February 24th – Economics, Politics, Law, & Sustainability

• Textbook Ch. 23
• Value of the World’s Ecosystem Services and Natural Capital;
• Sustainable Business
• Textbook Ch. 24
• Consumer or Citizen?
• Environmental Law

Word Count: 1077

There is a Pinterest quote that continuously floats around my feed (probably because I saved that one pin with an artsy gal holding a reusable bag): “Every time you spend money, you’re casting a vote for the kind of world you want” (Anna Lappe). To the chagrin of many, capitalism runs this country and is involved in almost every single one of our day to day decisions. While big corporations have long been the enemy of campaigning environmentalists everywhere, they also represent an opportunity to radically shift from consumerism to environmentalism on an unprecedented scale and time frame through innovation and competition. Although often seen as the enemy, using the combination of both economic and political policy is arguably the best way to combat environmental issues within our current systems and without destabilizing livelihoods.

Because of growing realization and acceptance, businesses are now putting greater emphasis on environmentally sustainable economic development. As explained in Chapter 23, markets usually work well in the efficient production and distribution of private goods, but struggle with public services because the market fails to assign monetary value to environmental protections such as old growth forests. While ecological economists believe replacing existing systems is necessary in order to switch from a growth to a steady-state economy (all resources are recycled or reused continuous and there are essentially no waste and no inputs of new resources as seen in nature), environmental economists prefer the approach of altering existing systems to best tackle environmental issues. Using concepts such as negative discount rates for natural resources, marginal cost for determining optimum levels of pollution cleanup, and cost-benefit analysis of environmentally friendly business practices are all methods in which finance and sustainability can overlap. One such connection is determining the Value of the World’s Ecosystem Services and Natural Capital whose goals are: make the range of potential values of the services of ecosystems more apparent; establish at least a first approximation of the relative magnitude of global ecosystem services; set up a framework for their further analysis; point out those areas most in need of additional research; and (5) stimulate additional research and debate. They accomplish this by using a variety of financial technique to categorize, analyze, and quantify biospheres in terms of market value. While this analysis is somewhat limited due to leaving out many categories of service and value distortions due to market misalignment, it represents an effort from economists to recognize the true value of environmental resources. The market has always viewed natural resources on a surface level so by valuing ecosystems for their intricate biodiversity and contributions to stabilizing the natural world there will hopefully be some deterrence for companies from destroying the valuable investment. Besides economist and economic theory contributions there is a growing contingent of sustainable or green business – an enterprise that has minimal or no negative impact on the global or local environment, community, society or economy. There are Four Criteria that must be met for a company to be classified as a sustainable business: It incorporates principles of sustainability into each of its business decisions; It supplies environmentally friendly products or services that replaces demand for nongreen products and/or services; It is greener than traditional competition; It has made an enduring commitment to environmental principles in its business operations. In other words, it is a business that “meets the needs of the present [world] without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” (Sustainable Business, Wikipedia). These business not only have the environmentally moral high ground, but also increased economic performance as a result according to many studies. Henry Ford, whom I am distantly related to, was actually a pioneer of sustainable business by experimenting with plant based fuels, upcycling, and structural hemp composites (which was a lot more heartening to hear than his KKK ties). Both potential scarcity of resources and genuine concern have pushed the financial community towards sustainability as is reflected in more comprehensive analysis and environmentally focused corporate structure.

While some of the financial sector is headed towards sustainability, there remains corporations willfully ignorant and apathetic towards their destructive nature. As stated in Chapter 24, Government can act as a brake on environmentally harmful business enterprise that thrives on change and innovation. Political policy has the ability to not only steer business in the right direction, but curb environmentally dangerous practices before they begin. By adhering to the triple bottom line, the balance of economic, environmental, and social needs when making policy decisions, both the legislative and judicial branches of government can create environmentally friendly procedure and therefore a better world for us all. The four different types of environmental regulation, potential federal projects; pollution level; species, resources and ecosystems; and new substance safety are vital to evaluate as national and economic security are intertwined with environmental security. Environmental Law is a collective term that encompasses all of these different types of regulations to better protect the environment. Although controversial due to ongoing scientific debate, the challenges of identifying one key cause of environmental degradation for purposes of litigation, and difficulty of determining adequate compensation within our current system of law, Environmental Law has had many successes including the Clean Water Act and creation of the National Environmental Policy Act. The movements mission statement is “The right to development must be fulfilled so as to equitably meet developmental and environmental needs of present and future generations” (Environmental Law, Wikipedia) The idea of Environmental Law highlights the dedication of sustainability advocates trying to work within the current system in order to create a better one. While their efforts have not been entirely successful, environmental law is responsible for pushing for much needed policy change and a mindset shift towards the necessity of environmental protections.

Consumer or Citizen by Ernest Partridge offered an intriguing ideological argument in an unfortunate and far too-quotation heavy manner (6 unnecessary uses within 1 paragraph). His argument that America is becoming more like a corporation is interesting especially with the availability of information on constitutions and marketing tactics; however, I would argue that this utopian vision of every voter understanding every issue flawed. Not every citizen has the time, education, or desire to read “well-informed arguments based on confirmable evidence and logical inference” and may have only been so in the past because voting was restricted to educated, land-owning white men. This article read almost like a satire and made me seriously questions the PHD qualifications of the author.

Question: Is it wrong that political campaigns use marketing tactics to attract voters and is there anything/should we do anything to fix it?