An adaptable solution "locks-in" existing concepts and technologies, is able to respond quickly to new challenges, and is resilient. Agree or Disagree?
Disagree
An auction of permits for water use or the right to pollute will
generally be efficient in allocating resources but may not be equitable
if some bidders (lrich, well connected) are able to buy permits in
quantities that are not optimal for society because of wealth or power
or other factors. True or False?
True
The Brundtland Commission (1987) defined sustainability as: ?
"meeting the needs of today without compromising the ability of future generations"
Why does cap and trade give everyone an incentive to reduce pollution?
Because sellers can unload more licenses if they can cut back on their emissions
The Coasean perspective does not define environmental problems in terms of externalities, but in terms of
1.establishing property rights, bargaining over them, and enforcing them
2. ill-defined property rights
In 2013, the New England Fishery Management Council, a regional
policy-making arm of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
proposed that the total allowable catch for certain cod stocks be
reduced 80% from the quota level at that time. What was proposed as
compensation for the fisherman who were most likely to be harmed by
reduction in the quota?
The opening of other areas off the New
England coast that had previously been closed to allow them to catch
more plentiful stocks of fish, such as haddock.
Which of the following are examples of common pool resources?
1.a wilderness area such as the Badlands Wilderness
2. a pasture open to all
Common pool resources are [r] in the sense that one person consuming the good prevents another person from consuming the good. Common pool resources are non-[e
rival
non-excludable
Consider the numerous individuals and groups who would like to haveaccess to Yosemite National Park for a variety of activities. Which of the following are reasonable approaches to prevent damage/overuse and are also fair and just?
Set up up a quota system where entrance passes are allocated using a lottery.
Complicated System
the elements maintain some independence and removing one does not change the system's fundamental nature
complex system
the elements are highly dependent on one another and removing an element can fundamentally change the system'’s behavior
self organization
the spontaneous formation of structures in systems composed of few or many components
emergence
the arising of novel and coherent structures, patterns and properties within a system
resilience
the capacity of a system to absorb disturbance, undergo change and still retain essentially the same function, structure, identity, and feedbacks
Form , place, time , possession are?
4 categories by which good are normally differentiated.
Four categories by which goods are normally differentiated?
form, place, time, possession
Expendable factors of production
Raw materials or other items that are completely used up or consumed during a single production period
capital factors of production
A stock that is not used up during a single production period, provides services over time, and retains a unique identity
Capital services
The flow of productive services that can be obtained from a given capital stock during a production period
human -capital
The muscle-power, dexterity, abilities, skills and education embodied in a human being
Non-Rival good
Can be used or consumed by one person without reducing the amount left for others. In other words, it can be used again and again at almost no additional cost
non-excludable good
Impossible or extremely costly to exclude nonpayers from consumption
system
A set of connected parts making an integrated whole
common property resource
Goods or services which are rival but non-excludable
bad
An object whose consumption decreases the well-being or utility of an individual
renewable resource
Can replenish with the passage of time, either through biological reproduction or other naturally recurring processes
Consider the numerous individuals and groups who would like to have access to the Grand Canyon for a variety of activities. Which of the following are reasonable approaches to prevent damage/overuse and are also fair and just?
1. Require that all travel in the park be by foot or bicycle except for those who
are physically challenged. For these individuals provide minimal cost
transportation using solar powered fat tire golf carts.
2. Use skills tests where only those who satisfy certain conditions are allowed to hike certain trails and or climb certain cliffs.
3. Set up up a quota system where entrance passes are allocated using a lottery.
Which of the following are examples of uncertainty created by governmental environmental policy?
1. know what the price of emissions will be.
2. If the government imposes a pollution tax, polluters know what price they
will have to pay, but the government does not know how much pollution
they will generate.
3. With both pollution taxes and trading caps there may be measurement issues
in determining the amount of harmful pollution emmitted by any
particular agent, or even from which agent pollution may be coming.
4. If the government imposes a pollution cap, producers will not know how
much they might have to pay at an auction to buy shares of the overall
pollution allocated by the cap.
Edward Abbey has said that
growth for the sake of growth is the ideology of the cancer cell
When goods are measured in terms of other goods or in terms of their purchasing power, the stated value is in [] terms. When the value is stated in terms of prices, the value is in [] terms.
