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13409 results in Environmental science

Page 667 of 671

  • 5 - Natural resources and natural environments

  • Anthony C. Fisher
  • Book:
    Resource and Environmental Economics
    Published online:
    07 October 2009
    Print publication:
    30 November 1981, pp 127-163

  • Summary

    Introduction: the transition from extractive to in situ resources

    In the discussion of the theory of optimal depletion in Chapter 2 we noted (and formalized) two ideas from Mill (1848) that have a contemporary ring: (1) Extraction costs will increase as mineral deposits are depleted, owing to the need to sink shafts deeper, and so on. (2) The increase will be mitigated by discovery and technical change. Mill had another modern idea: that a stock of land was valuable not only for what could be extracted from it but also for the opportunities it provided for experiencing natural beauty and solitude.

    Whether this had any influence on resource policy is not clear, but Mill's treatise had been through several editions by the time the national park system was established in the United States (1872), and preservation of natural beauty in wilderness environments was a minor goal of the early conservation movement (1890–1920). But the theme was not, to my knowledge, picked up by the economics profession until very much later. Instead, environmental disruption was first analyzed as a static externality, following the work of Pigou (1932) and his examples of sparks from railway engines, factory smoke, and the like. By the 1950s, several economists were developing elements of the modern theory of externalities, but in the process they were losing sight of Pigou's environmental examples.

  • 3 - Renewable resources: the theory of optimal use

  • Anthony C. Fisher
  • Book:
    Resource and Environmental Economics
    Published online:
    07 October 2009
    Print publication:
    30 November 1981, pp 75-89

  • Summary

    Introduction

    The line between exhaustible resources and renewable resources is not always clearly drawn. Exploration and technical change can, for a time at least, “renew” exhaustible resources by making possible production from new deposits and low-grade materials. Models that describe the effects of these activities on resource price and production paths were developed in Chapter 2.

    Just as exhaustible resources can be renewed, renewable resources can be exhausted. In fact, as we noted in the concluding remarks to Chapter 2, much of the concern about resource exhaustion appears to involve renewable resources, endangered species ranging from the snail darter to the whale. As one prominent biological scientist put it:

    The worst thing that can happen—will happen [in the 1980s]—is not energy depletion, economic collapse, limited nuclear war, or conquest by a totalitarian government. As terrible as these catastrophes would be for us, they can be repaired within a few generations. The one process ongoing in the 1980s that will take millions of years to correct is the loss of genetic and species diversity by the destruction of natural habitats. This is the folly our descendants are least likely to forgive us.

    A major purpose of this chapter is to try to shed some light on the reasons that even commercially valuable stocks of plants and animals can be threatened with extinction. It is clear enough how this can happen to a species that is not commercial.

Polar Record
  • Polar Record is a Gold Open Access journal that publishes articles in a wide variety of areas of polar research in both the Arctic and the Antarctic and keeping its readers up to date with an extensive range of topics and concerns. The journal includes original primary research papers in the physical sciences, life sciences, polar technology, humanities, and social sciences, as well as papers concerning current political, economic, legal, and environmental issues. Notes, review papers, book reviews, letters to the editor, guest editorials, obituaries, and ‘In Brief’ items of general interest are also published.

Page 667 of 671