Table: Sustainable living in economic system (compare and contrast)

Industrial age	Sustainability or ecological age
Multinational corporations	Community-based economics
Competition	Cooperation
Limitless progress	Limits to grow
Economic growth	Steady state, development
No accounting of nature	Economics based on ecology

2. Measures of life and environmental quality

Economic growth is usually measured by an increase in a country’s GNP.

Gross national product (GNP) – the market value in current dollars of all goods and services produced within and outside of a country by the country’s businesses for final use during a year.

Per capita GNP – the GNP divided by the total population of a country.

Gross Domestic product (GDP) – the market value in current dollars of all goods and services produced within a country for final use during a year.

! But GNP and GDP indicators are poor measures because they:

ü hide the negative effects (on humans and ecosystems) of producing many goods and services.

ü don’t include the depletion and degradation of natural resources or earthy capital on which all economies depend.

ü hide or underestimate some of the positive effects of responsible behavior on society.

ü tell us nothing about economic justice.

Environmental indicators – those that can give more realistic picture by subtracting from the GNP and GDP things that lead to a lower quality of life and depletion of earth capital.

Ø Net Economic Welfare (NEW) (W. Nordhaus and J.Tobin, 1972):

It is estimated as GNP minus a price for pollution and other “negative” goods and services, included in the GNP.

Estimations show that pollution and natural resources degradation subtract 1-5% from GNP of developed countries and 5-15% for developing countries.

Ø Net national product (NNP) (Robert Repetto et al. Have applied to Indonesia and Costa Rica):

It includes the depletion or destruction of natural resources as a factor in GNP.

Ø Index of Sustainable Economic Welfare (ISEW) (Herman E. Daly at al. have applied to US):

This comprehensive indicator measures per capita GNP adjusted for inequalities in income distribution, depletion of nonrenewable resources, loss of wetlands, loss of farmland from soil erosion and urbanization, the cost of air and water pollution, and estimates of long-term environmental damage from ozone depletion and possible global warming. After rising by 42% between 1950 and 1976, this indicator fell 14% between 1977 and 1990.

Ø Genuine progress indicator (GPI) – (applied in US):

In 1973-1994 the GDP rose from $8000 to $17000 per person while GPI fell from $6500 to $4000 per person.

 

3. Concept of externalities

Internal costs – all the direct costs which are paid for by the seller and the buyer of an economic good.

Externalities – social costs or benefits not included in the market price (higher costs for health care and health insurance, higher taxes for pollution control).

External cost – a harmful environmental or social cost that is borne by people not directly involved in buying or selling a product. These harmful effects are passed on to workers, the general public, and in some cases future generations.

Internalizing the external costs – a process of inclusion of the harmful external costs in the market prices of goods and services.

4 Economic strategies for pollution control

Marginal cost – the additional cost associated with one more unit of something.

Marginal cost of pollution – the added cost for all present and future members of society of an additional unit of pollution.

Marginal cost of pollution abatement -the added cost for all present and future members of society of reducing one unit of a given type of pollution.

Cost-benefit diagram – a diagram that helps policymakers make decisions about cost of a particular action and benefits that would occur if that action were implemented.

Optimum amount of pollution – the amount of pollution that is economically most desirable.

Command and control regulation – pollution control laws that work by setting limits on levels of pollution.

Incentive-based regulation - pollution control laws that work by establishing emission targets and providing industries with incentives to reduce emissions.