1. real
2. nominal
Our framework for sustainability has five constraints
1. Physically possible
2. Technologically feasible
3. Environmentally sound
4. Profitable
5. Socially acceptable
Renewable Natural Resources
forests, fish, wildlife
Non-renewable Natural Resources
fossil fuels (oil, coal, natural gas)
private goods
shoes, hamburgers, jackhammers
2. rivalrous and excludable
common pool resources
aquifers, petroleum reservoirs, rangeland
1. rivalrous and non-exludable
club good
housing developments with private covenants, golf courses, cable television
pure public goods
police protection, lighthouses, flood control systems
man-made capital
machinery, buildings, equipment
3 main objectives of the mental model or framework we will use in this
class to evaluate sustainability options.
1. improve the human condition
2. just
3. adaptable or resilient
sustaining innovation
An innovation that does not create new markets or value networks but rather only evolves existing ones with better value.
Disruptive innovation
An innovation that helps create a new market and value network.
Suppose I want to design a hybrid car that weighs less than 3,000 pounds, gets 60 mpg and can be produced for less than $15,000. What is an appropriate constraint set?
the car must weigh less than 3,000 pounds, achieve at least sixty miles per gallon and have a production cost less than $15,000.
Some of the hidden
social and environmental costs of transferring production and services
to low-cost countries such as China, India and Brazil are
1. excessive use of hydro-C's
2. exploit cheap labor
3. indiscriminate logging of the Amazon basin
Which of the following is likely to be most effective in reducing overuse of the Ogallala aquifer?
Allocate use permits that limit the amount that anyone can withdraw in a given period.
Suppose
Hyundai develops a new internal combustion engine that is able to burn a
variety of common fuels including gasoline, ethanol, diesel, biodiesel,
and natural gas with about 20% lower
emissions. The cost of production is similar to that of current
engines and miles per dollar of fuel used is lower than with any current
automotive technology. The engine, however,
emits a strong odor that is not harmful to the environment but is
nauseating if inhaled in large quantities. Which of the following
characteristics of sustainable solutions are satisfied by this engine.
Hyundai is planning on selling the engine all over the world, including
licensing it for use by other manufacturers. Their initial plans are to
subsidize the price of vehicles sold to individuals who are in the
lowest 20% income quintiles in their society.
1. adaptable
2. environmentally sound
3. physically possible
4.improve the human condition
5. economically feasible
The Coasean perspective does not define environmental problems in terms of externalities, but in terms of
1.establishing property rights, bargaining over them, and enforcing them
2. ill defined property rights
To represent something as a system, we will need to identify:
1. boundaries
2. components
3. interconnections
4. behavior (inputs <-> outputs)
A paradigm is a set of [p] that define a [d], [c] of [th], or approach to [pr] [sol] at any particular period of time
1. practices
2. discipline
3. community
4. thought
5. problem
6. solving
The use of a park such as Yellowstone or Arches may or may not be a rival good depending on the level of [con].
congestion
ex for Design standards (a type of public policy)
regulation
ex of production quota ( p.q. is a public policy)
regulation
Economic incentive is an example of certain types of public policies. these public policies include:
1. taxes
2. subsidies
3. fines
4. tradable permits
The government might
encourage the use of a renewable resource by providing a subsidy to
those who produce or consume products using that resource, or by
purchasing products manufactured using that resource in preference to
those produced using non-renewable resources.
true
complex system
set of interconnected parts making an integrated whole that exhibits behavior NOT obvious from the parts
Garrett Hardin has
argued that mutual coercion, mutually agreed upon by the majority of
the people affected is the most reasonable way to solve the tragedy of
the commons.
True
The opportunity cost
of land used for a public park is what it would have brought at auction
for use in the private sector or otherwise.
Right
service
non-material equivalent of a good
Prisoner's dilemma
1.Whether everyone in society should lock their cars (and/or houses).
