(oct 28-1)ENVR 201: Integrating Environmental Values in Societal Decision-Making

Vocabulary terms and definitions from Module 3: Integrating Environmental Values in Societal Decision-Making, covering environmental value theories, decision analysis, and ecosystem service classifications.

Nihilism

The philosophical value theory asserting that nothing has any intrinsic value.

Egoism

The value theory stating that only oneself has intrinsic value, while no other humans have value except possibly instrumental value for promoting one's own good.

Anthropocentrism

The ethical stance holding that all humans have intrinsic value, whereas non-human animals have only instrumental value for humans or no value at all.

Zoocentrism

The value theory asserting that all animals capable of experiencing pleasure or happiness possess intrinsic value, while non-sentient organisms hold at best instrumental value.

Biocentrism

The ethical position that all and only living organisms possess intrinsic value, while lifeless matter and energy can have at best instrumental value for living things.

Ecocentrism

The value perspective stating that all organisms, species, and ecosystems have irreducible intrinsic value, with lifeless matter and energy having at best instrumental value.

Cosmic Universalism

The comprehensive value theory positing that all organisms, species, ecosystems, and even lifeless matter and energy hold intrinsic value.

First Step in Making a Decision

Realizing that there is a decision to be made.

Opportunity Cost

The value of the best alternative option forgone when undertaking a specific action.

Rights-Based Decisions

A framework in decision theory that resolves choices through foundational rights and duties rather than through weighing alternatives or conducting cost-benefit analysis.

Ecosystem Services

The paradigm that conceptualizes the natural functions and ecological processes of nature as services provided to humanity.

Four Categories of Ecosystem Services

The framework categorizing nature's functions into supporting services, provisioning services, regulating services, and cultural services.

Provisioning Services

Ecosystem services that deliver tangible goods and material products obtained directly from nature, such as food, fresh water, wood and fiber, and fuel.

Regulating Services

Benefits obtained from ecosystem processes that moderate natural phenomena, such as climate regulation, flood regulation, disease regulation, and water purification.

Cultural Services

Non-material benefits people derive from ecosystems, encompassing aesthetic, spiritual, educational, and recreational values.

Supporting Services

Fundamental ecological processes that are necessary for the production of all other ecosystem services, including nutrient cycling, soil formation, and primary production.

Option Value

The value placed on preserving an environmental asset to maintain the option of utilizing it in the future, even if it is not currently consumed.

Non-Use Value

Ecosystem value that does not involve physical interaction with resources, including bequest value (preserving nature for future generations) and existence value (satisfaction from knowing nature exists).

Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (2005)

A global environmental report determining that $15$ out of $24$ evaluated ecosystem services are degraded or being used unsustainably.

Costanza et al. (2014) Valuation Finding

A global evaluation demonstrating that the total flow value of ecosystem services, estimated at $187\text{--}217\text{ trillion US\$}$ per year in $2025$ dollars, exceeds the Gross World Product ($118\text{ trillion US\$}$).

Monbiot’s Critiques of "Pricing Nature"

Four major objections to monetizing nature: difficulty in calculating an accurate price, pushing nature further into an exploitative economic framework, ignoring systemic power dynamics, and distorting moral values and framing.