Term
| Driver of Environmental Conflict: Scientific Uncertainty |
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Definition
| Not being able to say with 100% certainty the state of an environmental good (exp: the state of the fishery in the Estai case). Unsure how a policy intervention might actually work on the environment. How do we manage the precautionary principle? |
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Term
| Driver of Environmental Conflict: Misaligned Economic Incentives |
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Definition
| There are going to be people whom the policy helps and people whom the policy hurts. Tragedy of the commons |
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Term
| Driver of Environmental Conflict: Monitoring and Enforcement |
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Definition
| Without a method of monitoring, there will be no compliance. In the example of the Estai, the lowest common denominator problem occurs because some states have limited ability to enforce law on the sea. |
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Term
| Driver of Environmental Conflict: Limitations of the Law |
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Definition
| Some problems are outside of the control of the law. For example, international issues are often outside of any legal authority. As a result, they are tried in the court of global public opinion. Some laws like the CAA and the CWA have goals that are probably outside the realistic enforcement but are put in place for aspiration purposes. |
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Term
| Driver of Environmental Conflict: Subsidiarity/Federalism |
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Definition
| The tensions between which level of government is enforcing and making rules. The classic tension is that republicans want greater federalism and democrats want nationalism decisions for the environment. |
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Term
| Driver of Environmental Conflict: Complexity |
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Definition
| Most environmental problems have many causes. This can make it hard for laws to build on eachother. |
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Term
| Why do Deep Ecologists protect the environment? |
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Definition
| Deep ecologists protect the environment because of a deep sense that they are part of something bigger in the natural world. As a result, all natural things have an intrinsic right to exist. |
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Term
| What does the Genesis philosophy say about environmental protection? |
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Definition
| Humans are created in the image of god and therefore should have dominion over all animals/plants/etc. Human habitats are more important than any other animal habitats. Doesn't mean there should be no environmental protection, just there is no inherent right of the environment that would supersede humanity's. |
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Term
| What is Baxtor's philosophy for environmental protection? |
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Definition
| Baxtor places all environmental goods in terms of human's importance on them. For example, DDT shouldn't be stopped just because it kills penguins. DDT should be stopped because humans would be sad if penguins went away. By following this, most of the environment's critical functions will be preserved and no other system is practical. |
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Term
| What is the guns/butter curve and what does it imply about government spending? |
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Definition
| The guns/butter curve puts all countries on an indifference curve where some countries spend almost all their money on butter (Montenegro) and guns (North Korea). This shows that spending is political and not based on science. Similar to the issue where the most money in environmentalism gets spent on some of the lower environmental threats. |
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Term
| Tragedy of the commons solution: Prescription |
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Definition
| Resource extraction as a whole is capped. Nobody is allowed to extract above. |
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Term
| Tragedy of the commons solution: Property Rigths |
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Definition
| Split the commons up into individual chunks that can be sold (ie, grazing days). |
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Term
| Tragedy of the commons solution: Payments |
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Definition
| Pay people not to graze at all. |
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Term
| Tragedy of the commons solution: Penalty |
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Definition
| You have to pay in order to graze at all ($5/ft) |
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Term
| Tragedy of the commons solution: Persuasion |
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Definition
| Educate shepherds on grazing sustainability. |
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Term
| What needs to be shown to win a common law nuisance suit? |
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Definition
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