2. How many cattle any one person should allow to graze on the open range.
NOT
1. Whether a person should buy a gasoline or electric car.
2. How a coach should decide which players to be on the floor in the last two minutes of a basketball game.
Economics Def'n
is the study of choice under conditions of scarcity or the study of choice with constraints
A sustaining innovation is an innovation that does not create new markets or value networks but rather only evolves existing ones with better value.
true
A social-ecological system may have multiple stable states.
true
Robert Solow, a Nobel Prize winner in economics, has argued that one of the reasons we have to be so concerned about sustainability today is that our ancestors were overly greedy in using resources and have not left enough for us to live like they did.
true or false
false
perfect competition
1. homogenous goods
2.Firms have freedom of entry and exit
3. No externalities
The Coase Theorem says that if trade in an
externality is possible and there are sufficiently low transaction costs, bargaining will lead to an efficient outcome regardless of the initial allocation of property
1. externality
2. transaction
3. bargaining
4. efficient
5. allocation
externality
exists whenever the welfare of some agent, either a firm or a household, depends not only on his or her activities, but also on activities under the control of some other agent.
necessary and sufficient for competitive equilibirum
1.Profit maximization,
2. utility maximization
3. market clearing
Negative Externalities
Costs that economic actors impose on others without paying a price for their actions
What problem occurs when those who benefit from resources, goods,or services do not pay for them, which results in either an under-provision of those goods or services, or in an overuse or degradation of a common property resource.
free rider
Country with highest energy use per person, then 2nd highest,
1. Qatar
2. Iceland
highest GDP/capita
Luxemborg
examples of uncertainty created by governmental environmental policy
1. With both pollution taxes and trading caps there may be measurement issues in determining the amount of harmful pollution emmitted by any particular agent, or even from which agent pollution may be coming
2. If the government imposes a pollution tax, polluters know what price they will have to pay, but the government does not know how much pollution they will generate.
3. If the government imposes a pollution cap, it knows the amount of pollution, but polluters do notknow what the price of emissions will be.
4. If the government imposes a pollution cap, producers will not know how much they might have to pay at an auction to buy shares of the overall pollution allocated by the cap.
NOT the level of the overall cap, or the level of the pollution tax levied by gov
Garrett Hardin believed in what?
Garrett Hardin has argued that mutual coercion, mutually agreed upon by the majority of the people affected is the most reasonable way to solve the tragedy of the commons.
relates mostly to prominently to intergenerational justice?
1. Obligations to future generations
2. Sacrifice of the fundamental needs of some for the sake of less central interests or mere ‘wants’ of others
3. Disproportionate distribution of benefits to the wealthy and powerful at the expense of the poor and weak.
The line typically used to separate the arid portions of the United States from the semi-humid and humid ones is the
100th meridian
3 rules thinking like an engineer
1. shoot where the duck will be. Not where it is.
2. establish a common constraint space
3. The solution must be real
a. Technologically feasible
b. available
c. reasonable cost
3. there are no perfect solutions
It a production of a product creates a negative externality, the social cost of production is generally higher than the private cost.
true
percent of global water in oceans
96.5
water problems are usually site specific
true
If another 500 megalitres of water applied to the field of Farmer Samik increases rice yields less than the same 500 megalitres applied to field of Farmer Ramesh, then the water has more value to Farmer Ramesh (everything else held constant).
T or F?
True
common causes of market failure
1. Public goods such as common pool resources
2. externalities
3. Uncertainty or asymmetric information
4. natural monopoly
A Pareto optimal allocation is [] in the sense that there is no other way to [re] society’s productive facilities in order to make somebody [b] of without[ha] somebody else.
1. efficient
2. reorganize
3. better
4. harming
True or False statements, which ones are which:
1. If the government imposes a pollution tax, polluters know what price they will have to pay, but the government does not know how much pollution they will generate.
2. d.If the government imposes a cap, it knows the amount of pollution, and polluters also know what the price of emissions will be
1. true
2. false
is this t or F?
If the government simply auctions off licenses or permits for pollution and collects the revenue, then it is just like a tax which imposes costs on the private sector while generating revenue for the government.
true
Pigouvian tax:
generating negative externalities (costs for someone other than the person on whom the tax is imposed).
negative externalities
costs for someone other than the person on whom the tax is imposed
If the government imposes a pollution cap, it knows the amount of pollution, but polluters do not know what the price of emissions will be.
