1 / 12

Green Capitalism

Green Capitalism. Professor Hannes H. Gissurarson Rio de Janeiro 19 June 2012. Environmental challenges. Pollution Over-exploitation of natural resources Endangered species Threats to the Wilderness. Examples. Pollution: “Money smell” from herring smelting in Icelandic fishing villages

minowa
Download Presentation

Green Capitalism

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Green Capitalism Professor Hannes H. Gissurarson Rio de Janeiro 19 June 2012

  2. Environmental challenges • Pollution • Over-exploitation of natural resources • Endangered species • Threats to the Wilderness

  3. Examples • Pollution: “Money smell” from herring smelting in Icelandic fishing villages • Over-exploitation: Overgrazing in pastures and overfishing in open sea • Endangered species: Elephants, rhinos, whales • Wilderness: rain forests, mountains

  4. Solutions: Pollution • “Money smell”: good and bad side effects of economic behaviour • Who creates the cost: the fish processing plant or the people who demand cleaner air? • In the past: sensitive people should not settle in fishing villages • In the present: stricter requirements of clean air = informal property rights in air

  5. Solutions: Overgrazing • Icelanders settled the island 874–930 • Each valley used its own mountain pasture, held in common • Temptation for each farmer to send more sheep: cost for all, benefit for him only • Thrainn Eggertsson : quotas (itala) for each farm, a determined number of sheep • Criterion: sheep returning as fat as possible

  6. Solutions: Overfishing • Unrestricted access: over-investment in vessels: 16 boats where 8 would be sufficient • Rent from fishing ground dissipated in excessive cost • Ragnar Arnason: access restricted by individual transferable quotas • Each vessel owner interested in minimizing harvesting cost

  7. Solutions: Whales • Some whale stocks over-exploited, but not those in Icelandic waters • Whales harvest 6 million tonnes of seafod; man only 1.4 tonnes, in Icelandic waters • In essence: whale preservationists creating a cost for Icelandic fishermen • Whales should be subject to property rights; somebody responsible for them, either harvesting them or paying their cost

  8. Solutions: Elephants • Elephants valuable because of the ivory • Some elephant stocks in Africa strong, others not; but all listed as endangered species • Most sensible to create rights by neighbouring communities to utilise the elephants (i.e. selling hunting licenses and ivory) • Poachers turn into stewards • Works better than a total trade ban

  9. Solutions: Rhinos • Rhino horns valuable • Indeed endangered species • Same problem as with elephants: total trade ban ineffective • Better to create rights by neighbouring communitites to utilise the rhinos • Poachers again turn into stewards

  10. Solutions: Rain forests • Rain forests an ill-defined concept • Rain forests relatively new on the scene • Sources of biological diversity? A large area (like the Amazon) not necessary to maintain that • Lungs of the planet? No more than other areas with vegetation • People in South need development, to escape from poverty

  11. Solutions: Mountains • Hydro-electric plants may improve a riparian system, examples abound in Iceland • Lakes can make the environment more beautiful • Development necessary, to satisfy the need for energy

  12. Different approaches • Perservation v. Conservation • Pigovian taxes v. Coasean property rights • Stagnation v. Economic growth

More Related