Obscuring Ecosystem Function with Application of the Ecosystem Services Concept

Abstract: Conservationists commonly have framed ecological concerns in economic terms to garner political support for conservation and to increase public interest in preserving global biodiversity. Beginning in the early 1980s, conservation biologists adapted neoliberal economics to reframe ecosystem functions and related biodiversity as ecosystem services to humanity. Despite the economic success of programs such as the Catskill/Delaware watershed management plan in the United States and the creation of global carbon exchanges, today's marketplace often fails to adequately protect biodiversity. We used a Marxist critique to explain one reason for this failure and to suggest a possible, if partial, response. Reframing ecosystem functions as economic services does not address the political problem of commodification. Just as it obscures the labor of human workers, commodification obscures the importance of the biota (ecosystem workers) and related abiotic factors that contribute to ecosystem functions. This erasure of work done by ecosystems impedes public understanding of biodiversity. Odum and Odum's radical suggestion to use the language of ecosystems (i.e., emergy or energy memory) to describe economies, rather than using the language of economics (i.e., services) to describe ecosystems, reverses this erasure of the ecosystem worker. Considering the current dominance of economic forces, however, implementing such solutions would require social changes similar in magnitude to those that occurred during the 1960s. Niklas Luhmann argues that such substantive, yet rapid, social change requires synergy among multiple societal function systems (i.e., economy, education, law, politics, religion, science), rather than reliance on a single social sphere, such as the economy. Explicitly presenting ecosystem services as discreet and incomplete aspects of ecosystem functions not only allows potential economic and environmental benefits associated with ecosystem services, but also enables the social and political changes required to ensure valuation of ecosystem functions and related biodiversity in ways beyond their measurement on an economic scale.     

唐山市大气环境治理措施的效果及分析

为揭示河北省唐山市大气环境治理的措施效果,分析了“十一五”期间唐山市的减排措施、污染物排放量和空气污染物浓度的变化. 结果表明:“十一五”期间(2005—2010年),烟尘、工业粉尘、SO₂排放量分别减少35%、57%、20%,ρ(PM₁₀)、ρ(SO₂)、ρ(NO₂)年均值分别下降12%、33%、33%. 与GB 3095—2012《环境空气质量标准》相比,2005年ρ(PM₁₀)、ρ(SO₂)、ρ(NO₂)分别超标36%、42%、7%,而到2010年ρ(SO₂)、ρ(NO₂)已达标,但ρ(PM₁₀)仍然超标20%. 2008年北京奥运会期间的减排措施使得唐山市ρ(PM₁₀)、ρ(SO₂)、ρ(NO₂)年均值均显著下降,分别比2007年下降13%、20%、28%. 2008—2009年的全球经济危机使得2009年地方生产总值增速较其他年均值降低13%,2009年烟尘和SO₂排放量也呈显著下降趋势,二者比2008年分别下降14%和10%,但工业粉尘排放量反而增加8%. 经济危机使ρ(PM₁₀)、ρ(SO₂)、ρ(NO₂)下降速率分别提升了20%、2%、2%. 研究结果表明,“十一五”总量减排、2008年北京奥运会期间的治理措施和全球经济危机对唐山市的空气质量产生了明显的影响.      

Re-evaluating the role of energy efficiency standards: A behavioral economics approach

The economic models that prescribe Pigovian taxation as the first-best means of reducing energy-related externalities are typically based on the neoclassical model of rational consumer choice. Yet, consumer behavior in markets for energy-using durables is generally thought to be far from efficient, giving rise to the concept of the “energy-efficiency gap.” This paper presents a welfare analysis of energy policies that is based on a behavioral model of temptation and self-control, introduced by Gul and Pesendorfer 23 and 24. We find that, in the presence of temptation, (i) Pigovian taxes alone do not yield a first-best outcome, (ii) when viewed as substitutes, energy efficiency standards can dominate Pigovian taxes, and (iii) a policy combining standards with a Pigovian tax can yield higher social welfare than a Pigovian tax alone, implying that the two instruments should be viewed as complements rather than substitutes.     

Economic aspects of natural resource exploitation

Low entropy accumulations of matter and energy are more economic for humans to exploit as natural resources. This accumulation of a resource takes place over time and the most concentrated resources, such as fossil fuels, are created over geological ages. As the most concentrated resources become depleted it may be possible for technology to enable the exploitation of less concentrated resources, such as low-grade metal ores or thinly populated fishing grounds. Analysis of the timescales necessary to create different types of natural resource reveals three distinct groups. Further consideration of economic characteristics of resources, including ownership and access, and rate of consumption relative to rate of supply confirms the grouping of resources into the three distinct groups. Rate of change of entropy as a resource is exploited is an indicator of its impact on the environment. Consideration of this again suggests three distinct groups of resources, and this paper identifies them as: continuous natural resources (CNR), such as solar power and wind power; potentially renewable resources (PRR), such as fish and forests; and non-renewable resources (NRR), such as fossil fuels and metals.     