T or F
True
If pollution licenses are simply handed out existing players, any revenue that would have gone to the government through a PIgouvian tax or the sale of licenses goes to those who were, are or will be polluting.
True or False?
True
An economy is said to exhibit (productive) efficiency if, within the limitations of technology and resources, there is no [] way to [inc] the amount of produced output, holding fixed the current amount of [] to production, or to [] the amount of inputs to production, holding [] the current amount of produced output.
1. feasible
2. increase
3.input
4. fixed
Firms who maximize profit always minimize the private cost of producing the profit maximizing output level.
T or F?
True
Future persons are in no position to press [] of [] against us, since they will not [] until we have all []
1. claims
2.injustice
3.exist
4.died
In the Rawlsian approach to justice, those in the original position are behind a [] of [].
1. veil
2. ignorance
Each person possesses an inviolability founded on justice that even the welfare of society as a [] cannot []. For this reason justice denies that the [] of [] for some is made right by a [] [] shared by others.
1. whole
2. override
3.loss
4. freedom
5. greater
6. good
John Rawls has argued that meeting citizens’ basic needs may be lexically prior to an adequate scheme of equal basic rights and liberties.
True or F
True
revealed preference methods
Observations of people acting in real-world settings, where people must live with the consequences of their choices.
Stated preference methods
People’s responses to hypothetical questions, of the form, what wouldyou do if . . . ? or what would you be willing to pay for . . . ?
Robert Solow has argued that our ancestors were probably
excessively generous in providing for us in terms of what they provided (or left) for us in terms of opportunities to promote human flourishing.True or F?
True
James C. Carter, a lawyer appointed to present the claims of the United States before the Bering Sea tribunal said the following. ``The extent of dominion which, by the law of nature, is conferred upon particular nations over the things of the earth is limited in that the things themselves are not given; but only the increase or usufruct thereof.''
True or F
True
Putting data in the hands of consumers through the the digitalization of medicine will have much the same effect that the Gutenberg Bible had in putting scriptures into the hands of the laity.
True
The idea of the tyranny of small decisions is that though the individual impact of any one decision is almost negligible, when accumulated over a large number of individuals, the impact is large.
True
The National Water Carrier of Israel and the Central Valley Project are similar in which of the following ways.
1. They move water from the north to the south.
2. Water is moved by means of a series of canals, aqueducts and pump plants.
as a commodity, water is generally a rival good
True of F?
True
Vast
amounts of water from the Sierra Nevada snow pack are sent through the
Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta into the ocean each year, exacerbating
hardships endured by the growers in the three-year drought in
Southern California, in order to protect me.
Is what?
delta smelt
Goal was to restore fish to what had been a dry river bed.
San Joaquin RiverRestoration Settlement Act
A
form of overhead sprinkler irrigation consisting of several segments of
pipe (usually galvanized steel or aluminum) joined together and supported by trusses, mounted on wheeled towers with sprinklers
positioned along its length.
center-pivot
In 2011 authorized the state’s Commission on Environmental Quality to suspend water rights in emergencies like droughts. While the commission still had to allot water to rights holders in order of seniority, it also could consider ---as much as was practical how that water was being used before ordering a rights holder’s pumps shut off.
texas legislature
The
authors modified Figure 1 (changing the label from ``Israel'' to
``Historical Palestine''). The authors did not inform the editors or the
publisher of this change in their manuscript.
Reason a paper was withdrawn from ``Water Quality Management''.
white water
Is evaporated water in the air.
grey water
Wastewater, usually of poor quality but usable by humans.
Polluted water of such poor quality that it is considered unusable by humans.
black water
John Wesley argued:
1. Looking to the conservation of water, it is best to select lands as high on the streams as possible. But opposite to this the argument related to temperature, the higher the land the colder the climate, and the shorter the growing season.
2. The water ought to be used as near the mountains as possible --- all of which I have said to you heretofore --- but not in the mountains, in order that the lands may be in a climate where agriculture is possible
for a variety of crops.
3. The water ought not to be used too far from the source --- 200, 300, 400, or 500 miles further than it ought to run, because when it gets there, there is little left.
