Download Resolving the Environmentalist`s Paradox

Raudsepp-hearne and colleagues tested four main hypotheses
• That well – being is not measured currently
• Provisioning services such as food production, which are
increasing, are more important for well-being than other services
• Technology has decoupled humans from our relationship with
nature
• And the prospect of a time lag in humanity’s response to
diminishing ecosystem services.
President Nicolas Sarkozy – identified numerous factors that make
up well – being ; those that can be measures such as emotional
happiness. Both types of measures – objective and subjective
Raudsepp-Hearne explains the paradox – the expectation of a time
lag in humanity’s response to diminishing ecosystem services.
The environmentalist’s paradox is not a paradox because global
growth in human capital ( such as knowledge and individual
skills) is substituting for our reliance on natural capital
- human well being will continually improve without restriction
• Necoclassical ( Mainstream)
economic view of the economy
• All economic activity is
considered to be contained
within a whole, self-contained
system, where the environment
is a subsystem of the greater
economy. Resources produced
by environment.
The Earth which is bounded by biophysical limits
• Ecological economic view
of the economy
• There are indeed limits to
scale of the human economy
relative to the natural
economy, and that aggregate
human well-being is
ultimately constrained by
these limits.
Two alternative viewpoints
• One which stresses the importance of the environment for human
well- being
• another which argues that the environment perhaps isn’t so
important after all.
• Raudsepp-hearne and colleagues argue that to resolve the
paradox, ecologists need to direct efforts into understanding the
links between ecosystem services and multiple aspects of human
well- being, trade-offs and synergies between services, the role of
technology and better forecasting of changes and potential tipping
points in the future supply of ecosystem services.