Environmental and Natural Resource Economics
A Contemporary Approach
Jonathan M. Harris, Brian Roach
- 704 pages
- English
- ePUB (mobile friendly)
- Available on iOS & Android
Environmental and Natural Resource Economics
A Contemporary Approach
Jonathan M. Harris, Brian Roach
About This Book
Environmental issues are of fundamental importance, and a broad approach to understanding the relationship between the human economy and the natural world is essential. In a rapidly changing policy and scientific context, this new edition of Environmental and Natural Resource Economics reflects an updated perspective on modern environmental topics.
Now in its fifth edition, this textbook includes enhanced and updated material on energy, climate change, greening the economy, population, agriculture, forests and waterâreflecting the greater urgency required to solve the big environmental problems in these areas. It introduces students to both standard environmental economics and the broader perspective of ecological economics, balancing analytical techniques of environmental economics topics with a global perspective on current ecological issues such as population growth, global climate change and "green" national income accounting.
Harris and Roach's premise is that a pluralistic approach is essential to understand the complex nexus between the economy and the environment. This perspective, combined with its emphasis on real-world policies, is particularly appealing to both instructors and students. This is the ideal text for undergraduate classes on environmental, natural resource and ecological economics, and postgraduate courses on environmental and economic policy.
To access Student and Instructor resources, please visit: sites.tufts.edu/gdae/environmental-and-natural-resource-economics/.
Frequently asked questions
Chapter 1
Changing Perspectives on the Environment
Chapter 1 Focus Questions
- What major environmental issues do we face today?
- What are the main frameworks that economists use to understand these issues?
- What principles can promote economic and ecological sustainability?
1.1 Overview of Environmental Issues
Human population dynamics or trends, particularly population pressure, and economic development have been acknowledged for many decades as the primary drivers of environmental change ⊠The increasing scale, global reach and speed of change in those drivers of environmental change pose urgent challenges for managing environmental and climate change problems.3
continued emission of greenhouse gases will cause further warming and long-lasting changes in all components of the climate system, increasing the likelihood of severe, pervasive and irreversible impacts for people and ecosystems.4
Box 1.1 Important Events in Modern Environmental History
- 1962: The publication of Rachel Carsonâs Silent Spring, widely recognized as the catalyst of the modern environmental movement, details the dangers posed by excessive pesticide use.
- 1964: The passage of the Wilderness Act in the United States, which protects public lands that are âuntrammelled by man, where man himself is a visitor who does not remain.â
- 1969: The Cuyahoga River in Ohio is so polluted by oil and other chemicals that it catches on fire, prompting widespread concern about water pollution and eventually the passage of the Clean Water Act in 1972.
- 1970: The creation of the Environmental Protection Agency by President Richard Nixon. Also, over 20 million participate in the first Earth Day on April 22.
- 1972: The creation of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), headquartered in Nairobi, Kenya.
- 1979: The partial meltdown of the Three Mile Island nuclear reactor in Pennsylvania raises concerns about the safety of nuclear energy. These concerns are exacerbated by the explosion of the Chernobyl reactor in the Soviet Union in 1986.
- 1987: The United Nationsâ Brundtland Commission publishes Our Common Future, which defines sustainable development as âdevelopment that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.â
- 1992: The Rio Declaration on Environment and Development recognizes âthe integral and independent nature of the Earth, our homeâ and lists 27 principles of sustainable development including reducing global inequities, international cooperation, and the promotion of an economic system that addresses environmental problems.
- 1997: The Kyoto Protocol is negotiated, the first international treaty that commits ratifying nations to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. Although rejected by the United States, the treaty was ratified by 191 nations and entered into force in 2005.
- 2002: The Johannesburg Declaration on Sustainable Development recognized that âhumanity is at a crossroadsâ and there exists âa collective responsibility to advance and strengthen the ⊠pillars of sustainable developmentâeconomic development, social development, and environmental protection.â
- 2009: Nations participating in climate change talks in Copenhagen agree that actions should be implemented to limit eventual global warming to no more than 2°C, though no binding commitments are made to reduce emissions.
- 2015: The Paris Agreement on climate change, approved by 195 countries, calls for a âglobal peaking of greenhouse gas emissions as soon as possibleâ with a goal of âholding the increase in global average temperature to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels.â Over 150 countries submit plans to limit their greenhouse gas emissions.
- 2021: The global economic slowdown as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic leads to a significant reduction in air pollution and carbon emissions. The International Energy Agency announces that, for the first time, solar energy is the worldâs cheapest energy source. In 2021, however, global fossil fuel use and emissions rise again with economic recovery.