Environmental Studies Exam #2 (Test)

Climate change, science and diplomacy

• Climate change basics

  • Weather vs Climate (short term s long term)

    • Weather: short term

      • Short term state of the atmosphere

      • Description of precipitation and temperature for one day

    • Climate: long term

      • Long term state of the atmosphere

      • Description of precipitation and temperature for a long period of time

  • Biospheric problems (how they are different)

  • The greenhouse effect (what is it)

• What do we know

  • It is getting hotter

  • Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and temperature increases

  • Human influence + the causes of climate change

• How do we know

  • Intergovernmental panel on climate change (IPCC)

    • Who are they?

    • What do they do?

    • What do they say? 

How is climate change different?

• Types of environmental problems

  • Ecosystem problems

    • Visible as problems in particular ecosystems

    • Felt in specific areas

  • Biospheric problems

    • Climate change and ozone depletion are not scientifically related (they are both biospheric problems)

    • Global in nature

      • Impact all individuals, societies, ecosystems

    • Vast scope + long time horizon 

    • Require scientific expertise to study

    • Seem remote from our experiences

      • Require unprecedented level of cooperation (between countries)

The Greenhouse Effect

• Some sunlight that hits the earth is reflected. Some becomes heat

• CO2 and other gases in the atmosphere trap heat  

• Natural vs Human Driven

  • Natural: more heat escapes into space

  • Human: less heat escapes into space

Global warming vs global climate change

• What is climate change? 

  • Change in the state of the climate; changes in the men and/or the variability of its properties; persists for a an extended period of time

• Causes of climate change

  • Internal variability in the climate systems; it happens over a very long period of time

  • Natural external causes; it happens over a long period of time

    • Example: volcanic smoke stops sunlight from reaching the earth

  • Human influence through greenhouse gases

• It is getting hotter

  • The year 2023

    • Hottest year ever to be recorded

    • Hottest june, july, august, september, october, november, december

    • Temperature was 1.48 degrees celsius or 2.66 degrees fahrenheit above pre-industrial levels

GHG and hotter temperatures

• CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere

  • Before 1979 → 337 ppm

  • Recent 2022 → 417 ppm

  • Feb 2023 → 421.62 ppm

  • Feb 2024 → 425.40 ppm

• Carbon dioxide is the main heat trapping gas

• Where are GHG emissions coming from?

  • World:

    • Energy supply

    • Industry

    • Agriculture, forestry, and land use

  • United States:

    • Transportation

    • Electric power

    • Industry 

    • Carbon dioxide emissions 79%

Human Influence

• Human influence has warmed the climate at a rate that is unprecedented in at least the last 2000 years

Greenhouse gases

• How much each human-caused greenhouse gas contributes to total emissions around the globe 

  • Carbon dioxide: 76%

  • Methane: 16%

  • Nitrous oxide: 6%

  • Fluorinated gases: 2%

• The global warming potential (GWP) of human-generated greenhouse gases is a measure of how much heat each gas traps in the atmosphere, relative to carbon dioxide

• Where are GHG emissions coming from

  • World:

    • Energy supply: 34%

    • Industry: 24%

    • Agriculture, forestry & land use: 22%

    • Transport: 15%

    • Buildings: 5.6%

  • United States:

    • Transportation: 28% 

    • Electric power: 25%

    • Industry: 23%

    • Commercial & Residential: 13%

    • Agriculture: 10%

Causes of Climate change

• Generating power

• Manufacturing goods

• Powering buildings

• Producing food

  • Cows; methane

• Using transportation

• Cutting down forests

• Consuming too much

What is the IPCC?

• Formed in 1988 by:

  • World Meteorological Organization

  • United Nations Environmental Program

• Mission: 

  • Assess scientific, technical and socio-economic information relevant to understanding the scientific basis of human induced climate change, its potential impacts and options for adaptation and mitigation

• The structure of the IPCC

  • Working group 1 

    • Looks at the science of climate change (CC)

  • Working group 2

    • Looks at the impacts and vulnerabilities

  • Working group 3

    • Looks at the mitigation of CC

  • Scientist, not politicians 

  • Not original research, summarize existing 

  • Peer review process

  • Multiple levels of review

• The IPCC Process

  • Levels of review

    • 1st: Authors review scientific publications and write up a draft for review

    • 2nd: Expert reviewers supply comments which are taken into consideration

    • 3rd: New draft goes to both Governments and experts for further comments 

  • What is in the reports

    • WG1 Final report

      • Science of CC → 2,409 pages

    • WG2 Final report

      • Impacts → 3,068 pages

    • WG3 Final report

      • Mitigation → 1,991 pages

• 97-99% of climatologists agree on 3 things

  • CC is happening 

  • Humans have caused it 

  • It will have significant impacts on all people, ecosystems and societies

What will CC mean + what can we do?