John Wesley said it would be almost criminal
to allow thousands and hundreds of thousands of people to establish
homes where they cannot maintain themselves due to lack of water.
true
John Wesley Powell argued that land tracts in the non-irrigated portions of the arid west
should be allocated in tracts larger than 160 acres because
John Wesley Powell argued that land tracts in the non-irrigated portions of the arid west should be allocated in tracts larger than 160 acres because
Charles Dana Wilber argued that John Wesley Powell's proposal to divide the land into parcels much larger than quarter sections (160 acres) was basically ceding them over to the aristocratic tastes of the lords of the herds, and would not make them available to the typical farmer who wanted to plant crops.
true
Much like the current debate about climate change, the hypothesis that ``rain follows the plow'' was initially doubted by many but was eventually accepted as a sound scientific theory of climate.
True or False?
False!!
Charles Dana Wilber said that by repeated processes of sowing and planting with diligence the desert line is driven back, notobly in Africa and Arabia, but in all regions where man has been aggressive, so that in reality there is no desert anywhere except by man’s
permission or neglect.
T or F?
True
The Taylor Grazing Act
of 1934
was intended to “stop injury to the public grazing lands by preventing overgrazing and soil deterioration, to provide for their orderly use, improvement and development, to stabilize the livestock industry dependent upon the public range, and for other purposes".
Abraham and Isaac, respectively, fought with Abimelech over which of the following.
access to a well of water
There are currently plans for a Red Sea to Dead Sea canal to raise the level of the Dead Sea.
true
Decent work and
economic growth, reduced inequalities, sustainable cities and communities, and the banning of coal power plants by 2030 are all part of the 2015 Sustainable Development Goals.
FALSE
Millenium development goals (2000)
goals to be accomplished or at least nearly by 2015.
1. eradicate extreme poverty
2. Achieve universal primary education 3. Promote gender equality and empower women
4.Reduce child mortality (from water borne diseases)
5. Improve maternal health
In Texas, landowners own the groundwater beneath their property, but a
neighbor pumping groundwater from the same aquifer can [] it away
without penalty.
siphon
According to the article ``Wells Dry, Fertile Plains Turn to Dust'', how many acre-feet of water does irrigated corn require during the growing season.
14
According to the article "Wells Dry, Fertile Plains Turn to Dust'', how many gallons of
water does a milk cow consume in one day?
12
What are the two types
of fish that environmental groups have filed suit to protect by
diverting more water way from agriculture in California?
1. smelt
2. salmon
Like its name, the West Bank gets significant groundwater from the Western Aquifer.
True or False
FALSE
Carbon credits can be generated from various types of projects:
1. Using garbage as a fuel to create energy as compared to burying it in a landfill where it will produce methane.
2. Switching the generation of electricity from coal to wind.
NOT switching to ethanol for gas
The Homestead Act and the Reclamation Act of 1902 both limited holdings to how many acres?
160
list in order efficiency of irrigation systems
1. drip
2. sprinkler
3. flood with furrows
4. flood
Water is generally most effectively used near its source in the mountains.
True or False
False
Steven Chu, an American physicist who served as the 12th United States
Secretary of Energy. has said “The stone age did not end because we ranout of []
stone
Section 3 of the Taylor Grazing Act concerns grazing [] issued on public lands
within the grazing districts established under the Act.
permit
The travel cost method is most often used to measure the benefits of recreational resources such as parks, rivers, or beaches, whether they be used for hiking,fishing, surfing, or just hanging out.
true
classical value
The value of a thing in any given time and place, is the largestamount of exertion that anyone will render in exchange for it.
exchange value
The value of a commodity: what quantity of other commodities it will exchange for, if traded.
intrinsic value
That which is desirable or worthy of esteem for its own sake, valued as an `end-in-itself.'
use value
The qualitative aspect of value, i.e., the concrete way in which a thing meets human needs: "the utility of a thing makes it a use-value.''
instrumental value
The value of objects, both physical objects and abstract objects, not as ends-in-themselves, but as a means to some other end or purpose.
public goods
The value of objects, both physical objects and abstract objects, not as ends-in-themselves, but as a means to some other end or purpose.
ex/ neighborhood park
2. pure public goods are non-rivalrous and non-excludable
