Chapter 7 Flashcards
(18 cards)
Clean Air Act - 1970
improved air quality to measure better than 40 years ago. Banned lead as a fuel additive in gasoline - reduced its presence in the air by nearly 90%
Clean Air Act Amendments - 1990
Required further measures to be taken to fight smog, acid rain, and toxic emissions
Clean Water Act - 1972
Goal to eliminate all water pollution by 1985
Cost-benefit analysis
a device used to determine whether it’s worthwhile to incur a particular cost (Ex: cost of employing a particular pollution-control device).
Ecological economics
new discipline – attempting to expand further the boundaries of environmental cost-benefit analysis by calculating the value of an ecosystem in terms of what it would cost to provide the benefits and services it now furnishes us.
Ecology
science of interrelationships among organisms and their environments.
Ecosystem
a total ecological community, both living and nonliving.
EPA
sets legal limits on the amount of pesticide residues allowed to remain on food with adults in mind
Externalities (spillover)
disparity between private industrial costs and public social costs.
Free-rider problems
Receiving the benefit from the efforts of others to prevent pollution but not making the same effort themselves.
Incentive approach
minimizes gov’t interference in business and encourages voluntary action rather than coercing compliance, as in the case of regulation.
Moral vegetarianism
people who reject eating meat on moral grounds.
Naturalistic ethic
some natural object, such as whooping cranes, are morally considerable in their own right, apart from human interests, or that some ecosystems have intrinsic values, from which we derive a duty to respect these landscapes
Pollution permits
companies with low pollution levels can make money by selling their pollution rights to companies with poorer controls. Used instead of imposing a tax or fee.
Pricing mechanisms
or effluent charges, spell out the cost for a specific kind of pollution in a specific area at a specific time.
Regulatory approach
makes use of direct public regulation and control in determining how the pollution bill is paid.
Right to livable environment
Each person has a human right because a livable environment is essential for one to fulfill his human capacities (William T. Blackstone).
Tragedy of the commons
Pollution and resource depletion are examples of situations in which each person’s pursuit of self- interest makes everyone worse off. There can be a difference between the private & social costs of a business activity.
