People and Resources

Neoclassical theorem holding that externalities can be most efficiently controlled through contracts and bargaining between parties, assuming the transaction costs are not too high.

Model of pop change that predicts a decline in pop death rates associated with modernization, followed by a decline in birth rates resulting from industrialization and urbanization; this creates a sigmoidal curve where pop growth increases rapidly and then levels off.

Spillover of a cost or benefit.

model that predicts a period of deforestation in a region during development, when the forest is a resource or land is cleared for ag, followed by a return of forests when the economy changes and pop outmigrates and/or becomes conservation oriented

A form of math used to model and predict people's behavior in strategic situations where people's choices are predicated on predicting the behavior of others.

A suie of tech. innovations which were applied to ag in the 50s-80s and increased ag yields but with a concomitant rise in chemical inputs, water, and machinery.

Exagerated or false marketing of a product good or service as environmentally friendly.

A technology that increases the efficiency of resource use actually increases, rather than decreases, the rate of consumption of that resource.

Income inequality will increase during economic development and decrease after reaching a state of overall affluence, this theory predicts that environmental impacts rise during development, only to fall after an economy matures.

Model that predicts economic responses to scarcity of a resource will lead to increases in prices that will result either in decreased demand or increased supply, or both.

One seller-inflated pricing. One buyer-deflated pricing.

Present-day adherents to a position-established by Malthus in the 19th cent. that pop growth outstrips limited resources and presents the single greatest driver of environmental degredation and crisis.

an approach to environmental issues that unites issues of ecology with a broadly defined political economy perspective.

An allegorical description of a game-theoretical situation in which multiple individuals making decisions in pursuit of their own interest tend to create collective outcomes that are non-optimal for everyone.

A science of imagining, creating, and sustaining habitats, productive environments, and biodiversity in places used, traveled, and inhabited by human beings.

Named after Pete Singer's 1975 book. A social movement that aims to free all animals for use by humans.

Human centered in consideration of right or wrong

The management of a resource or system to sustain its productivity over time, typically associated with scientific management of collective goods.

A philosophy of environmental ethics that distances itself from "shallow" or mainstream environmentalism by arguing for a "deeper" or more truly ecologically-informed view of the world

Wanting as little government influence as possible.

Arising from the book of Genesis, this thesis states that humans are the pinnacle of creation, and humans are granted ethical free reign to use nature in any way deemed beneficial.

Ecological concerns should be central to decisions over right and wrong, above humans.

The scientific study of interactions among organisms and between organisms and the habitat or ecosystem they live in.

Equal distributions of environmental goods.

The whole system (ecosystem or earth) is more beneficial than the sum of its parts.

value of a natural object in and for itself, is an ends rather than a means

Influence=Population,Affluence, Technology

An ethical principle stating that humans should extend their sphere of moral concern beyond the human realm; most commonly it is argued that intelligent or sentiment animals are worthy ethical subjects

A philosophically invalid derivation of an ethical 'ought' from a natural 'is'

A branch of philosophy that arose in late nineteenth-century NA pragmatism considers real world consequence and effects to be constiuent components of truth and reality

The management of a resource or environment for protection and preservation, typically for its own sake, as in wilderness preservation

Usually deployed as a term of derision, refers to an uncritical reliance on the natural science as the basis for social decision making and ethical judgements.

A school of thought and set of social movements,associated with Murray Brookchin, asserting that environmental problems and crises are rooted in typical social structures and relationships, since these tend to be hierarchical, state-controlled, and predicted on domination of both people and nature.

Taking responsibility for the property or fate of others, stewardship of land and natural resources and is often used in a religious context, such as 'caring for creation'

An ethical theory that the value of a good should be judged widely by its usefulness in society, following the 18th,19th century philosopher Jeremy Brentham, usefulness is equated with maximizing pleasure or happiness and minimizing pain and suffering.

a wild parcel of land, more or less unaffected by human forces, increasingly, wilderness is viewed as a social construction

Emotional or unconscious responses to the world that influence decision making

tendency in capitalism for profits, capital goods, savings, and value to flow towards, pool in, and/or accrue in specific places, leading to the centralization and concentration of both money and power

transformation of an object or resource from something valued in and for itself, to something valued genetically for exchange, In Marxist thought, the rise of the exchange value of a thing over its use value

An object of economic value that is valued generically, rather than as a specific object. In political economy and Marxist though, an object made for exchange.

A single idea, usually captured in a word or phrase

The material or environmental conditions required for a specific economy to function, which may include things as varied as water for use in an industrial process to the health of workers to do the labor.

Emphasizing the significance of concepts, ideologies, and social practices to our understanding and making of (literally, constructing) the world

A theoretical framework associated with Mary Douglas that stresses the way individual perceptions are reinforced by group social dynamics, leading to a few paradigmatic, typical, and discrete ways of seeing and addressing problems

the inevitable and ongoing process whereby humans and non-humans produce and change one another through their interaction and interrelation

statements and texts are not mere representations of a material world, but rather power-embedded constructions that make the world we live in

Theories critical of the role of patriarchal society for degrading both the natural environment and the social condition of women

The quality of a commodity that determines the quantity of other goods for which the commodity might be traded at a given moment, compare to use value.

Capitalism to undermine its own perpetuation, through overproduction of commodities, reduction of wages for would-be consumers, etc. predicted to eventually lead to responses by workers to resist capitalism leadign to a new form of economy.

An ongoing process by which regional economies, societies, and cultures have become integrated through a globe-spanning network of exchange.

object, condition, or process that threatens individuals and society in terms of production or reproduction

Normative, value-laden, world views that spell out how the world is and how it ought to be

The infrastructure, equipment, machinery required to make things, goods, and commonities

A story with a beginning and end, environmental narratives such as 'biological evolution' and the tragedy of the commons, that aid our comprehension and construction of the world

Capital becomes concentrated in very few hands or firms causing economic slowdown and potential socioeconomic crisis

Direct appropriation by capitals of natural resources or goods from commodities that historically tend to hold them collectively

the idea that the environment is now a product of human industry and activity

the social relationships associated with a specific economy, as serfs/knights are to feudalism and workers/owners are to modern capitalism

the known probability that a hazard-related decision will have a neg. consequence

the tendency of people to evaluate the hazardousness of a situation in not-always -rational terms, depending on individual biases, culture, or human tendencies

Tendency for capitalism to eventually undermine the environmental conditions for its own perpetuation, through degradation of natural resources or damage to the health of the workers, predicted to eventually lead to environmentalist and workers movements

questioning the veracity of universal truth statements, relativism holds that all beliefs, truths, and facts are at root products of the particular set of social relations from which they arise

that part of the economy, especially including household work, that depends on unremunerated labor, but without rich the more formal cash economy would suffer and collapse

modes and methods of representation, the techniques used to tell stories, introduce and define concepts and communicate ideologies.

any category, condition, or thing that exists or is understood to have certain characteristics because people socially agree that it does

the ensemble of social relations in a particular place at a particular time, includes belief systems, economic relations of production, and institutions of governance

environmental program established to address abandoned hazardous waste sites in US

the value produced by underpaying labor or overextracting from the environment, which is accumulated by owners and investors

the degree to which the outcomes of a decision or situation are unknown

the quality of a commodity derived from its actual usefulness and importance for individuals since it fills a need or purpose