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Notes Ch2: Values, Worldviews, Decisions, Ethics, Economics, Ecosystem Services
Why We Study Values and Worldviews
To promote sustainable behavior, we must have an understanding of the variety of Value
Systems or Worldviews. In this unit you will learn about those value systems or
worldviews.
Efforts to create a society that uses resources sustainably must navigate a variety of
Value Systems or Worldviews. To change human behavior so that resources are used
sustainably, requires and understanding of these different worldviews. From this
understanding of value systems/world views, effective strategies for changing behavior
might emerge.
A person can hold many of these world views at one time even though it is contradictory.
Persuading people to change behavior often involves appealing to one of the person’s
worldviews while finding a way to quiet their conflicting worldview
{Give an example of how an understanding of a worldview can actually create a
workable strategy that would change behavior to be more sustainable.}
Decisions
 You will be involved in making decisions at some level in the future.
 How do you make good decisions?
 How do you influence others to make good decisions?
 Some levels of decision making: Global (UN, Corporations, NGO’s), State and
local government, businesses and organizations, the courts, your school, your
neighborhood, your family, yourself.
Science, Economics, and Society provide INFORMATION, not decisions
HOW you use this information to make decisions comes from your ethics or worldview.
Ethics
Ethics: the study of good and bad or right and wrong.
Ethical Standards:
 Moral Excellence in Character and Reasoning – Aristotle
 The Categorical Imperative - Kant – The Golden Rule: Treat others as you want
to be treated.
 Utility – John Stewart Mill - The greatest practical benefit for the greatest
number.
[Give an example of how you would use one of these ethical standards to persuade
someone to follow a certain environmental behavior]
“Surely you agree that you would not want to destroy a religious site like the Vatican
because there is Uranium found there. Then you certainly would not support mining the
uranium under the religiously significant land of the Mirrar Clan” (Categorical
Imperative)
“If the entire population of Australia will be able to afford better health care by mining
uranium under the Mirrar Clan’s tribal lands, surely it is worth developing some of their
tribal lands” (Utilitarian)
Worldviews
Fundamental Value Dichotomy
Intrinsic Value – things have value because they exist. Vs.
Utilitarian Value- things have value because they are useful to humans.)
The “Centrics”
 Anthropocentric
o Human Centered
o How can it be used by or for the benefit of humans
o Use or Utilitarian value
 Biocentric
o Values living things
o Living things have intrinsic value
 Ecocentric
o Values living and non-living aspects of an ecosystem as well as the processes
and cycles that maintain that ecosystem.
o Even the landscape, the rivers, the mountains, the rocks, have value
o Al things have Intrinsic value
[Give an example of how you would use one of these “Centrics” to persuade someone to follow a
certain environmental behavior]
Preservationist
 Ecocentric/ Biocentric
 All life has equal value (Intrinsic Value)
 We should protect the natural environment in a pristine, unaltered state.
 John Muir (and Roosevelt http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1gJ43sReByo
 Aldo Leopold http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=taFFUE8j9b8&feature=related
Conservationist
 Anthropocentric
 People should put natural resources to use (Utilitarian Value)
 We have a responsibility to manage them wisely
 Utilitarian standard: attempt to provide the greatest good to the greatest number of
people for the longest time.
 Sustainable extraction
 Gifford Pinchot http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=irGOngj8O88
 Theodore Roosevelt
Deep Ecologist
 Poem http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ii8wTCFEIuI&feature=related
 Kill bugs for no reason http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=npIWy1zggzw&feature=related
 We are inseparable from all other nature and therefore we should protect all other living
things as we would protect ourselves.(Intrinsic Value)
 Spiritual Connection
 Transendentalist (Thoreau, Emerson, Whitman)
 Ecocentric
Ecofeminism
 The male-dominated structure of society is the root cause of both social and
environmental problems
Environmental Justice
 Priority is for equal treatment of humans and respect for culture and values of poor and
powerless.
