Economics and the Environment DE-303 Sanatan Nayak

Transcript:Economics and the Environment DE-303 Sanatan Nayak:
Economics and the Environment DE-303 Sanatan Nayak L-1 Definition Meaning of Environment: It is sum total of things or circumstances surrounding an organism including humans. Natural Environment – all biotic & abiotic elements that forms our surroundings. Our land, water, forests, seas, animals and all living things. Functions of Environment Provision of natural goods, lakes, landscapes, wildlife. Supplying natural resources, land, water, forests and minerals. Functioning as sink into which by-products of economic activities are dumped. Providing environmental services and amenities such as Ozone layer, climatic stability, genetic diversity, recreation etc. Definitions of Environmental Economics Sub part of economics: choice of economic behavior. Lionel Robbins: Economics is the science which studies human behavior as a relationship between ends and means, which have alternative uses. EE to study why and how human beings interact with their environment, the way they do, how they use and manage the environmental resources and what are the impacts of human activity. Definitions Cont.. Sub-disciplines: micro, macro and welfare EE seeks the analysis of environmental issues. It deals with interdependence and interactions between human being and economic activity. Positive and Normative EE Positive is descriptive and predictive, where as normative is prescriptive. Traditional Economics and Environmental Economics Traditional Economy: Micro, Macro, Public Economics, Trade, Econometrics and applied field of economics Contribution of EE It deals with the interaction between economic development and environment. Non-Mkt valuation, i.e. methods for measuring demand curve for goods. Adopt tools form other parts of economics to question regarding environment. Contribution of Environmental Economics It deals with the public goods with no market situations. It handles with externality and market failures. It considers the time related decision and equity. It always considers environment has limited capacity. Natural Resources: The concepts Pre-classical or Physiocratic school of thoughts (1758-1778 AD). Classical economists (1776-1890 AD): Land, labour and capital . Natural elements: All original elements that comprise earth’s life support systems such as air, water, earth’s crust. Examples of Natural Resources: arable land, wilderness areas, mineral fuels, non-fuel minerals, watersheds, degradation of waste, ozone layer. Ecological Perspectives Renewable and Non-Renewable Resources Biological Resources: Plants and Animals have self regenerating capacity. Flow resources: continuous renewal of these resources is largely detected by atmospheric and hydraulic circulation. Non-renewable resources: Metallic (iron, aluminium, copper and uranium) and non-metallic minerals (fossil fuels, clay, sand, salt and phosphates). Natural economics is divided into environmental and resource economics. Environmental & Resource