Tag Archives: environmental economics

02.20.2013 | Green Blog: Do You Make Green By Being Green?

By Amy Tourgee, guest blogger, Kent Place School alumna and Environmental Studies undergraduate at Princeton University

On Sunday afternoon, I accidentally but fortuitously read a certain New York Times article. Since I now live at a research center in the middle of nowhere in Kenya, I thought I’d bounce over to NYT online to see what was happening in the world. The article was titled “Why We Love Beautiful Things,” which I thought might have to do with fashion or something (okay, I got a little distracted from world news).

It turned out to be much more interesting. It was about how certain geometrical patterns in nature have universal appeal to humans because we are programmed in our genes to like them. For example the classic 5 x 8 “golden rectangle,” takes the form of a credit card to the Parthenon. Paintings with these certain proportions and geometry can reduce stress and boost productivity in the workplace. The article even mentions the fractal density of the famous acacia trees of African savannas (clearly, a personal shout out to me). The point is: great design comes from science, from nature.

So I downloaded the free sample of the book the article is kind of based on (The Shape of Green: Aesthetics, Ecology, and Design by Lance Hosey) onto my kindle. Two pages in, I get that traditionally, great design has rarely equaled green design. It seems Hosey is out to disprove this. And I can’t help but think of the economic consequences of a movement that allows great and green design to coexist.

Economic Lesson

“Does it pay to be green?” is a question that arose a lot in my Environmental Economics course. Incorporating environmental awareness into the design of buildings and businesses may allow companies to increase their profits. Not only can you market your business as having corporate social responsibility by being green, but also innovation for green reasons may reduce inefficiencies. For example, if a business innovates to cut back its use of water, it also then saves money by using less water. The whole concept of great design = green design may have a powerful economic effect on business.

Posted by: adminEcon
Tags: being green, corporate social responsibility, environmental economics, green profit, sustainable business
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02.12.2013 | Green Blog: The Economic Efficiency of the Last Mango

By Amy Tourgee, guest blogger

Jambo from Kenya again this week! The class has finally reached our destination: the beautiful Mpala Research Centre where we can see elephants grazing across the river from our rooms and giraffes line the side of the road as you drive by. It really is amazing.

It’s not all relaxation though – we go into the field a lot to conduct experiments and gather data (I’m scared of bugs yet I’m surrounded by nature, so that’s fun). But it gets really amusing when we play the Lion King soundtrack while writing our lab reports… even more amusing when we try to sing the song “Circle of Life.”

What was a great surprise about coming here though is that the fruit is really fresh and delicious. Every night, the staff brings cut-up mango for desert, which causes some problems between the classmates. There are 12 of us, but they bring us 15 or 16 pieces every night, which inevitably initiates a fight among us about who will be able to eat the extra pieces.

We ended up with a rotation system, but that’s not exactly economic efficiency…

Economic Lesson

If we think about this problem in terms of economics, efficiency in consumption states that we need to allocate resources so that the person who gets the last unit values it the most. So, assuming no one has a vitamin deficiency and NEEDS the fruit, who enjoys the mango the most?

That would be me.

Posted by: adminEcon
Tags: economic efficiency, efficient consumption, environmental economics
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02.06.2013 | Green Blog: Global Edition

By Amy Tourgee, guest blogger, Kent Place School alumna and Environmental Studies undergraduate at Princeton University

Hello to all from Kenya! For those of you who didn’t catch the postscript of my last blog, I am studying abroad here on a joint Princeton-Columbia program on tropical agriculture and sustainability. 13 students, 4 classes, 1 research center. It’s kind of like a super academic version of MTV’s Real World.

I’ve only been here for a few days, but it’s already shaping up to be an amazing adventure. It’s a beautiful 80-90 degrees every day with no humidity. On the drive to the reserve, we were within a few arms lengths of giraffes. And I’m totally rocking the zip off pants, binoculars and safari hat a la Nigel Thornberry (we do a lot of fieldwork).

Backing up a bit though, one of the first obstacles we faced in Nairobi was the horrendous traffic. Truly, truly horrendous. I will never complain about Manhattan street congestion ever again. As we sat in the car, unmoving, I thought about roads as a private or public good.

