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1. Return to Home Page GEOG 370 May 16, 2013

2. So what is our commonality?What are the real questions we need to deal with in landscape change, ecosystem management,air quality and water quality?

3. Six Objectives • Review the fundamental relevant attributes of property rights. • Discuss the key weakness of private property rights and environmental quality problems and relate this to pollution prevention incentives. • Briefly evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of the major methods for environmental conservation, quality protection, and improvement. • Present a linked ecologic-economic-geographic optimization model which incorporates measures of equity and ecosystem services in a spatial context . • Conclude with a call for a comprehensive environmental management systems model which utilizes educational, regulatory and market approaches.

4. The Four Key Property Rights • the right of alienation • the right to use the property • the right to earn a benefit stream from the property • the right of exclusivity

5. Three Key Types of Property • Private Property • Common Property • Public Property

6. Seven Major Approaches and Methods of Pollution Control Management • Moral Persuasion and Education • Suing for Damages (Tort solutions) • Prohibition • Direct Governmental Regulation • Governmental Economic Payments & Incentives • Resource Use & Pollution Emission Charges • Pollution & Resource Use Rights • Cap & Trade

7. Moral Persuasion and Education • Educating and sensitizing people about their behavior • Prepare people for action • May produce ineffective guilt • “Free rider” problems • May penalize ecologically & socially responsible people & organizations • Bottom line -> first steps, necessary, but not sufficient

8. Tort Solutions: Suing “the Amerikanisher” approach • Appealing from perspective of social justice • Time-consuming, expensive • Difficult to establish • who & what damaged • extent of damages • evaluate & agree on damages • legally responsible party or entities • Limited as a deterrent • A post facto approach, not a preventative approach • EIS important proactive tool • Needs a strong legal system

9. Prohibition • Shields individuals & environment from irresponsible acts of others • Non-compliance issues • Second law of thermodynamics often makes complete prohibition both practically and economically infeasible • “tests the ropes” of the politically feasible • Risks “political backlashes” • May not be optimal, i.e., natural biogeochemical processes can absorb some residuals • Requires strong sense of legitimacy & significant financial & personnel resources to enforce prohibitions

10. Direct Governmental Regulation - 1 • zum Beispiel: • laws & regulations • required abatement equipment • worker safety equipment • product contamination standards • MPCs • land use ordinances • best available science • positive aspects: • internalize some of external costs • protect individuals from irresponsible acts of others • often more fair and just than outright prohibition • “level the playing field”

11. Direct Governmental Regulation - 2 • positive aspects continued: • “standards” better than “technologies” at creating positive incentives • maybe only practical & effective way to deal with small non-stationary air polluters & home heating furnaces • maybe only practical & effective way to deal with non-point source water pollution • American experience -> regulation has proven to be the easiest method to get approved by legislative bodies

12. Direct Governmental Regulation - 3 • problem areas: • use of “same” standards internalizes only part of the external costs • fails to make use differing physical geographic environments • requiring “same” technology discourages development of better & cheaper pollution control and resource conservation technology • can force out small firms lacking sufficient investment capital • standards & regulations tend to be ones that are enforceable rather than optimal • problems with overlapping & conflicting jurisdictions • complaints that “polluters” don’t pay for damages • lobbying efforts can delay & weaken compliance via courts, revised legislation & administrative procedures

13. Governmental Economic Payments & Incentives • zum Beispiel: • government grants • investment tax credits • conservation tax credits for pollution abatement equipment • Advantages: • focus upon prevention rather than remedial action • meet with less opposition • decrease private production and construction costs • can lead to higher profits and cheaper homes • improve enterprise competitiveness in international markets (WTO????) • Disadvantages: • do little to internalize costs • lower “private costs” -> over consumption of pollution generating activities • increase output rather than conserve resources & improve environment • use rather than generate tax revenues • susceptible to political & financial influence • difficult to discontinue when no longer needed • divert tax revenues away from other needs

14. Resource Use & Pollution Emission Charges -1 • Advantages: • internalize external costs if charges are close to estimated marginal external costs • costs passed along to ultimate consumer • encourage reduction of resource and pollution to optimum levels • collected changes may be used to generate tax revenues & pay for abatement/prevention facilities • a positive, preventative, pro-active incentive approach rather than remedial, after the fact compensation strategy • lower transaction costs • allow fees to reflect increasingly scarce resources • can cope with economic growth vs environment

15. Resource Use & Pollution Emission Charges - 2 • Disadvantages: • how to find equilibrium level of fees • inflation -> increase in pollution & resource use waste unless inflation adjustment is built-in • in U.S. thus far, strong opposition to economically rational methods • approach not accepted by politicians, nor “Greens” • only modest charges such as water use and sewage processing fees • rarely have fees been high enough to elicit significant resource use conservation behaviors

16. Pollution & Resource Use Rights • zum Beispiel: • markets, stocks and auctions for pollution and resource use rights • Los Angeles Air Pollution Control Board auction market for air • Kyoto ????

17. Dynamic Supply & Demand Curve for a Pollution Right

18. Pollution & Resource Use Rights • Advantages: • based on fixed known limits of rights • generate tax revenues • inflation & economic growth would automatically raise prices • Disadvantages: • requires extensive “objective” scientific input to determine the “fixed upper limits” of rights • maximum pollution right, may be severely compromised by political processes • requires extensive monitoring and enforcement to ensure • non-purchasers do not pollute, degrade, and waste resources • purchasers do not exceed their purchased “rights”

19. Policy to Law A few problems along the way

20. Parcels A, B and C - different air parcels at different temperatures and elevations - are all unstable Al t i tude A B C Temperature Environmental Lapse Rate Unsaturated lapse rate (dry adiabatic rate) directions air has a tendency to more Another look at Adiabatic & Environmental Lapse Rates and Unstable Air

21. Adiabatic & environmental lapse rates & stable air Parcels A, B and C - different air parcels at different temperatures and elevations - are all stable A D??? Altitude B C Temperature Environmental Lapse Rate Saturated adiabatic lapse rate Unsaturated lapse rate (dry adiabatic rate) Direction towards air move is “pushed” away from A, B or C

22. Hot gases risingeven iflevel theatmosphericconditionsarestable

23. Summary of Environmental lapse rates in highly stable, stable, conditionally unstable, & unstable air Environmental Environmental Environmental Environmental ELR level of free convection in figure (c) =

24. Rising “bubble” of (unstable) warm air Atmospheric Stability vs. Instability

25. Comparison of normal and inverted lapse rates

26. Upper Air Temperature Inversion

27. Low level (surface level) temperature inversion and “smoggy” fog

28. Figure 3.10 Temperature Inversion

29. Fig. 3.10a Normal Temperature Profile

30. Fig. 3.10b Inverted Temperature Profile