• Effects/Impacts of CC

  • Largely negative 

  • 2 levels of effects/impacts

    • Physical impacts 

    • What it means to society 

• Mitigation - reducing emissions

  • Reduce GHG emissions = reducing cc

  • Reduce cc = reducing effects/impacts

• Adaptation - increasing resiliency 

  • It means we need more/better preparation 

  • More preparation = lessening the effects/impacts of CC

  • How can we increase resiliency 

Climate change effects

• Hotter temperatures

• More severe storms

• Increasing drought

• A warming, rising ocean 

• Loss of species

• Not enough food

• More health risks 

• Poverty and displacement 

Three dimensions of CC vulnerability 

• Exposure

  • Identifying risks to CC

  • Example: coastlines eroding

• Sensitivity 

  • How individuals, communities and nations are impacted by CC

  • Example: heat waves and isolation 

    • Mostly elderly 

• Adaptive Capacity (resiliency)

  • Ability to accommodate and cope with CC impacts and stresses

  • Both physical and social conditions

Who are most vulnerable

• Social class, race/ethnicity, gender, age, citizenship status, sexual orientation, physical ability, geography, location

• Who are most vulnerable

  • Young (children) and old (elderly)

  • Poor, minorities, women

  • Less developed countries

  • Countries in the global south

  • Small island nations

Primary Issues/Areas CC will impact 

• Food security

  • Crop yields are sensitive to small changes in water and temperature

  • Negative impacts are expected

• Freshwater supplies

  • A question of too much or too little 

  • Early ice/snow melts, reduced stream flows, heavy or low precipitation

• Extreme water events

  • Will increase dramatically → 2011 worst year cost 380 billion worldwide 

  • Both economic costs and social costs → hurricane Katrina

• Human health

  • Heat stress (due to heat waves), fires and respiratory issues , transmissions of tropical diseases

  • Reduction in overall health and ability to do work

• Land use and human settlements

  • Rising sea levels and more frequent wildfires

  • Coastal settlements where ½ of all people live are threatened 

    • US → Boston, New York City, Miami, New Orleans, Los Angeles

    • Global → Maldives, Tuvalu

• Migration and climate refugees

  • At least 200n million displaced from their homes by 2050

  • Example: Hurricane Katrina 

• Security and conflict

  • A "serious threat to global security"and thus to national security 

  • Regional conflicts as water, food and energy supplies dwindle

What can we do about climate change

• Adaptation

  • The process of adjustment to actual or expected climate and its effects or minimizing the destruction/suffering that comes from climate change 

  • Examples:

    • Building seawalls, elevating infrastructure, or retreating from low-lying coastal areas

    • Reducing and recycling water use due to drought

    • Favoring drought-tolerant crops

    • Using prescribed fires to prevent uncontrollable wildfires

    • Disaster preparedness and management programs 

    • Alternative livelihood opportunities 

• Mitigation

  • Human intervention to reduce the sources or enhance the sinks of greenhouse gases 

  • Different types of mitigation: 

    • Technology focused (techno-fixes): 

      • We can plant new trees (increase new trees)

      • We can use hybrids and energy efficient cars

      • We can replace fossil fuels with clean, renewable energy 

      • Upgrade buildings/devices

      • Produce food using less energy

    • People focused (changing behavior):

      • We can use less wood/paper products (save/protect old trees)

      • We can drive less, walk, carpool, and use public transportation

      • We can practice using less energy via conservation efforts

      • Turn off lights/energy/devices

      • Change diets/eat less beef

• Examples:

• Replacing fossil fuels like coal, oil and natural gas with clean renewable energy 

• Replacing traditional internal-combustion vehicles with electric options 

• Retrofitting old buildings via energy efficiency 

• Planting trees and preserving forests so they can absorb and store more CO2

• Recalibrating agriculture and livestock industries with changes in consumption patterns

Global response to climate change → Paris Agreement

• Reduce emissions by 45% by 2030

• Net zero emissions by 2050 (about 80%)