Economic Lesson

In fact, roads are a mixed good – that is, they have elements of both pure private and public goods. On one hand, roads are similar to public goods in the sense that they are non-excludable. You cannot prevent another person from using the good – everyone can use roads, just like everyone can use a public park.

However, roads are like private goods because they are a rival good, meaning that one person’s consumption affects other people’s consumption of the good. In the case of a road, as more people drive on the road, traffic emerges, and the experience of other cars is changed from quick, leisurely drive down the highway to a frustrating, slow crawl.

Posted by: adminEcon
Tags: environmental economics, Kenya, mixed goods, private goods, public goods
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01.23.2013 | Green Blog: Inauguration Edition

By Amy Tourgee, guest blogger

Watching the presidential inauguration on Monday was both an inspiring and entertaining event. Listening to Obama’s inaugural address, I was pretty happy to hear him specifically bring up the country’s need to tackle climate change. For those of you who were wondering if Beyonce did lip sync the national anthem or trying to catch another glimpse of Michelle’s bangs while her husband was talking, here’s exactly what the POTUS had to say:

“We, the people, still believe that our obligations as Americans are not just to ourselves, but to all posterity. We will respond to the threat of climate change, knowing that the failure to do so would betray our children and future generations.”

What I especially loved about this declaration was that he mentioned future generations. The issue of climate change is unique in the sense that it is a very long-term problem. On the scale of the history of the earth, global warming is occurring pretty rapidly. But on a human economic scale, we might not be seeing extremely severe and life-changing effects for another 100 years – or a couple generations down the road.

That is what is frustrating about the perception of climate change in today’s world – it does not seem very urgent. Sure, it’s a total hot topic – everything is “green” now and we’ve all seen a million headlines about record breaking temperature highs for this past year. Yet still, many times politically, climate change takes a seat behind more pressing issues. I am in no way criticizing past political choices, it’s just an interesting observation.

Economic Lesson

This delay of fighting climate change can be further explored by a concept called “hyperbolic discounting.” Hyperbolic discounting shows a lack of concern for the future in humans. A human has been shown to strongly prefer getting something today rather than tomorrow and weakly prefer getting something in a year rather than in a year and a day. Yet when a year has passed, he/she will want that something immediately, creating a time inconsistency problem. This is especially the case for climate change, a very long-term issue. It has been a pattern that we have postponed investment in preventing global warming.

So, how much are we willing to spend today in order to provide our great great great grand children a healthy planet?

Posted by: adminEcon
Tags: discounting, environmental economics, hyperbolic discounting, intergenerational equity
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01.16.2013 | Green Blog: A Tragedy for All

By Amy Tourgee, guest blogger, Kent Place School alumna and Environmental Studies undergraduate at Princeton University

This past summer, I was fortunate enough to travel throughout China for a few weeks. I ate dim sum, climbed the Great Wall and was a subject of lots of staring by the Chinese people on the subway (apparently blondes aren’t very common there). I thought I might experience some cultural shock in my experiences, but I surprisingly felt fairly comfortable in a foreign country in a continent I had never been to before… The real shock came when I visited Beijing.

I had heard about the smog in Beijing, but I was certainly not expecting to be walking down a sidewalk in the city, unable to see the building across the street. In fact, a friend who went to international school in Beijing said that sometimes his rugby games were canceled because of, not bad weather, but too much smog.

So, it came as no surprise to me that on a scale of 1-500 for air quality (with 500 being the worst air quality), Beijing scored a 755. The score is almost as funny as it is serious – but it has implications for the rest of the world. Air pollution cannot be contained and travels to other parts of the world – even as far as other continents. To me, it has always seemed unfair that China’s industry can cause so much pollution, yet other countries may have to pay for it.

Economic Lesson

China’s air pollution is an example of the tragedy of the commons. The atmosphere is shared by many individuals, yet one small group of these individuals can overuse the commons, causing negative consequences for every individual. The burden of China’s pollution is not solely carried by China, but by the rest of the world.

Posted by: adminEcon
Tags: environmental economics, tragedy of the commons
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