HL b. Environmental Economics

Flashcards for Environmental Economics Exam Review

Define Economics

Economics looks at how humans produce, distribute, and consume goods and services, both individually and collectively, focusing on the supply and demand of resources and market interactions.

What is the Law of Supply and Demand?

Prices are determined by the relationship between supply and demand. If supply exceeds demand, prices fall; if demand exceeds supply, prices rise.

What is Environmental Economics?

Environmental economics is economics applied to the environment and environmental issues, accepting the need for interventions in the free market.

What is Market Failure in ESS?

When the allocation of goods and services by the free market imposes negative impacts on the environment.

What is the Polluter-Pays Principle?

The costs of stopping, managing, and cleaning up pollution are covered by the polluter.

What is Greenwashing?

Companies use marketing to portray themselves as more environmentally friendly than they actually are.

What is the Tragedy of the Commons?

When property rights are not clearly defined, which leads to over exploitation.

What is Environmental Accounting?

The attempt at attaching an economic value to natural resources, ecosystem services, and the cost of their loss.

What is Non-Use Value?

The intrinsic value of a species, potential for future use, or value for future generations.

Ecological Economics

The economy is a subsystem of Earth’s larger biosphere and the social system as being a sub-component of ecology.

Explain the concept of payment for ecosystem services in ecological economics

Paying ‘resource-rich’ developing countries to protect their natural assets.

What is Economic Growth?

Change in the total market value of goods and services in a country over a period, usually measured as the annual percentage change in GDP.

What is Eco-Economic Decoupling?

Separating economic growth from environmental degradation.

Ecological economics supports what?

Planned reduction in consumption and production, particularly in high-income countries.

What are the circular economy and doughnut economics models?

Product stewardship, where the responsibility for sustainable management of a product is attributed to the manufacturer, seller, and user; doughnut economics attempts to address issues of inequality and injustice.

What is Doughnut Economics?

Model that supports the development of sustainability through the lens of ecological economics.