Common Pool Resources/Tragedy of the Commons

• Common Pool Resources

  • Air, water, land, atmosphere 

    • Ozone depletion

    • Climate change

  • Open access: can’t exclude anyone from using them

  • Costs and benefits:

    • Benefits are individual gain

    • Costs are a joint/group loss

• Pastureland with cows 

  • We each own 1 cow

    • 40 people = 40 cows

  • Costs and benefits

    • B: milk, cheese, meat

      • Individual gain = +1

    • C: soil depletion, methane

      • Joint/group loss = -1/40 

  • Everyone would add another cow

    • +1 benefit vs -1/40 costs

  • Tragedy of the commons

    • Overusing resources

    • Adding pollution

• Overcoming Tragedy of the Commons

  • Set up management systems 

    • Government: formal/good of all

      • Autocratic or Democratic 

    • Privatization: split it/good of one 

    • Community: informal/good of all

  • What would we need to do? 

    • Monitoring 

    • Incentives (carrots)

    • Punishment (sticks)

    • Exchange information

    • Build trust/communication

Ozone depletion: The science 

• Ozone = O3

  • Low level Ozone

    • Troposphere O3 = bad

    • Smog, air pollution, respiratory illness

  • High level Ozone

    • Stratosphere O3 = good

    • Absorb harmful UV rays coming from the sun

• In effect

  • O3 in the upper atmosphere acts as a sunscreen for people and ecosystems 

• The cause: CFCs 

  • Used in refrigerants and propellants

    • Refrigerator, air conditioning, aerosol sprays, styrofoam

  • How

    • CFCs go into the stratosphere and chloride breaks off → Cl

    • One Cl atom can eat up up to 100,000 molecules of O3

• Impacts

  • Huma health: increased UV radiations reach the Earth surface that are harmful for human health

  • Crops growth: UV radiations also effect on the growth of crops

  • Phytoplankton growth: UV radiations inhibit the reproductive cycle of phytoplankton, single-celled organisms that make up the bottom of the food chain

  • Increased diseases: increased risk of skin cancer, infectious diseases and eye related problems

Ozone Depletion vs Climate Change

• Success story

  • CFCs main cause

  • Science was certain 

  • 1.8 billion in sales (some political influence)

  • Industry produces CFCs (little connection to people)

  • HCFCs: ready, cheap, available substitute technology 

  • Little societal change

• A work in progress

  • GHGs + Deforestation as causes

  • Science is certain 

  • 2.24 trillion in sales (big political influence)

  • Everyone produces GHGs (major connection to people)

  • Ready? Cheap? Available? 

  • Societal change will be needed

Who is responsible for GHGs emissions?

• Overall emissions

  • #1 China

  • #2 U.S.

  • #3 India 

• Emissions per person 

  • #1 U.S. + Saudi Arabia

  • Canada, Australia, S. Korea

• Historically 

  • #1 U.S. 

  • #2 China

  • Russia, Germany, U.K.

Climate change negotiations → Themes

• The Ambition Gap (2 levels) 

  • Emissions → gap between emission reduction goals and current action

    • How much do we reduce emissions and by when?

  • Finance → gap between money needed for current mitigation and adaptation and current spending 

• Keep it in the ground

  • We cannot burn all of the fossil fuels we currently have

  • We need to keep 82% of coal, 49% of natural gas and 33% of oil in the ground to avoid going over 2°C

• Damage/Losses

  • Mechanism to provide compensation for repairable or permanent loss due to climate-induced disasters and slow onset sea rise

• Common but differentiated responsibilities 

  • Different countries have different situations/realities

  • Different expectations on what and how much they can do 

• Mitigation and adaptation

  • Focus was only on mitigation, now it has switched to both 

  • How should we split our money/efforts?

The Paris Agreement

• Temperatures:

  • Keep warming below 2°C

  • Continue efforts to to limit the rise in temperatures to 1.5°C

• Financing:

  • Rich countries must provide $100 billion from 2020, as a “floor”

  • Amount to be updated by 2025

• Specialization:

  • Developed countries must continue to take the lead in the reduction of GHGs

  • Developing nations are encouraged to enhance their efforts and move over time cuts 

• Emissions goals:

  • Aim for GHGs emissions to peak asap

  • From 2050 → rapid reductions to achieve a balance between emissions from human activity and the amount that can be captured by sinks

• Burden sharing:

  • Developed countries must provide financial resources to help developing countries

  • Other countries are invited to provide support on a voluntary basis

• Review mechanism:

  • A review every five years. First mandatory review is in 2025

  • Each review will show an improvement compared with the previous period

• Climate-related losses:

  • Vulnerable countries have won recognition of the need for averting, minimizing and addressing losses suffered due to climate change

Globalization and Growth

• Globalization: the spread of the flow of financial products, goods, technology, information, and jobs across national borders and cultures

  • We see it every day in the things we buy, the things we eat, the places we go, the news we get

• China is the world’s manufacturing superpower

• Growth in everything:

  • Economy 

  • Population 

  • Technology 

  • Food production

  • GHGs emissions

  • Human footprint 

    • Air, water, soil, chemicals pollution, biodiversity loss

  • Inequality 

    • Between and within countries

Perspective #1 → Neoliberalism

• Economic focused

  • Self-interest/Markets is the way to go

  • Free market is the most important thing

  • No restrictions on trade/markets 

  • Trust in markets

•  Goes against economic nationalism 

  • Protecting your economy from other nations → tariffs, embargos, taxes

  • This is the best for everyone

    • Trade ↑,  production↑, economic growth ↑, world economy ↑

• Who is involved:

  • World Bank

  • IMF (International Monetary Fund)

  • TNCs (Transnational Corporations)

• Very influential

• Contradictions and criticisms:

  • Size and power of TNCs (some are bigger than countries)

  • The rise of civil society 

    • NGOs and INGOs

Perspective #2 → world systems/dependency theory 

• Historical/Power focused

  • Historical legacy of colonialism 

  • Relationship between MDCs and LDCs

    • MDCs control LDCs 

  • From military power to economic power 

    • The system of trade favors MDCs

• Goes against Neoliberalism

• Trade between countries 

  • Unequal system

    • Helps MDCs but hurts LDCs

• How does it happen?

  • A= North/Rich/MDCs/Core

    • Supplies money and technology

  • B= South/Poor/LDCs/Periphery

    • Has raw materials and labor 

  • A keeps B underdeveloped 

  • TNCs and IMF factor into this 

• Not very influential 

  • Makes rich/MDCs look bad

  • Implies there is no hope for LDCs/poor

Globalization and Social Inequality 

• Economic inequality

  • Income vs Wealth 

    • I: how much you earn; salary/income

    • W: all of your assets; income, savings, stocks, bonds, retirement, car, house, land

• Growing inequality 

  • Between and within countries

  • U.S. example:

    • CEO vs Worker salary

      • 1970 → 20x greater

      • 2011 → 230x greater

    • Most unequal income distribution of any developed country 

• Racial and ethnic inequality

  • African americans, latinos, native americans 

• All groups experience:

  • Lower income and wealth

  • Higher poverty 

  • Higher unemployment

• Environmental injustice

  • Poor/minorities are more likely to be exposed to health and environmental hazards

  • Research:

    • Air pollution

    • Siting of LULUs 

      • Landfills, chemical plants, incinerators, toxic wastes, disposal sites #1

    • Race matters more than class 

• Global inequality

  • Growing gap

  • Focus on women 

• Champagne wealth 

  • Income and wealth disparity 

  • Leads to consumption gap between people and countries

• Champagne glass of income inequality 

  • The richest (10%) receive 52%

  • The middle (40%) receive 40%

  • The poorest (50%) receive 8%

Sustainability and sustainable development 

• What is sustainability?

  • Ecological/Enviro concept

  • Popular concept 

• It means something different to everyone 

  • Environmentalists

  • Economists

• The 3 E’s of education for sustainability

  • Environment 

  • Economy

  • Equity 

Growth vs Development 

• Growth

  • Quantitative → to get bigger 

  • Easy to see/measure

  • Not always a good thing

• Development 

  • Qualitative → to get different

  • Difficult to see/measure

  • Improvement/Progress

• Development is beyond growth

Sustainable development

• Key elements

  • Focus on needs not wants

  • Focus on the present

    • Intra-generational equity 

    • Needs of today/help the poor

  • Focus on the future 

    • Intra-generational equity

    • Needs of tomorrow/help the environment 

Perspective #1 → limits to growth (LG)

• Outbreak/Crash view

  • Pessimistic view of the current path 

  • Created in the 1970s

    • We are on a collision course with the Earth’s carrying capacity 

    • Too many people 

    • We consume too much and using too many resources

    • We are putting out too much pollution

  • Growth will be followed by a crash 

• Evidence

  • Led to I=PxAxT model (are these things equal)

  • LG: focus on the A part 

  • Led to ecological footprint model 

    • Estimate our impact on the Earth

    • Individuals, nations, world

  • Stats/Research support this view

  • Favored by ecologists, ecological economists 

• Criticisms 

  • Environmental apocalypse? 

