Paul Ehrlich • Ecologist • The Population Bomb

15. The Environmental Movement • 1970: First Earth Day • Gaylord Nelson • Denis Hayes • Religious support • 1990: 141 nations celebrate Earth Day

16. Important Dates In Environmental History • 1963: Clean Air Act • 1970: NEPA; EPA created • 1973: Endangered Species Act • 1974: Safe Drinking Water Act • 1977: Clean Water Act

17. Important Dates In Environmental History • 1986: Chernobyl nuclear accident • 1987: Montreal Protocol drafted • 1989: Exxon Valdez oil spill • 1991: World’s worst oil spill • 1999: Human population reaches 6 billion

18. Environmental Legislation • NEPA • Environmental Impact Statements • Required by federal government • Short- & long-term impacts • Public input • Council on Environmental Quality • Monitors EISs • Reports to president

19. Environmental Impact Statements

20. Environmental Regulations • Environmental problem recognized • Full cost accounting • Congressperson drafts legislation • Legislation is passed • EPA now translates law into regulations • Law enforced

21. Legislative Success! • National Parks • Decreased soil erosion • Some endangered species improving • Decreased pollution • Improved water quality • Safer drinking water • Superfund Act

22. Economics • Study of how we decide to use scarce resources to provide goods & services • Free market • Supply & demand determine price • U.S. economy

23. How Are The Economy & Environment Related? • Environment is the source of materials • Environment serves as a sink for wastes • Sources & sinks contribute to natural capital • Resource degradation: overuse of sources • Pollution: overuse of sinks

24. Economy & Environment

25. National Income Accounts • Total income in a nation in one year • GDP & NDP provide estimates • Two problems with current system • Natural resource depletion • Cost & benefits of pollution control

26. Natural Resource Depletion • Not figured in national income accounts • Oil • Value is part of GDP • Depletion not subtracted out

27. Pollution Control • Currently, cost of polluting not deducted from GDP • Estimates of environmental damage should be subtracted from GDP

28. External Costs • Harmful environmental or social cost • Those not directly involved in transaction • Not reflected in market price • Market increases pollution

29. How Much Pollution Is Acceptable? • Pollution is inevitable • Marginal cost • Added cost of pollution • Must balance: • Cost of more pollution • Cost of giving up goods

30. Marginal Cost Of Pollution • Added cost of pollution

31. Marginal Cost Of Pollution Abatement • Added cost of reducing pollution

32. Optimum Amount Of Pollution • Economically most desirable • Problems?

33. Economic Strategies For Pollution Control • Command and control regulations • Limits and punishments • Some success • Problems? • Incentive-based regulations • Emission targets • Incentives to reduce emissions

34. Case Study: Central & Eastern Europe • Late 1980s: fall of communist governments • Much environmental destruction • Governments supported heavy industry • Who suffered?

35. Case Study: Central & Eastern Europe • Today, environment must be improved • Some areas improving • Some areas recovering slowly: why?