Challenges for a sustainable resource use: Uncertainty,trade, and climate policies

We integrate new challenges to thinking about resource markets and sustainable resource use policies in a general framework. The challenges, emerging from six papers that JEEM publishes in a special issue, are (i) demand uncertainty and stockpiling, (ii) international trade and resource dependence, (iii) deforestation, and (iv) intertemporal effects of climate change policies (“Green Paradox”). We discuss new insights and results on these issues by fitting them into the Hotelling model of non-renewable resource depletion.     

Trust via disasters: the case of Chile's 2010 earthquake

Chile has a long‐standing history of natural disasters and, in particular, earthquakes. The latest big earthquake hit Chile on 27 February 2010 with a magnitude of 8.8 on the Richter scale. As an event that had a profound impact on significant portions of the population, the earthquake could theoretically have served to build trust by promoting new trust networks through the enhancement of distant family ties and the interaction between affected neighbours. This study offers an empirical analysis of this theory in the Chilean case. It finds that if initial social capital is very low (thus allowing for post‐disaster looting and violence), then the impact of the trust‐increasing effect is smaller. It also shows that the effect of the disaster was not transitory, but that it persisted and actually increased over time.     

基于比较思维的安全经济学研究

为探究比较思维对安全经济学发展影响,以扩展安全经济学的研究领域,基于比较学与安全经济学的基本理论,提出比较安全经济学的定义和内涵,并阐述其研究意义,描述其基础理论和研究层次。基于比较安全经济学的属性,提出研究比较安全经济学的10个角度,总结比较安全经济学的应用领域,构建比较安全经济学“方法—知识—步骤—逻辑”四维结构体系,举例阐述其研究步骤及其安全应用。研究表明:比较安全经济学是安全经济学与比较学交叉融合形成的一门新兴安全科学分支学科,其研究旨在为企业安全资源优化配置提供理论基础。     

关中城市群生态足迹演变趋势及公平性评价

自然资本与人造资本的分配公平与配置效率是可持续共享区域生态资源的保证。论文在测算2005—2014年关中城市群生态足迹的基础上,以生态足迹、生态承载力、GDP分别表征区域内自然资本需求、自然资本收益、人造资本收益,采用基尼系数、时空分析指标、生态承载系数、经济贡献系数分析区域资源分配公平与配置效率的程度。结果显示,2005—2014年,关中城市群生态承载基尼系数、经济贡献基尼系数、综合基尼系数分别置于 [0.18, 0.20]、[0.24, 0.29]、[0.23, 0.28]区间。同时,结果表明,关中城市群GDP上升趋势显著快于生态足迹,生态要素匹配较好,其中,咸阳市、宝鸡市、铜川市属相对“高生态承载贡献、低经济贡献”城市,西安市、杨凌示范区属相对“高经济贡献、低生态承载贡献”城市。     

重庆市中小型企业实现规模经济的举措

中小型企业要在激烈的市场竞争中占据主动并获取良好的经济效益,实现规模经济是较佳的选择,其途径是内在规模和外在规模同时并举.基于此,通过对重庆市中小型企业的现状特点分析,认为实现规模经济不但能增强企业的市场竞争力,而且还能为重庆市创造更多的就业机会,并在转移农村剩余劳动力、推动城镇化建设等方面具有重要的现实意义.     

VISITOR VALUES AND LOCAL ECONOMIC IMPACTS OF RIPARIAN HABITAT PRESERVATION: CALIFORNIA'S KERN RIVER PRESERVE1

ABSTRACT: Preservation of the few remaining ecologically vital riparian areas in the southwestern United States is a significant policy concern. This article reports on two economic aspects of preserving a nationally renowned riparian birding area in Southern California. First, the article examines visitor willingness to pay (WTP) for habitat restoration and estimates an annual WTP of US $77 per visitor to preserve the habitat, about a half‐million dollars a year for estimated visitor numbers in 2000 and 2001. Second, it documents visitor expenditures in the local economy to be approximately three‐quarters of a million dollars per year. This direct visitor spending attributable to the riparian habitat generates around US $1.3 million in increased local business activity in this relatively remote rural area.