    • Has not happened so far

    • They have been wrong before 

  • No set/fixed/absolute limits 

    • We always push the limits out

  • Human ingenuity and technology 

Perspective #2 → Ecological modernization (EM)

• Optimistic view of the current path 

  • We have problems, but this is just a phase

  • Economic prosperity/growth and environmental protection can go together 

  • Focus on green technologies + efficiency

    • Cleaner/Leaner economic growth 

  • Growth comes first, then we worry about the environment 

• Evidence

  • Environmental Kuznets Curve

    • Shows how countries move from industrial to service economies

    • Reduction of some pollution metrics in MDCs (cleaner air/water)

  • Not as much stats/evidence

  • Favored by business interests and environmental economists 

• Criticisms

  • Has not played out in the real world 

  • Does not account for globalization

    • Focus is on nations, not global

    • Environmental damages get shifted from MDCs to LDCs

  • Focus on efficiency but not total resource consumption

Pizza Example 

• Scenario:

  • 4 people have ordered 1 pizza

  • 2 slices for each

  • 2 more people show up

  • 3 possible solutions

    • Tough love?

      • No pizza for them

    • Order another pizza?

      • Ecological modernization solution 

      • We can always order another pizza

      • We all get more pizza

    • Share the pizza?

      • Limits to growth solution 

      • In a world of limited resources we cannot always order more pizza

LG vs EM → Understanding this controversy 

• Which one is right?

  • LG: has more/better evidence

  • EM: evidence is some examples in some MDCs

• What would each mean for sustainability?

  • LG: focus on development 

    • Implies lots of changes

  • EM: keep focusing on growth

    • Implies less change 

• Overall issues

  • Problems with LG → Prescriptions 

    • What would it mean?

    • People, societies, countries

    • Who wants to share/live with less?

  • Problems with EM → Promises 

    • Can it happen? 

    • When will it happen?

Sustainable consumption → what would it mean?

• Treadmill of consumption 

  • Today: consumerist culture 

• EM can help

  • Today: better goods/more efficient 

  • EM is not enough 

• LG can help 

  • Tomorrow: voluntary simplicity 

  • Movement to consume less 

• Voluntary simplicity 

  • Focus less on giving up things 

  • Focus more on gaining 

    • Gain → time for leisure, fun, friends, hobbies, less stress

  • Stress vs Contentment

    • Do we own things or do things own us?

Growth, well-being and happiness 

• What does research show?

  • No correlation between economic growth/affluence and well being/happiness above a certain amount

    • It actually goes down

    • U.S. adults most happy in 1957

  • Happiest countries have less inequality between people 

  • Happy planet index

    • Life expectancy

    • Life satisfaction 

    • Ecological footprint

  • Costa Rica was #1

  • United States was #114

A sustainable society would…

• Work to conserve and restore its biological base

  • Soil, forests, freshwater bodies, etc

• Reduce population growth and stabilize it 

• Phase out the use of fossil fuels and shift to renewable energy sources 

• Work to become efficient → both economically and environmentally efficient 

  • Products, buildings, materials

• Have social forms compatible with this framework 

  • Work-life balance → work less but more jobs

• Have cultural beliefs and values that support this framework 

  • Changing from materialistic culture

  • Stronger human connections 

• Enhance its adaptive capacity to be resilient 

  • Be ready and adaptable to change/shocks 

• Have greater cooperation between people, societies, countries for global sustainability 

  • A world of sustainable societies 

  • National/Global balance via treaties 

Society, agency and structure 

• Some points about society 

  • Society is a process and it is forever changing 

  • Change largely comes from within → self-transformation 

  • The motor of change is human agency → people as individuals and in groups

• Agency and structure 

  • The power we have 

    • Each of us in an agent of change 

    • By ourselves and in groups 

    • We can all promote change 

  • But…

    • We act within structures and systems that can either limit, constrain, or facilitate the change we want to make 

  • Structures can be agents of change 

    • Social systems, communities, organizations, cultures, social institutions (corporations, government, etc)

  • How do we get change?