 Environmental policy and practice should treat all people fairly and equitably regardless
of race, religion, income or ethnicity.
 Sustainability is the key to ethical treatment of future generations of humans, as well as
of the nonhuman environment; this is environmental justice.
 Anthropocentric
[Give an example of how you would use one of these worldviews to persuade someone
to follow a certain environmental behavior]
Economics
Classical Economics
 Adam Smith
 Self Interest: If everyone acts in their own self-interest, resources will be valued
correctly by the market.
 The “Invisible hand” will guide the economic system to value things properly.
 Ignores power and access imbalances
Neoclassical Economics
 Resources are infinite or substitutable
 Cost and benefits are internal
 Long term effects should be discounted
 Includes psychological effects on the Market found in Supply
and Demand.
 Growth Paradigm: Growth is good.
 Uses GDP to measure economic growth
 Cornucopian
Ecological Economics
 Seeks to model the human economy after natural systems that promote balance
and stability over growth.
 Growth is not an absolute good -- Ecosystems do not grow, they function
through cycles for stability and evolve in complexity not quantity.
 Advocates Steady State economy (no growth) as only sustainable economy.
 Resources are finite
 The future or long term sustainability is important
 Externalized costs and benefits are real
 Current practices (population growth and use of resources) are unsustainable
 Overuse of resources will doom us if we don’t stop growth
 Cassandra
Environmental Economics
 Current practices (population growth and use of resources) are unsustainable
 We can become sustainable and grow by modifying the current economic model
(neoclassical) to include externalities, non market values, ecosystem services in
its cost/benefit analysis.
 Use GPI instead of GDP
 Environmental economics adopts the goals of ecological economics (e.g.,
sustainability) but tries to achieve them within a neoclassical economic
framework (Growth, Supply/Demand but NOT Short Term, Infinite resources,
concern for environmental justice and other externalities)
 Cornucopian
[Give an example of how you would use one of these economic worldviews to persuade someone to follow a certain
environmental behavior]
Economic Market
 A mechanism that uses the interaction between the Buyer and Seller to set the
price (Value) of a resource (good or service).
 The use of Cost-Benefit Analysis (Internal Costs & supply and demand) to price
or “value” resources. If resources are properly valued then they will be used in
sustainable way.
Market Failure:
 When the Market Price is less than the Costs. When the Market does not
accurately price or value resources and they become unsustainable.
 Neoclassical: Caused by mistakes in calculating costs or supply and demand.
 Environmental: Caused by ignoring externalities
Response to market failure:
 Regulation (Taxes, incentives, Fees, etc.)
 Government uses regulations to adequately value all resources for the long term
so the Market will value them so they are used in an sustainable way.
Externalities (Impacts outside of the buyer/seller relationship)
 Pollution
 Physical Habitat Destruction
 Cultural Damage (to cultural sites or practices)
 Aesthetic damage
 Economic Damage (Property damage or Economic Damage to someone besides
the buyer or seller)
 Human health problems
 Stress and anxiety
 Lower Property values
Values
 Market Values
o Economic Value
 Non-Market Values
 Aesthetic Value
 Scientific Value
 Existence Value
 Option Value
 Use value
 Educational Value
Ecosystem
A group of living and non-living things that work together to
• Capture energy and nutrients
• Distribute energy and nutrients
• Cycle nutrients through the ecosystem for reuse.
• Control Populations
• Apply pressures for evolution of species
Ecosystem Services
 Regulating atmospheric gases
 Regulating climate
 Purifying Water, Soil, and Air
 Cycling, storing, and Cleaning water
 Cycling nutrients
 Controlling populations
 Providing food
 Providing habitats
 Supplying raw materials
 Reservoir of medicines
 Genetic resources
 Soil Formation
 Pollinating plants
 Sewage Treatment
 Dampening Disturbances (Erosion Control, Flood control, Hurricane Protection)
 Education
 Recreation
 Cultural, Spiritual, and Aesthetic Quality