    • The interaction of agents and structures

• Reciprocal relationship 

  • Agents work within systems 

    • Agents can try to transform 

  • Systems influence agents 

    • Can constrain them, limit them

• PRAXIS

  • This is when change agents and their interactions with established structures results in real transforming change 

Sustainability and time horizons 

• Short term vs Long term 

  • Agents + structure with a short term focus and individual mindset will shift the costs of unsustainability into the future 

  • Agents + structures with a long term focus and society mindset will delay benefits today for the future collective good of all 

• Sustainability = long term

Paris Agreement and the 2°C dilemma 

• Above 2°C

  • Catastrophic impacts predicted

  • Goal is “well below” 2°C

  • What does this mean? 

    • Signal to fossil fuel industry

• Stranded assets 

  • Oil tankers, natural gas tankers, coal power plants, natural gas plants, pipelines, oil and natural gas rigs/platforms, gas stations tanks, etc

What is an economic system?

• An economic system produces and distributes goods and services by using natural, human, and manufactured resources. In a pure free market system, buyers and sellers interact without any government or other interference

Problems with markets

• Assumptions: 

  • Interaction of buyers and sellers without any interference is the way to go

  • All buyers and sellers have perfect information

  • All goods are the same/of equal value

  • The costs and benefits of all market transactions are internalized —> between the buyer and the seller

• Market failures

  • Externalities 

    • All costs are not internalized

  • Public goods

    • Not all goods are the same

  • Unequal information

    • Among buyers and sellers

  • Unequal market power

    • Monopolies as an example

• Market externalities

  • Externalities are costs or benefits arising from an economic activity that affect somebody other than the people engaged in the economic activity – they are not fully reflected in the price of the good/economic activity 

Ecological vs Environmental Economics

• Ecological economics:

  • Subset of the environment. It holds all we need to survive. The economy must obey the natural laws that govern the biosphere 

  • Radical → need to reduce scale, efficiency of resource use, conservation of resources 

  • Non-market values of social/ecological benefits

  • Redistribution of wealth/resources → fairness/equity

  • Strong sustainability 

  • Ecological tax reform 

    • Don’t tax good things → income

    • Tax bad things → pollution

  • Fits with limits to growth 

  • Goal: no longer focused on growth, focus on development

  • Genuine Progress Indicator (GPI)

    • Social, economic and environmental indicators

  • Ecological economics = focus on GPI 

    • Growth of human well-being

    • Three types of wealth:

      • Economic 

      • Environmental

      • Social 

• Environmental economics:

  • We have complete control over the environment and we prioritize economic health in decision making 

  • Reform → fix the existing system 

  • Tries to give an economic valuation of ecosystems good/services

  • Tries to internalize externalities

  • Weak sustainability 

  • Fits with ecological modernization 

  • Goal: still growth, but cleaner growth

  • Gross National Product (GNP): an estimate of the total value of all the goods and services produced by a country in a given period

  • Growth of production

    • Economic growth = GNP

    • Focus on one kind of wealth: economic 

GNP/GDP vs GPI 

• GNP

  • Only looks at economy

  • When economy ↑, GNP ↑

•  GPI 

  • Looks at economy, environment and social indicators

  • When economy ↑, GPI can ↓ if enviro and social drop

• Example:

  • BP/DeepWater Horizon Oil Spill

    • Worst environmental disaster in the U.S.

    • Over 200 million gallons of oil spilled into the Gulf of Mexico

    • GNP: this is positive; BP paid over $65 billion for cleanup and lawsuits

    • GPI: this is negative due to the environmental costs involved

Transforming markets: Green Taxes

• Shifting taxes

  • Tax bad things; like CO2, pollution

  • Do not tax good things; like income, savings

• Things to keep in mind

  • People do not like taxes 

    • No one wants more taxes - shift them

  • Needs to be done incrementally over time - at least 10 years

  • Cannot be done to increase government revenue 

    • Goal is to be revenue neutral

Transforming markets: Green Consumption

• Buying green → what we would need

  • People would need to have more information on the goods they buy 

  • People would need to be willing to spend more for “green goods”

  • Government would need to support this

• Limits on buying green 

  • Green consumption vs none 

    • Consumption is still a problem 

  • Rebound effect 

    • We use energy/money savings for other things 

  • Focus is 100% on people’s behavior 

    • Individuals are problem/solution

    • Systems play a large role

    • We still need collective action 

  • Greenwashing

    • Companies often mislead consumers that they are environmental friendly 

Changing the way we eat: organic food sales in the U.S.

• From 2005 to 2021

  • 15 billion to 58 billion

• Biggest jump in 2020

  • 12% increase during Covid

• Still small percentage of sales

  • About 5% of all food